Looking for a Catamaran Cruising Blog?

If you found this blog via a link from a cruising site ~ we did cruise Mexico on our Ocean 49 cat for a season. See the first text box on the right for links to our preparations, trip down Baja, life in Mexico, cruising and trip back up to SoCal. Unfortunately we are back to the grind in the USA...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Two Speeds

Remember how easy it is to buy a fishing license in California?
You drive over to the bait store and buy one.
You fill it out and put it in the little plastic thingy you hang around your neck.
It takes longer to drive to the bait store than it does to purchase, fill it out and hang it around your neck.
Here in Mexico it is a whole different story.
They have two speeds when they are assisting you.
Slow and super slow.
Well, maybe three speeds, slow, super slow and extremely slow.
It's a three step process, so I think three speeds is more accurate.
First you go to the fishing license lady.
She is in the front room of an old moldy house on a side street in a full on neighborhood.
Nope, no commercial building for the fishing license lady...
She gets an old house.
You hand her your expiring license.
She looks at your expiring licenses for awhile then types a little on her computer.
Then she stares at the computer.
And you wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
You wait about an hour.
Then 4 pages print off.
She hands them to you and tells you to go to the bank and pay the fees.
And to check the receipt at the bank to make sure your name is spelled correctly.
If the dude at the bank mis-spells your name, you lose your money.
Okay...
Next day, take the bus to the other town on the other side of the bay, because this town has no bank.
Yes, no bank.
So, take the bus, walk to bank, give the 4 printed pages the fish lady gave you to the dude at the bank who hopefully can spell well.
Check receipts.
Sign the receipts.
Pay the dude who actually does spell well.
Back on bus to first town on other side of bay.
By this time it is afternoon.
Back to the fish lady.
Hand her assistant the paperwork.
She looks at it.
Turns it over.
Looks at the blank backs of the 4 pages and receipts.
Looks at it some more.
Types a few things in her computer.
Then she stares at the computer.
And you sit and wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
You wait about an hour.
Then the assistant hands the same 4 pages and receipts to the fish lady.
Who looks at the 4 pages and receipts.
Then she types a few things in her computer.
Then she stares at her computer.
And then you wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
You wait about an hour.
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
So then the fish lady tells you her system is down and that maybe in 10 minutes she can print the licenses.
So you decide to walk to the Port Captain to do the check out paperwork.
He too, is in a house in the neighborhood, but not a moldy one lucky guy.
So you walk there, do the paperwork and walk back all in about 3 minutes and the fish lady is still staring at her computer.
So back to waiting.
Now it is dinner time, so a decision is made to return the next day.
Now it is a three day process.
Three steps.
Three days.
Three speeds.
And it's not even over yet...

5 comments:

judith said...

You should be a knitter... you'd have two pair of socks by now.

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Dang, down here in South Oz you don't even need a license. Just follow the rules about seasons, size and bag limits and closures. No worries.

Behan said...

Seriously, I had to check the bilge and make sure we didn't smell too bad. It was kinda funny that we played "trading anchorages" - if you weren't busy anchoring and we weren't busy trying not to get stuck in the mud, I'd have called you on the way out. Are you coming north for summer? (Probably not, since we are. boo) Oh, Nacho was our friend. The kids clapped and sang and thumped the hull, he swam around us for a good long while. Our cruising friends in CA remember him from 1986!
ps: i've got knitting needles & yarn... :->

Ray and Lucy said...

I almost don't know what to say except your story is so dija vu. We did that charade one time tying to be good citizens and never, ever bought another license...outlaws that we are!

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