Pulled Over by Police

After spending the morning on foot in the historic downtown Mexico City, we (my boss, a Canadian colleague, and myself) decided to take a taxi to the TAPO bus terminal rather than take the subway/metro system. We were informed the metro would be quite busy and involve two transfers. We were lead to believe a taxi would be cheaper, quicker and less stressful. Being good tourists, we happily obliged. After arriving at TAPO bus terminal, our taxi ride was indeed cheaper.

The "ten minute" ride, as described by the taxi driver, turned into a forty minute snail's pace crawl through the city. We were fortunate to have plenty of time to catch our bus. At times, the taxi (actually a car owned by a friend of the hotel bellman, not an 'official' taxi) did not physically move with a green light due to congested streets. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper, horns honking, and random people trying to sell munchies and other propaganda to the people waiting in the cars. As we proceeded on our slow pace our taxi driver followed all the airport directions. The further we continued, the more we believed that he would drop us off at the airport, rather than at TAPO bus terminal. Just as we could read the welcome sign to the airport the taxi driver veered off on a side road. Our thoughts of arriving at the airport was dissolved upon turning on the side road as we could see the bus terminal, however, it was on the opposite side of the divided road/highway. Our innovative "taxi" driver pulled a U-turn at an intersection to put us within 100 metres of the bus terminal only to have the lights, sirens, and speaker phone of the local police come on.

I am sure everyone in the taxi wanted to simply get out, collect our luggage, pay the driver, walk the remaining distance and leave the driver to deal with the police. That however did not transpire! The police officer questioned our driver and requested to see all sorts of paper work. After 5 minutes of discussions (which didn't seem overly friendly from my seat in the car) the driver returned and we continued the final 100 metres to the bus terminal. After all said and done, we had only 10 minutes to spare to catch the bus from Mexico City to Puebla.

Unlike Greyhound services, the local bus to Puebla required all luggage and carry on items be scanned (similar to Canadian airports) and every passenger had to be patted down by a security officer before being allowed on the bus. The two hour bus ride provided an opportunity to rest. I have included a few photographs from along the bus ride.