We had our bags pilfered on the bus ride home from our recent vacation. The loss included my Texas driver’s license. It can’t be replaced until I return to the US, thus the need for a Mexican license.
It took me three trips to the Office of Transportation in downtown Bacalar. The first time I was informed that May first was a holiday and I needed to come back on Thursday. I got the list of documents that I needed. One was certification of my health, obtained from a ten minute visit to a local clinic and costing $4.00.
I gathered up the required copies and returned on Thursday. Oops testing starts at ten. After a coffee to take up some time, I returned for a third time to find a full house. The testing space was small and bursting with men all getting a driver’s license for the first time, mostly to drive a motorcycle, and me.
A friend had told me that the process was quite easy and the questions were bordering on the ridiculous. But when the woman handed me three pages in Spanish I became nervous.
As I read through the questions, breathe relax, I trusted my skill, finished fairly quickly and looked up. It was then that I realized that I probably read more Spanish than anyone else in the room. There is not a high literacy rate in Bacalar. No problemo, everyone was relaxed with heads together helping each other! I almost laughed out loud. One young man sitting across from me looking very nervous leaned forward to ask me the answer to the question, “who has the right of way, the driver or the pedestrian?” He had the correct answer. I told him that I had put the same answer. Mind you I was the only woman and a white haired foreigner to boot. He must have been desperate.
When I handed in the test, the clerk scanned the pages quickly then rolled her eyes. I didn’t know the color of various street signs so I just guessed. Oops. To my surprise, she pulled out a bottle of white-out and proceeded to CORRECT MY MISTAKES! Her comment to the other clerk, “She’s a foreigner.”
I am now the proud owner of a shiny new driver’s license and another story to tell that tickles me about living in Mexico.
DOS TORTAS
the adventures of dos tortas 
This made me laugh! Thanks for the reminder of the foibles of living
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México is always good for a laugh. You wouldn’t recognize the area from when you were here.
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I LOVE this!!! And hooray for you: a Mexican driver!:)
Lorrie Jones Simple Serenity simpleserenity.comhttp://simpleserenity.com/ 253.312.3117
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Yes, feeling quite proud of myself.
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Blimey, that’s a novel way of doing things 😀
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Blimey indeed 😂
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Oh, other than having your bags pilfered, that is a riot! The white out! I laughed out loud.
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I know! 😆 😂
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A really entertaining story, Alex. Congrats on your new state of legality.
After two renewals of my Texas driver’s license without having to show up in person at the office I was notified by mail last year that my June 2023 renewal would require me to be there, have a new photo, take the vision exam, etc. I was kind of expecting this, so no problem. The notification informed me that it is now mandatory to schedule an online appointment for any visit to a driver’s license office. On March 2nd I decided “Well, let’s get this done.” I went online. Whoops! The earliest appointment available anywhere in the Central Texas area was in July, five weeks after my birthday, and it was in San Marcos. Believe me, I did a lot of searching to be sure I was not misunderstanding something or using the system incorrectly. Nope, there were a couple of news articles documenting that the DPS could not handle the demand, and it was taking weeks to months to get an appointment in any of the large metropolitan areas. Once my license expired I drove less and very carefully until my July appointment. Showed up in San Marcos. Was told the computer system was down and nothing could be done. Waited for a couple of hours with a bunch of other people until I gave up and left. Learned later that the computer system never came up that day. There was no mechanism to reschedule appointments for people whose appointments were canceled because of problems with DPS. The expectation was that you would go back online and start again, but a very helpful driver’s license office employee promised to help me if she could — and she did — and I got a new appointment in San Marcos for a couple of weeks later. I showed up again. Oh my! The computer system was down again. As I stood around trying to decide whether to stay or go, it was announced that the system was now up. I waited and went through the process an hour or two after my appointment time, but I did get a renewed license. Both times I was at the DPS office I chatted with other people waiting and the frustration level was very high. Some of them were working people who were required to have a current license for their jobs. Another was a teen whose mother had driven him from Pflugerville to San Marcos to get his first license. Others were folks like me just trying to do a routine renewal. Of course, none of this was the fault of the employees who actually dealt with the public. The couple of news articles I saw indicated that the top managers at DPS were aware of the problem and it was being addressed. I hope the situation is improved by now.
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I had a new license delivered in Jan. Mine expired in Feb. trouble is I didn’t make a copy of it. They won’t let me get another online without the number on the bottom of the front. Thanks for the heads up. Our return trip may be scheduled around a DPS appointment 🤪 Take a copy of everything if you haven’t already.
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We’re looking for a fourth for an Alaska cruise in August
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