Last Saturday I went to Mexico. I ate some tacos, watched the World Cup in an air-conditioned restaurant, bought some toilet paper at Sams Club and then…went back to Guatemala. The entire trip lasted six hours.
My tourist visa was about to expire and I needed to get it extended for another three months. And while technically, Guatemalan law required that I leave the country for at least 72 hours, my roommates and I simply waited until there was a shift-change and then slipped the guard a bribe. Now before you go thinking that I’m some sort of hooligan or something, let me just tell ya that everyone does this. In fact, it happens so frequently that after lying to the Immigration officers that I was planning on staying in Mexico for three days, one of them winked knowingly and then called out as I was leaving: “See you in a few hours!”
I guess sometimes living in a corrupt country has it’s perks.
