I was just reading David K's article about his travels and how easy it was to get his visa. It reminded me of a trip I made to Mexico. I intended to stay longer than the allowed fifteen days without having a visa so I went to the proper authorities on the Mexican side and asked for a visa.
The official asked me where I was born and I told him "Murray, Kentucky". He then asked me for proof of where I was born. I asked him what kind of proof and he told me "a birth certificate" and I retorted that I don't normally carry my birth certificate around with me. So he told me that I "must" have something else to prove it. I asked him, "how about a drivers license" and he said no. Then I suggested credit cards, again the answer was no. Then he said, "look in your wallet, you must have something in there that proves you are an American". Being that this was my first trip across the border I was a little naive and didn't get his gist at first. Then as I was rummaging around in my wallet I came across some dollar bills. I looked up to see him smiling (for the first time) and it dawned on me that that was what he was talking about, so I promptly placed two one dollar bills on the counter and he happily stamped my visa, and off I went.
The rest of the trip was very much akin to this encounter. My next stop was a Tourist Inspection Station. As I pulled in to the inspection area I was overwhelmed by the sight of many tourists waiting beside their vehicles, their luggage and so on sprawled out, and they were looking awfully forlorn. So I thought, this will take forever but since I had had the experience obtaining the visa maybe the same thing will work here. So I passed all the tourists and drove up to the guard shack and a Mexican officer came out waving his hands for me to stop. He came up to my window and started talking to me in Spanish. I reached in my pocket and pulled out two quarters and displayed them to him in my open hand and he snatched them from my hand and waved me on through. I can still see the looks of astonishment on those tourists faces.
Believe it or not the next inspection station I thought I would try something different and so I held out a can of Coors beer and that's all it took to pass through the inspection station.
It occurred to me later that maybe I could have obtained my visa with just "one" dollar bill. Darn....
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Comments: 42
I was afraid you were going to say you go arrested for bribery :)
Blessings...
and, thank you for all your cute and sweet comments... i appreciate you...
i pray for you and all my friends on Gather... be well, my friend...
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Thanks.
John Philipp: Watch for my next article of experiences in Mexico. Stay tuned.