IT'S ALL ISMAEL'S FAULT!! Mexican Day 5 - Cordoba to Ciudad del Carmen Campeche

 ONE MORE DAY TO GO!  Not that I'm sick of driving and road tripping, I'm having a blast and getting to see so much of the country and how much it differs in each area, but happy to be at my winter home and just relax and enjoy.  It's been a balmy 28 degrees all day and still in low 20's now.  We are on the coast finally but not the area that I have gone to, we are 1 state over and have wanted to come over this way to check it out.

Anyways the morning for me started off okay, I got up and got ready, packed the car and the dog and was waiting for Ismael.  I had told him we would leave at 8am as it was going to be a full day driving.  Well, I sat in the car waiting, calling, texting, waiting, calling, texting, until he finally answered at 9am.  He quickly got ready and came out to the Jeep.  We headed out and stopped at the Oxxo, so he could get a coffee and I wanted to reload my toll pass transponder.  Got that out of the way and started heading to the highway.  We had 2 motorcycle officers in front of us and they pulled to the side and waved us by, then darted to the left like they were going to make a uturn.  Next they end up beside and behind us.  The one beside us waved to pull over, so I did.  Ismael jumped out to talk to them.  He checked all my papers and everything was in order but he talked to Ismael for about 10 minutes.  When we were cleared to leave, Ismael said that we were stopped due to there being 2 cartels active in that state and the jeep looked suspicious, big tires, winch and being black(not a common colour in Mexico)  All was fine thou, but now we are about 1.5 hours behind schedule.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, beautiful scenery and we were heading for the coast now.  We were chatting and laughing and he had told me his father is a retired police officer in the state we were in and where he was from.  I had asked him why he chose to move to the coast away from all of his family and he told me that it was due to job prospects and safety/security.  In other words the state of Tabasco is not a very safe one and has minimal job prospects.  No sooner did we have this conversation and we came across a checkpoint.  Sure enough they waved me over.

I wasn't too concerned as the other 4 that I was stopped at, 2 let me go when I said English only, the other 2 just joked and were friendly.  Well not this time, these guys were looking for a bribe or something.  Anyways one officer came to my window and greeted me, then started speaking with Ismael. (I think I will gag him for now on)  I presented my license, resident card and Car import permit(they don't care about the insurance)  That was all fine and dandy but then he decided he wanted to do a car inspection.  I warned him about the attack dog in the back seat and Ismael came around and put her leash on and got her out while I collected my purse and things.

So away he goes and starts digging thru the car.  First he finds my vape juice and brings it out and gives it to another officer.  Well this guy is a shit and starts trying to tell me that it is marijuana, because it said nicotine and mint/menthol.  As he was trying to tell Ismael this and Ismael is responding with it is for an e cigarette then another female officer comes over with first one then another of my green propane bottles.  He looks at it and is pointing to the flammable symbol and is saying that it is not allowed.  Ismael explains that it is for cooking and points to the BBQ on the roof.  He doesn't seem to care.  He has my resident card and is telling Ismael that he will be handing us over to the police.  I tried to ask what the problem was, since I was let into the country with these items and the car was inspected then (a small fib but WTF)  He told me that he is the authority here and they don't do their jobs at the border.  Then for some reason he handed back my residency card and walked away, leaving the friendly polite officer to finish searching EVERYTHING in the car.  He opened both suitcases, the cooler, my toiletry bag with all my meds, my day bag with travel clothes, my cricut machine bag, checked the totes with craft supplies, the dogs bag, etc, everything and I mean everything.  I was watching thou to make sure he didn't take anything.  And this is also where I was smart and was wearing a money belt with my Canadian, USA and excess Pesos in it and only had minimal in my actual wallet.  The only thing he didn't go thru was my purse which was on my person the whole time.

Meanwhile, Ismael is on the phone to his dad or uncle or both who are both retired police.  He said after we left that they called and told them to let us go.  He sent them a picture of what they were bitching about and his Uncle said it was BS.  Ismael did give the friendly guard 200 pesos to speed things up and I told him to take a couple handfuls of Halloween candy that I brought for the kids and he did repack the back of the Jeep as I instructed as he was not very good at playing Tetris and packing the way I did.  All of this transpired about 45 minutes from our destination for the night and due to the other delays in the morning we ended up driving into town to find our Airbnb in the dark.

Even thou they were threatening to arrest us, for some reason I was overly calm and I had no idea what they were saying or what Ismael was up to.  My only though was where my car would be going and what would be stolen out of it and what about Kahlua, she is no street dog she is a Diva, what would happen to her, she needs her Momma!  She was well behaved thru the whole situation and I think she was just happy to be out of the car and walk around for a bit.  You would think I would be shitting my pants with the prospect of being arrested for nothing.

Anyways, we got on the road for the last stretch and were laughing and joking about it.  Ismael said that neither of us will ever forget this trip, which I'm sure we won't.  We finally found our way to our house and again had to fight with the BBQ to get in the garage, its just a little too tall for spaces down here.  I let everyone know we were stopped and took Kahlua for a short walk around the neighbourhood to do her business.  I came back and Ismael had ordered pizza for dinner and I sat down to start this edition of Lost in Mexico!

So all in all, if Ismael had not of slept in, then we may have had a whole days worth of different experiences!  One more short day tomorrow and I will be in Progreso and can start relaxing.  It should only be about 5 hours to get here, here's knocking on wood that no more shit will happen on the road tomorrow.  When we get there, we have to stop for the keys, then stop by the house and maybe unload while I have some extra muscle and then take Ismael home to his family and I will have to make a quick trip to the grocer for a few essentials.  Then I will be kicking back and doing not to much for a day or 2.  I look forward to Dana arriving on December 2nd and my fugly cousin and niece on November 27th.

I'm still not sure how I drove the whole damn country and about a dozen states and only having this one issue on the second to last day.  I am presently in the second safest state and heading to the safest so I'm not overly worried.

Attached is a pic of the coast as we reached it just at nightfall.

Wags, Wishes and a big FU to the federales for ruining what has been a great trip so far.