Re licensing

Rosalie was so happy about having a car here I couldn’t get the grin off her face.

Mike and Pat had also recommended Eddie so we knew he could be trusted. I called him and asked what he needed us to do, “bring your passport, Residente Temporal, and 4,000 pesos.” Which we did. The car was going in my name so I took all my documents.

A few days later we talked with Eddie and it turns out that the car has to be in Rosalie’s name as she is primary on our bank account. (Only because she spoke more Spanish than I did while setting it up.) Back over to Eddie’s to change up the paperwork. Our bank account is the only thing we have with our address on it.

After a few delays, Eddie informed us that he was ready for us to go to Autlan to get the VIN number checked. What! Us? We have to go? Well, I didn’t have to but Rosalie did. I gallantly offered to accompany her even after Eddie told us to pick him up at 6 am.

Autlan is only 105 km away but a two-hour drive. It’s a beautiful drive through the mountains but the road is really twisty and there are often large potholes to be avoided. Also, large trucks use the route and often slowed us down.

We had an appointment at 9 am, and so did about seventy other people. They crammed all the cars, trucks and motorcycles into a large parking area and we settled in to wait. I asked Eddie how long it would take and he said between 4 and 5 hours.

After a while, a guy came by to verify Rosalie’s credentials. Then someone else came and looked at our paperwork and added a comment. The reason it takes so long to get started is that the inspectors start work at 8am but have to drive from Guadalajara, two hours away.

After about 2 1/2 hours they announced that they would deal with motorcycles first. They finally got through them all and started on the cars. As the inspectors got closer I noticed that one of them had a gun stuffed in his belt. Okay! now what? It wasn’t until he turned around that I noticed that he also carried handcuffs. A cop!

I assumed (unwisely) that as an inspection was done that person would get his stamp and go home. Not so! All inspections have to be done and then everybody lines up together to get their stamp. Rosalie was first in line but it didn’t make any difference as we couldn’t move the car anyway as we were boxed in.

I had asked Eddie to drive as he knew the road. I noticed that he went a bit quicker on the way back. After all this, we still weren’t finished. We now had to go to Cihuatlan to get our new plates.

I called Eddie the next morning and arranged to pick him up at his house in Barra. I rounded up Rosalie as she was out playing with her sisters at the market.

Before we picked Eddie up he informed us that we would need an additional 4,000 pesos. This was because some of the previous owners hadn’t paid for their transfers like good little Mexicans. He argued for a discount but was turned down. So we took our lumps, paid our money and went home.