working on this one!
You have apparently 15 days from the time of purchase to get plates on your newly purchased motorized vehicle. This could be a true statement or an incorrect statement. We do not believe you have 30 days, we have been unable to get a ‘temporary plate’ at the police station. We do believe you need a license plate. So far we know that the only place to get license plates is in Merida. At Siglo XXI you can get plates for your vehicle but not for a scooter.
You can get the plates in Merida by the zoo, you must line up very early, you must have all the correct documents, you must have the bike/vehicle present so they can make an impression of your VIN.
We are at the process of finding someone to stand in line very early for us… and someone who has a truck and can get the scooter into Merida for us without me driving it on the highway again. We need a ‘guy’ who can do these things!
we will keep you posted on this and will update this posting in the search for our license plates (‘placas’) as we go.
Ok, so this proved to be a very time consuming process. Most of the time was spent trying to get a person to accompany us to the motor vehicle department to get our plates. There are a lot of people who do this for a living, and everybody seems to know ‘somebody’ who does this… Which all sounds great but then try to actually get them to do it! If you do get somebody to get in line for you early in the morning, this convenience will cost you at least 300 pesos. We tried to go 3 different times, but we were always canceled on last minute. Finally we had a definitive date and time set up and I drove the scooter to centro Merida from Progreso. This is the second trip into the city on the scooter and it really is not very much fun, but exhilarating at the same time. When I reached the outskirts of the city, I waited until the AutoProgreso bus went by me and then I followed it all the way to centro where I left it to head to the area by the zoo. Following the bus proved to be very successful way of navigating the city and getting through all the traffic circles safely.
Ok, so I get to where I am supposed to be, of course I was stopped by police just one block away from where I was supposed to be because I did not have ‘placas’ license plates. This was very stressful and was my worst fear as they could have just taken the scooter away because I was 4 days outside the time I had to get my plates. They were very nice and directed me around the corner to where I needed to be. Pheww.
So now I am at the place and am meeting “the guy” when I am informed that he is going home and I am all alone. I think he was tired and I was his only client that day so he did not want to wait with me. But I was quite prepared for this and had a friend of ours meeting me there also who spoke Spanish. Yvonne proved to be very helpful in the entire process which took just about 3 hours. We waited in the line outside and received a number. This number eventually gained me access to where we show our documents. As we were sitting waiting for our turn, I watched many people get turned away because their documents were not ‘perfect.’ Of course this worried me as their documents looked a lot like what I had. One of the main problems people had was they did not have a STAMP from the store they purchased their bike/scooter/car from but just a printed receipt. Apparently anybody can print a receipt so they request that the receipt be stamped… no not an official stamp, just a general stamp.
After you get your paperwork all approved, you have to go wait in another room with lots of people waiting to be called. Pay attention here and do not miss your name or you start over. Fortunately for me, they managed to say my first name and then looked around for help as they could not pronounce my last name. From here you go get your vehicle and take it where they tell you as they need to use scotch tape to take imprints of all the VIN/Serial numbers on your vehicle. Then they take a picture of your vehicle.
Then you wait in another room til your name is called. Then you can pay. Then you wait for your plates. Then before you leave you put your plates on!
So one story… and I am not sure where it fits in the blog so I will squeeze it in here.
My one fear while driving the scooter before we got the license plates was that the police would stop me because I did not have plates. We had our motor bike licenses, we had insurance, we had the bill of sale, we had everything but the plates…
So I am running to the bodega for some things for dinner with Evan on the scooter with me when I run into a police road block. I am so concerned about the lack of license plates that when the officer asked me a question, I only heard ‘numero’ and quickly responded with “seis ciento ochenta”. The officer looked at me like I was crazy and then asked me my name and held out a funny little black electronic device. I said my name and he said thank you and let me proceed. All the while I was thinking they were looking for somebody and using voice recognition to find them.
A few days later I mentioned this to some friends and they started laughing. Apparently the device was a breathalyzer and I had just told the policeman I had consumed 680 drinks that day.
The rule here is zero tolerance for drinking and driving. I do not play with this and will not have a drink and then drive as check stops are very common here and you never know where they will be. When you see a police force as often as you do in Mexico, you would have to be very crazy to have a drink and then drive.
Do Not Drink and Drive.
I get the meaning cause we had those experiences 20 years ago and it sounds like nothing changes. You have to have a barrel of patience. Everything is slow except the speeding taxi cabs.
I got quite a chuckle about it all.
derek loves yr stories so it is fun listening to him laugh while he identifies with u.