Thursday, August 13, 2009

Lost in Translation


After Chichen Itza we decided to stop for lunch in the city of Valladolid. Having driven through the city earlier that day, I am convinced that parking will be horrible, but we find a miraculous spot between 10 other cars, right in the heart of the historic district, across from the town square, church and restaurants… seems like fate.

We park, walk around, look at art, look for tequila, eat quesadillas, and generally meander through the town square.

But then, we get back to the parking area. We are the only car there and a policewoman is standing in front clearly waiting for us (how long she's been waiting we have no idea).

We speak very little Spanish, my friend has a pretty good vocabulary, but I am definitely the chattier of the two of us, and much more willing to just give it a go. The policewoman speaks NO English.

After some gesturing and pointing we realize we are parked in a 5 minute loading spot in front of a bank… whoops!

The only Spanish I can think to say at this moment is “Para llevar” meaning "to take away" (like can I "take my beer away" to the beach?). I’m throwing together "take away", "la coche" (car), and making crazy undulating hand gestures together as an attempt at communication. She is looking at us like I am speaking Farsi to her.

Then she gets on the radio to call for help. I think, we are clearly screwed and that this is going to be a very expensive afternoon.

So I say to my friend (as fast as I can, so as to not be understood (like that was going to happen)) act like you are putting stuff into the car, and take some money out of the wallet. My thinking here is two fold: 1) so we can easily hand it over and 2) so that it isn’t clear how much of it we actually have.

As he does this, another policiewoman comes up to help. She says the same thing: Bank, 5 minutes. We ask if we can go, she looks at us in amazement and says, “Yes please.” Then helps stop traffic so we can easily pull out of our made-up parking spot.

No money exchanged hands, no ticket, no Mexican jail, no problem. Just a smile, a “yes please,” and a have a nice day from the ladies! With probably a hint of “learn some Spanish” under their breath… what can I say, well deserved advice.

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