It was April Fools Day, but this was no joke

We were making our way up the Cosatlegre from the Las Alamandas Resort to our next destination, Hotelito Desoncido. After turning off the highway we weren’t sure if we were on the correct road so we decided to pull off the road to consult the map. We came around a corner and there was a side road on the left to pull off onto.  I had seen the taxi in my rear view mirror approaching fast, but I figured he would see my brake lights and turn signal. One of the conundrums  of Mexican driving is that a turn signal can mean “pass me” (handy when stuck behind a slow moving truck), or  “Look out, I’m turning.”

As you may note, these are two conflicting interpretations.

Since we were on a corner in a no-passing zone we figured the taxi would slow down.  Wrong. We started our left hand turn onto the side road but the taxi was already trying to pass, horn blaring and brakes screeching. Luckily, by the time he hit us as we were almost off the road he had slowed considerably.

End result? Not as bad as it could have been. Everyone was fine and the truck is fully operable except for the rear door that doesn’t really close well anymore. And now we have, as they say, our first Mexican tattoo.

Some of the damage done.

Luckily we invested in decent insurance.  The only problem was that we had to wait for four hours on the side of the road for our adjuste from GNP insurance  to come from Puerto Vallarta. Along with the police, the taxi driver, and most of a nearby village we sat on a dusty road in the heat waiting.  In the end, after some negotiating, we had a choice to make: let them impound our truck, hang around this tiny village for a few weeks and wait for a local judge to assign blame (though the taxi driver was clearly wrong) OR suck up our $500 deductible, get the truck fixed at our leisure, at the repair shop of our choosing (even back in the states if we want). Guess which option we chose…

This is the genius (aka Mexican taxi driver) who thought it was wise to try to pass us on a corner over a solid no-passing dividing line while our turn indicator was on.

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Last updated by Karen Catchpole, CWO (Chief Writing Officer) on May 21, 2012.