Lets Get Ready To Rummmmbbblllle!!!

• Slipperycoconut's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from San Cristobal

Trip Start Jan 01, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing Next
Entry

  San Cristobal, Mexico
Saturday, January 20, 2007

This Day deserved its own post...

On Thursday, Kay booked us a tour with one of the many agencies in town (this one recommended by Lonely Planet, coincidentally!).  The tour was to go see some lovely caves, a large waterfall, and the Lagunas de Montebello - a large collection of multi-colored lakes about 2 hours away.  The agency showed pictures of the destinations and of the large fancy tour vans to be used.  She paid the agent the 400 pesos (about $40) and was told to show up at 9 am on Friday.

On Friday, we wake up at 8:00 grab a coffee and head to the tour office to catch our van to the lakes and waterfalls. We arrive at 9:00 and they tell us to have a seat, that the tour will be leaving in a few minutes. Around 9:15 they say lets go and we walk down the street, past all of the tour vans and stop in front of a small Chevy Cavalier sedan. The car looks like one of the employees and there is a dread-locked girl taking her stuff out of the trunk and the front seat when we get there.  Kay asks how many people are going on the trip, and the agent says 5 including the driver.  5 adults.  Kay looks in the small backseat and says there is no way we can sit in this for the next 10 hours with 2 other people plus the driver. We ask where is the van you showed us yesterday when we paid for the tour. We kind of feel like a little bait and switch is going on. They tell us they have no more vans. What? How is this possible? He says only 4 people so you go in the car. Ah NO!

We continue to demand the vehicle promised and they say no and try to pull out the car´s manual out of the glove compartment to show us that 4 people fit. We understand that but not for 10 hours! They start to get mad at us and offer our money back. However, we cannot get in any other tours and this is the only reason we extended our stay in San Cristobal.  They don't really seem to care. At this point, its 9:30, Kay asks me to run to the other travel agencies in the block and see if by chance one is running late. I check 4 different places and one says maybe to the Canyons, its a different site but we will take it. I run back and tell Kay lets run I think I have one. She grabs the money from the desk and in exiting pushes some papers and pens off his desk.

He reacts violently and as she is headed out the door grabs her coffee and tries to throw it at her while grabbing her arm.   I  immediately jump forward and shove him back away from her. The other guy comes out of the office and the two of them are trying to get to Kay as I stand between her and them shoving the two of them back. I keep telling them to back up but they are quite focused on getting to the "chica" as they keep saying. They said other words that I cannot put in here as it is a family site.

They keep getting more aggressive as I keep them at bay and a third guy comes out of the office. This is getting bad fast. We have been backed into a courtyard with the only obvious exit behind the 3 men I am pushing back away from us. Kay starts to yell for help and asking for someone to call the police when some more people come out of doors in the courtyard at the same time I'm scanning the area for an alternative exit.

At this point I start to push the three guys harder, as they keep trying to come forward, hoping to get us out into the street and to an exit. I notice the one guy has made a fist and as I have my on him one of the other guys swings a binder at me. I able to duck a bit but it catches me in the ear and knocks my sunglasses off. At this point I start to push even harder and also try to calm them while keeping Kay safe. There are now way too many people in a small hallway and I do not know who is friend or enemy. I count about 10 men including me in this small space and I know a violent response from me will end very badly so I just keep pushing the men backwards toward the street and the exit. I finally push through to the sidewalk and tell Kay to run. She starts off and then I give one final push to keep them back and take off. Luckily they did not decided to follow.

As we run down the street Kay spots a security guard and asks for the police. He points us in the direction of the government tourist office. This is when we get a valuable lesson in the Mexican legal system. We find a person who speaks some English and tell them what happened all the while checking out the door to make sure we were not followed. We are only about 4 blocks away from the incident. They tell us to write down a statement and their office lawyer will be there to help us. Of the 6 people in the office, only 1 speaks a little English.  Neither of us speak fluent Spanish.  Kay writes the statement down in English.  The one English speaking person reads it and nods her head.  She passes it to everyone else in the room.  They each ¨read¨ it for several minutes (even though they don´t speak or read English), nod their heads, then pass it to the next person.  Most of the people there seem to be laughing at us and don't seem to understand why we are there because we got our money back. They do not care that we were assaulted.

The lawyer strolls in around an hour later reads the statement twice and tells us he will take us to the judicial office to take another statement. We follow him and he takes us to the police municipal building a few streets away.  Building is an overstatement, it was a single room structure in the back courtyard/alley of a typical street building.  The lawyer talks to some ladies who through body language tell us we are wasting our time. Notice a theme here.

These ladies (who do not read or speak English either) "read" the statement for several minutes then ask us for identification and a Peso so they can make a copy! That´s right they asked us for money to make a photocopy. We are shocked and the lawyer hands them the peso. A half hour later, the lady returns and sits down beside the computer.  She slowly asks me my name and address.  Twenty minutes later, she is ready for Kay´s name and address.  Halfway through the address, someone comes in and tells her she has a call.  She leaves for another 20 minutes.  Upon returning, she sits down again and a colleague comes up to show her a lamp she just bought and how much she paid for it, etc, etc.  We look at the lawyer and he attempts to explain the process, but it appears there really is no process other than typing the report. Great but what about the Police? The assault? He leans in and says they really wont care about it and will not do anything. Then what are we doing here? To make a statement he says .We ask what about the one we already wrote up? He says it needs to be typed in and then signed by you before we can finish. At this moment the lady typing goes on break. Sensing that this is going nowhere we leave.  What a waste of time.

We head back to the hotel taking a round about way because we are one block from the tour office where the incident occurred. We drop off our stuff and I change, hoping the 3 guys whose faces I was in will not recognize me, (I know one to many spy novels) before we head out again to try and salvage the day.

Here is a warning to all people out there: Nobody cares if you get assaulted in Mexico and it seems that it would have been OK for them to hit a woman. Be careful!

We were lucky as the incident could have been much worse. We were able to enjoy the rest of the day with a couple of beers and a nice Hawaiian burger with fries. (Recommendation:  La Jungla has great burgers!)  Good thing we are headed to Guatemala tomorrow.

-- Frank

Print this entry Share Cambridge hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry