From Lima, we hit the legendary Panamericana, a leisurely 3-hour drive south ahead.
After thirty minutes, we pass a police checkpoint for omnibus. Our SUV, while not the smallest, hardly qualifies as such, so we keep driving confidently at the displayed 45 km/hour. No luck, the Peruvian police officer signals, heavily gesticulating, to pull over... clearly smelling a bribe from some ignorant gringos.
But a forewarned is forearmed. From our pre-trip travel blog reading, we immediately recall the following essentials:
- Never hand over your original documents (only copies); if asked for the originals, indicate that they are buried deep down in your luggage and you would not want to waste the officer's precious time.
- Pretend not to speak any Spanish. No, not even "hola" and "gracias"; not a word. And "ticket" and "camera" are obviously not having any meaning in English :)
- Keep calm and keep smiling :)
- And if steps 1-3 would nevertheless fail, consider slipping some Soles into the (copied) documents you are handing over, just by accident of course, as every good traveller keeps money and documents closely together.
Twenty minutes later, after successful implementation of steps 1-3 (and with painful cheeks from all the smiling!) we continue our way, direction sur.
Still chuckling because of our skilled anti-bribe tactics and hardly having processed the incident, we overtake a police car (with some hesitation, admittedly!) while driving at a perfectly legitimate 90 km/hour... and the whole circus starts all over again! (But this time, amused by the absurdity of the situation, I am brave enough to take a snapshot!). Same tactics, same smile, same result.
If our first drive is anything to go by, we better start planning in some additional travel time on Peruvian roads...
“Let your smile change the world. Don’t let the world change your smile. ”
