Originally Posted by
davesfolhr
[*]Is a rental car necessary/recommended in order to travel between the eastern coast of the Yucatan to/from Playa del Carmen and Cancun, and to/from local attractions at the Haciendas? If so, does the Yucatan have the same traffic police issue that is sometimes present in Baja California, i.e. alleged violations are paid in cash, on the spot, and at the officer's discretion?
I can tell you that I got nailed by a cop while driving through the hotel zone of Cancun on the way to the airport. The jerk said that I was driving 70 km/h and the limit was less (I forget). Because my flight was leaving in 2-3 hours and he said that we had to head to downtown Cancun, I had little room to negotiate as that trip would have caused me to miss the flight. My Spanish is perfect and I probably would have negotiated further, but under those circumstances, I was OK to pay him $100 to end the debacle. By the way, after leaving that point, the next speed limit sign was posted at 70. I am not sure if there is a "tourist speed trap" in the middle where they lower the limit to catch unsuspecting visitors. It does not help that our rented car has a big "Dollar Rent-a-Car" bumper sticker on it.
Maybe we should find a good place to report such incidents. Obviously the Mexican government has no intention to do anything about it, unless bad publicity were to hurt the tourist (read: revenue) stream.