"No Comprendo" 

      Today we got in another police chase through Acapulco, though it was a slow speed one as the back of our truck was stuffed with a huge pile of pallets.  Our neighbor is a carpenter who uses primarily recycled wood for his projects as it's generally really cheap or free.  He has many sources he goes to depending on what's available.  Today, we wound up at the Sam's Club where they told him he could have a huge pile if he cleaned up the debree left after.  He was literally giggling with joy at the huge pile, one I expected only half of to fit on the truck.  Low and behold, in typical mexican fashion, he fit the whole damn thing and did so in a way to where we had no straps, but nothing fell out.  As we got ready to leave the parking lot, he asked if we would have a problem with policia, and John shrugged and said "No Comprendo".  

We pulled out of the parking lot, with our neighbor on the top as pictured above.  He was singing and shouting and occasionally yelled "RELAX" when we would go over a speedbump, here called a tope, or a sharp turn.  We determined to take the backroads, hopefully both to avoid police and to move slowly as our truck had a rather precarious load on it.  We passed a truck that sells cheese, that happened to have a policia standing next to it, with a confused look on his face.  It was then that we heard the bleep, and saw the policia municipal pulling behind us.  

John and I made eye contact, and he continued on in an attempt to ignore the policia.  They continued to bleep, and eventually pulled up beside us trying to pull us over.  We said "No Habla Espanol" and continued foreward.  We were in a high traffic area, so they had some trouble passing us, but they eventually did.

"Why?"

They cut us off and made us stop, at a high traffic intersection with traffic going around us on either side.  They demanded we pull over to the side, so they could harrass us further without blocking traffic too badly.  We refused, saying "We won't understand what you're saying, why bother? No! Leave us alone! Let us go you criminal!" What's funny is if you ask a cop in the states "why", when they say give me your keys ;they'll pull you out of you car and arrest you, always with the threat of guns or other bodily harm. All the while we were waiting for a break in traffic so we ourselves could drive around the block that was the policia.  They pointed at our neighbor, as he was a mexican and yelled some things at him.  I don't know very much spanish, so I don't know what they said.  My guess was it was along the lines of "Make them listen!" 

At one point John started to pull foreward to go around and the cop stood in front of the truck.  John slowed, but didn't stop until he had almost touched the cop who was pretty much freaking out and chest bumped into the front of the truck.  In the states, we would have already been shot.  Here, where police are more armed and more prevalent, we have this sort of encounter. It definately helps that we aren't their property.  

We finally caught a break on the right side of the car and John went for it, going around the policia as the one raced to get back into the car.  They followed us for awhile further but didn't make any noise.  Finally, they gave one more pathetic bleep before they turned away and left us alone.  After that it was only taxi's behind us.  

We laughed about how fun it'd be to write the story of this once we got away in the end of the chase, and continued on home. All the while, my neighbor continued both singing and yelling "Relax!" occasionally.  We watched the reactions of mexicans, which ranged from skeptical to scared.  One mexican on a construction site laughed loud enough for us to hear, which made us both laugh.  

Military Checkpoint

Once up our hill, we came through a military checkpoint at the entrance of our neighborhood, possibly something to do with the killing that recently happened.  They seemed to be stopping anyone who came through, but when they saw us they didn't make us stop.  We continued down our road to our neighbors house, where I took the picture above.  His wife looked worried when he told her what had happened, but laughed when she heard how we handled it.  We brought back so much wood for him that even his daughter was surprised.  We made a little pesos for gas and 2 cokes, something you generally do for anyone who does anything for you.  Just a tip, if you move to Mexico and a Mexican helps you, buy them a coke in return, it's all they want a lot of the time. 

In conclusion, a favor for a neighbor turned into a great story that really shows the level of freedom we experience here in Acapulco.  We knew coming here that Acapulco is a no-harrass zone for foreign vehicles, so the police aren't allowed to pull you over and harrass you.  We know this, so when they try to pull us over we run.  When they cut us off we yell at them until they let us go.  At the time of this incident we had 1000 pesos, or about 55 USD on us.  Most other gringo would have paid a bribe, but we told them we had no pesos.  They lost steam after that for sure, as they were really only looking for a bribe, and thought they could get one out of us.  In this situation, as a foreigner who resides here, it's best to always refuse a bribe and remember that they won't physically search you and take your pesos.  They're not even allowed to be bothering you most of the time, use that to your advantage.