On my way from Tampico towards Veracruz, I was stopped twice by police.

See this picture?

I pulled the bike over in the median of a major road to take it. There were already lots of tire tracks and I did not notice the transit cop watching me. So I take the pic and get regeared up to go and filter to the front of the line at a red light. As I pull off the line the cop motions me over to stop. I wasn’t even sure he was pointing to me and he didn’t have a car or bike so I even considered not stopping. Then I saw he had a radio. Funny thing about radio waves being faster than any biker.

Anyways, I pulled over, took off my sunglasses but left my helmet and gloves on. I spoke even worse spanish than DavegSpanish in order to further confuse him. He proceeded to tell me what I did (drove in median) and that I needed to pay a ticket. He kept opening up doors for me to “Pay on the spot” because he kept saying how far the transit police station was and how much time it was going to take. I started asking for directions to the transit police station and then he just started asking me about the bike. How fast? How much? What type? Are you crazy? Heh, he thought that it was crazy even though I just told him that I was riding to Veracruz. In the end, he started smiling all big and just let me go.

The second time was several hours later. There was a transit cop on the outsirks of a medium sized city and I was 100% legal in everything I was doing and he motioned for me to pull over. This time he just asked if I was going fast. I immediatly busted into the standard trip story and he just kept asking more and more questions and never said why he pulled me over. He started giving me hotel advice for the next few cities. Then after the concluding handshakes, he asked me for some money for a drink. Even though he was really cool and I was conflicted about this I told him I only had a credit card. I would have bought him a soda if I had started talking to him on the street. I just don’t think it is right to have the legal authority to pull someone over then hit them up for cash. Not cool

I will make it south of Veracruz tomorrow.