Fingered by the Man, and into Panama
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2008
1
47
90
Trip End
Ongoing
Santiago,
Panama
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Then I saw him. A motorcycle cop with a speed gun in 1 hand, waving his hands up and down. He was either worshiping my riding ability, or he was wanting me to slow down fast, and stop. I figured better safe than sorry, so I pulled over. The dude was average height and bald, with boots, shades and a dark blue uniform. He told be I was going waaay over the speed limit (a half truth, my fiends!), and I acted surprised and dismayed. In my broken Spanish I told him this was the first time I had been pulled over since leaving New York, which was true. He asked me whether I knew how fast I was going (I guess they do that all over the world), and I said no. He then pointed to the big numbers on my speedometer and said, son millas, and the little ones and said son kilometros, and I said, ooooh. He said he was going to write me a ticket. I said, cuanto cuesta (to get off, not to pay for the ticket, which was understood), and he said $40. I looked shocked. Then I said
- Seņor
- Diga me (talk to me)
- Es posible pagar $20 para los dos? (Honestly he didn't seem like such a bad guy)
- A donde va? (Where are you going)
- A Panama.
- Hoy? (today?)
- Si.
- (Something to the effect of give me $20 and get the hell out of here).
And off we went. Jesse had gotten pulled over on our day apart and had had a slightly more confrontational experience, where the cop told him that his license would be suspended and his bike impounded if he wrote a ticket, but finally accepted $20 to let him off. Costa Rica is notorious for speed traps.
So at this point, a brief comment on my general demeanor on this trip, which has been on my mind a bit. People who have traveled with me know that I tend to be friendly, try to get a smile out of people, perhaps a little overly trusting which can border on the naive. I don't negotiate hard for souvenirs, though I do much better for rooms. If I overpay for a trinket it doesn't keep me up at night. I'm not naive out of ignorance, rather optimistic out of personality and preference (when I travel at least). I consider myself somewhat worldly and also perceptive. I may be Candidean, but I'm not Panglossean (References to Voltaire's Candide). I just think that traveling like this is a lot more fun, though it does have some risks, as opposed to thinking everybody is out to screw you and treating everyone that way. True or not, that's a sucky was to travel. The irony is, in high school and college I was the most cynical person you can imagine, but since then part of me has become inveterately optimistic (though another part of me can become deeply melancholy). So when I write about cops on the take actually not seeming like bad guys, that's open to interpretation, but he did actually let us off very easy.
BUT I do trust my instincts, and sometimes I do get a bad vibe about a town or person or situation, and I pay attention to it. Anyone who checks you out in a certain way must be avoided at all costs. No small talk, no nothing, just get the hell out of there, you're at a complete disadvantage and will not outsmart or overpower the guy, you're in his world and you need to remove yourself from the situation. I felt this in Nicaragua and once in San Jose, and a couple of other times. Living in the city has taught me when to take my hands out of my pockets, pull my shoulders back and walk hard in the other direction while watching my back.
After the stop the road was good, we made the border in short order, the crossing was easy, and headed into Panama. The road was excellent though boring, 2 lanes each way most of the way. We got to the first town in mid-afternoon and decided to press on. But then later it started raining and it got dark, and it turned out that the next town was quite a ways away. But the roads continued to be excellent. We made it to Santiago, a big nondescript truck stop of a town, after dark
