Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tomorrow there would be Kwaxochitl and another seven days of entertainment! But that
would be for others. Tomorrow I would return to San Luís Potosi and prepare for the second
leg of my cross-country trip.
Carterista: Pickpocket or Wear a Money Belt!
I arrived in San Luís Potosi, planned to leave early the next morning and mentally calcu-
lated the cash I'd need for hotels, buses and meals. I went to HSBC Bank's ATM, next
door to Hotel Plaza Real, punched in my card and code, and loaded my wallet.
Friends, Santiago and his family, expected me for dinner, and I was running late. My plan
was to take my host a Selva Negra (Black Forest cake) from a master pastry chef in San
Luís Potosi.
I tried to catch the bus near my hotel but I stood on the wrong corner; it was not a bus stop
and the bus barreled on by. But good luck, a taxi was right behind. I flagged him down,
and said, "Chaires." I was off to buy a Black Forest cake. I didn't realize it then, but the
jackpot bars had lined up for a thief: bursting wallet, haste, missed bus, and I hailed the
wrong cab.
I got into the taxi and sat in the front seat next to the driver. He zipped straight down Aven-
ida Carranza. It was a short, quick ride. The fare was 17 pesos ($1.60) on the meter. With
honest taxi drivers in San Luís Potosi, the meters work, you don't have to bargain.
The taxi stopped in front of Chaires. I brought out a 20-peso note. The driver searched his
pockets for change. "Do you have any small change sir?" He was polite. Change is not an
unusual problem in Mexico. I had put my wallet back into my front left pocket, and I was
sitting down, so it was probably not tucked deep into my pocket.
In the front seat of the taxi I was a little scrunched. I reached with an awkward struggle
into my right pocket for change. The taxi driver, keeping up a patter of, “sorry, no change”
reached across the steering wheel with his left hand and opened the ashtray to show me
there was only a peso and a half for change. He was good-natured and somewhat theatrical
and apologetic.
I should have caught the left-hand move, and of course, his right hand was free. I was dis-
tracted, ill seated, and reaching for my change, which came to 15 pesos.
