BEACH and Police Corruption

   

This view lined miles of the Pacific Coast on our way home. It was so incredible we had to pull over on the side of the highway to take photos. The rest of the photos I will add at the bottom of this post.





Well, we finally got ourselves to the beach, after many other plans that fizzled out. Last week, our friend Lasse planned a trip and invited us to go the Monday right after the assembly. (Assembly pics to come later.)



Hey, it was early and that coffee cup is still full.



The three of us left early Monday with another local friend named Franco. Franco is a Tourist Guide. Here in Ecuador because it is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, the certified tour guides go through years of training, including having to live for a time in the jungles of the Amazon and things like that. His expertise came in very handy a number of times, as you will see.



The trip consisted of driving down the Andes toward the coast, through amazing mountain scenery for about 3 hours until we reached Guayaquil. After going through the city of Guayaquil, we headed up north along the coast for another 3 hours to the Province of Manabi (somewhere we had never been before). The entire drive is quite an experience. Not only are the mountains very beautiful, but must be driven with great caution. The mountain roads are notorious for falling rocks (which was demonstrated on our way home), CRAZY bus and truck drivers that will run you off the curves without even glancing back, and a long pass through the clouds making visibility practically zero. But the views from the mountains….



This is a view of Cajas, a national park about 20 minutes outside of Cuenca. It use to cost $2 for locals to get into the area and $12 for foreigners. But the President recently passed a law of foreigner discrimination and made all National Parks open to everyone for only $2. Sweet for us. (even though we usually get by as locals with our resident cards anyway)

Anyway, we make it down the mountains just fine this time and reached the flat stretch that is the coast. The difference is immediate and very distinct between the mountains. One minute you are surrounded by mountains and forests and clouds, and the next minute you hit flat land and are surrounded by palm trees, banana trees, flat desert planes, brightly painted shacks and everything that is the coast.

I really want to start a collection of "Babies on Bikes". Entire families can be seen riding a single motorcycle.

Along the way, tour guide Franco wanted to show us a cocoa field where he knew the owners and where he often brings people for guided tours.

The only fruit that grows from the trunk of a tree, according to Franco.

The inside of the cocoa really surprised me. There are kernal-like, slimy white pockets inside that you can pluck out and suck on. They are so sweet with the most delicious taste I've ever tasted. Just be careful not to bite into the center seed that chocolate is made from. It is beyond bitter. This is one multi-functional fruit. I wonder if Jehovah had in mind to use it as a fruit or to use the bitter middle to make something like chocolate... hmmmm...

Now on to the "ONLY IN ECUADOR" section of the post:

As we proceeded down the highway, we saw a Police officer standing in the middle of the road, signaling for us to pull over. (That is how people are pulled over here. Just stand in the middle of the highway until the car you want stops and tell them to pull over to the side.) This is the only place in Ecuador I have seen that uses Radar Technology to regulate speeding. Oops. Although as you will see, it is just a corrupt way for the cops to make some money on the side.

So the Police officer approaches the car, asks why we were doing 115 (kph, not miles!) in a 100 kpm zone. Lasse talked to him for a while, trying to get out of it, but the Police says that he will have to take 6 points off of his license. They work off a point system here, sometime with a fine, sometimes not. However, Lasse has an International license, not an Ecuadorian one, so there are no points to be taken. So after thinking about this problem for a while, the Officer says, pointing to Franco in the other set, “I guess I can just take the points off of his license.” Haha! Obviously, they didn’t like that idea. So the Police leaves to go think some more in his car.

Meanwhile, Franco gets out of the car and goes over to the Police truck to try to work something out. We were shocked that they let him get out of the car, walk over and lean into the police car like he was a good friend. You’d probably be arrested for that in the States. Anyway, Franco is leaning on the Police car, trying to negotiate something, the Police are so ridiculously relaxed and not in a hurry. They are just sitting around, talking, drinking (who knows what) and listening to music. Franco told them that Lasse is Danish, and people from Denmark are “correct people” who always try to follow the rules and do things legally, so maybe they could let him go with a warning. The Officer’s response is this: “Yes I know the Danish are correct people. I agree. But we Ecuadorians are also correct people and must uphold the law to set a good example” (HAHA! Don’t make me laugh. Keep reading…)

Eventually Franco gets back into the car with an update. The Police are now going to give Lasse a $72 ticket for speeding and take his license until it gets paid. How do we pay it? We drive an hour away to a town called Milagro, hope the station is open, and pay the ticket. But wait, if we do that, he will be without papers and a license since the Police Officer was going to take them. After inquiring about that, the Officer said that he has 72 hours to file the report and give the license and papers to the station for the driver to pick up. So meanwhile, the Police are basically asking Lasse to drive illegally without papers or a license. Well we knew we couldn’t do that, which is what the Police was counting on. So we are sitting there on the highway wondering what in the world to do. We can’t leave without a license, we can’t stay forever either. Franco goes out once more to keep negotiating with the Police to see what we can do. This is the funny part.

So the Police is relaxing in the car, Franco is leaning on the other side and the Officer’s booklet with the tickets and the traffic law code is sitting on the hood of the car. From the car, we see Franco pick up the Police’s code book, walk with it around the car to the Police, toss it in his lap and throw his hands up in the air. Later he told us that the Officer told him that we could just pay the fine to the Officer himself and we would get our license and paperwork back immediately so we could continue on our trip. Franco recognized immediately that this was Police Fraud and so he picks up the law book, gives it to the Cop and says, “Show me in here where it says that fines can be paid directly to individual Officers and we will pay it to you no problem.” Of course he couldn’t so then we were back to the other option of going to Milagro to pay the fine, something the Police was counting on us not wanting to do because it would stop our trip. They make an impossible situation so there is not option but to pay off the Cops.

Franco came back to the car and said the only way to pay the fine legally and get our papers is the bring the Officer, who had our papers, in the car with us to Milagro, pay the fine and get the papers back from the guy. It was so ridiculous that it was actually quite funny. So he goes back to tell the Officer that yes that was fine, we will all go to Milagro with the Officer and pay the fine. Well, apparently, the Officer didn’t think we would really go through all that trouble to pay a fine legally. He was trying to get us to bribe him. So he says, “Just pay the fine to me and you can save yourself trip and you can get your papers back now so you can continue your vacation. Why do you want to go to Milagro?” Franco looks at him and says, “We are honest people. We wish to travel to Milagro and pay the entire fine legally.” That was really the only option the police was giving us at the time, even though it might not have even been a real option at that point. It is a game that you have to stick around and play and hopefully talk your way out of. After a while of not getting anywhere with them, Franco told the cops that we are leaving now to go to Milagro and figure it out. That is when the Officer pulled Franco aside and said straight out, “Come on, let’s stop this. How much do you want to pay me to just go?” $30? $20?” (No shame!)

Franco, very indignantly but calmly replies, “We are Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are held to a standard of our own. WE are the correct people and we will not pay 1 cent to corruption.” That is all the Police needed to hear I guess. He handed all the papers and license back to Franco and told him, “Fine, Just leave then.” He knew then that we would not pay a cent. So we left, didn’t have to pay anything, didn’t have to postpone the trip and got back on our way. It pays to be honest sometimes I guess! Everyone who was being stopped along with us surely gave up the cash which went straight into the Officer’s pockets. They were in and out in 5 minutes all of them. But we felt good to give a good witness and not have to pay anything!

OK, as promised here are the other highway beach pics. Enjoy! Oh and the rest of our trip will have to go in the next post. Too many pictures to post at once. Part two coming soon...