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Yes, there are some police in Mexico who are corrupt, but not all are, though. Corruption can happen when they see an opportunity. For example, when you have a Mexican car and they ask for proof your emissions test are current, the annual fee called refrendo is paid or a Mexican driver’s license. So, I advise my clients to always follow the rules to minimize opportunities for them to ask for a bribe. Paying a bribe / mordida is a felony.

 

An example...

Yes, there are some police in Mexico who are corrupt, but not all are, though. Corruption can happen when they see an opportunity. For example, when you have a Mexican car and they ask for proof your emissions test are current, the annual fee called refrendo is paid or a Mexican driver’s license. So, I advise my clients to always follow the rules to minimize opportunities for them to ask for a bribe. Paying a bribe / mordida is a felony.

 

An example is if you are driving a foreign-plated cars from an American state or Canadian province, you may be stopped by the police and asked for your tourist FMM card or temporary resident visa. Or they may ask to see your driver’s license. The Mexican police will say that you should have a Mexican driver’s license, which is not true for foreign-plated cars. Your U.S. or Canadian driver’s license can be used when driving a foreign licensed car in Mexico, but you should also have your visa with you. Only, Federale police and Aduana may legally ask to see your car permit.

 

 

If stopped and you have done nothing wrong ask for a ticket. Do not hesitate to take their photo with your phone or a camera. Do not let them intimidate you. You may also call your lawyer or consulate / embassy. This happens less often in San Miguel but it is quite common as you enter Celaya.

 

With a valid ticket for a driving violation most of the time, you have to pay the fine at the traffic police office within 10 business days.

 

(Pictured: Old photo of San Miguel de Allende, with parroquia in background.)

Recently, here in San Juan del Sur, the Australian expats formed a rugby team,...

Recently, here in San Juan del Sur, the Australian expats formed a rugby team, they invited some Nicaraguans to play, and they are doing very well. They have played against towns like Granada and Managua. This is all even though Nicaragua does not have a rugby team that competes internationally.

There are a lot of recreational sports that exist here in Nicaragua in general. They have a lot of pickup games such as baseball and soccer. They go to the park and anybody there could just join in. They have little leagues, too.

It’s very casual here, from how you dress to everything else. There is no class system at all here. The Prime Minister would call me “John” because he knows me. So it is a very casual country.  

 

To avoid unintentionally offending a Belizean, don’t tell them, “In America, we do it this way.” They don’t like that. Other than that, you shouldn’t worry at all. They are very casual...

It’s very casual here, from how you dress to everything else. There is no class system at all here. The Prime Minister would call me “John” because he knows me. So it is a very casual country.  

 

To avoid unintentionally offending a Belizean, don’t tell them, “In America, we do it this way.” They don’t like that. Other than that, you shouldn’t worry at all. They are very casual people and they are very easy going. They are very hard to insult. 

 

Belizeans like to stop and talk. They stop in the middle of the road, park their car, and talk.  That could be frustrating sometimes to a North American, but they are very nice people. They have never been unkind or unfriendly to me in the 30 years that I’ve been here. They’ll stop their cars in the middle of the road. You will see horses walking through town. Women breastfeed their babies openly here and that is not a big thing. 

 

There are no rules and regulations like the ones in the US. You can drive on a one-way street and get away with it and they don’t stop at stop signs all the time.  What guides them here is more common sense than laws. Traffic violations are still against the law, but they are not going to give you a ticket for it. We don’t have any speed meters or radar traps here. You can drink and drive. It’s still against the law, but no one is going to pull you over.  

 

(Pictured: The Placencia Assassins Football Club.  Placencia, Belize.)

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or...

Your neighbors in the Algarve would be a mix depending on where you live. If you live in a town they would more likely be Portuguese. The bigger the town the more likely it would be to have Portuguese neighbors. Further out it is more likely there would be a mixed bag of people. There are certainly municipalities where six or seven nationalities could surround you, a little bit like Florida.

 

When I lived just north of Miami, I had neighbors from three or four nationalities who were very transient. The Algarve doesn’t have quite the same transient society that I felt in Southern Florida, but certainly from a heterogeneous perspective, there are a variety of nationalities that reside in the Algarve. It’s fairly likely that your neighbors will be Portuguese, English, Dutch, or German because of the number of people from those countries who have settled in the Algarve. 

 

Most of the people who move to the Algarve would tend to be wealthy by Portuguese standards and comfortably middle class or wealthy by international standards. Most people who have made the decision to come here so they do so because they are financially able to afford to do so. This is a pensioner’s paradise.  These are people who have their pensions intact and can afford a good living in the Algarve, where you could easily live on a lot less than you would if you were living in London, New York, Stockholm, Helsinki or Paris. And so, what we find is that people here who come from abroad and in particular the pensioners have a much higher quality of life and spending power, than the average across Portugal and from whence they came.  

 

(Jose Mourinho, Portuguese football manager, pictured.)