DMV in Queretaro

Just a little interesting culture story for you all...

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that Jean Paul and I now have a car. Well, one of the things that comes with having a car is following the traffic laws (which are extremely subjective in Queretaro!) JP dropped me off at my house one evening, and on the way to his house, got a speeding ticket on the pan-american highway (he probably wouldn't want to to mention that there were large flashing signs that said "State Police Radar" right before where he got pulled over!) All I have to say is that 35 miles per hour is a RIDICULOUS speed limit for the pan-american highway... But, that's the limit.

Anyhow, if you pay the speeding ticket the next day, you get a 30-50% discount. The DMV - where you go for everything from diver's licenses, to speeding tickets, to car tax, and anything that has to do with vehicles in any way, shape, or form - is open from 8am to 3pm. Those are conveniently the hours that JP works, so he couldn't pay the ticket (and there's no such thing as mailing them a check here!) So I took the ticket down to pay it.

I knew where the DMV was, and it is conveniently located an hour bus ride from my house, and I went at 1pm on a really really hot day. I entered the huge, recently-remodled building, and was really surprised to see the inside. Generally, buildings and homes in Queretaro are a lot nicer on the inside than on the outside, and the DMV is pretty nice outside. But not inside. Inside, it is one huge room with a thin corrugated metal roof (no ceiling tiles or anything); customer service and payment window on all four walls, and a few seats a large concrete flower gardens. Like I said, it was probably the hottest day I've experienced since I've been in Queretaro, and, corrugated metal roofs are NOT friendly in hot weather, especially since the DMV is not airconditioned (which most office building here DO have airconditioning). So, I entered into the mass of people cutting in line to take a number and wait. I told the number-giver that I needed to pay a speeding ticket, and he gave me a number for a specific window. I was pleasantly surprised to see only 2 other people in that line. Then I realized that this WASN'T the correct window, and was told that the bank of like 9 windows on a different was was. So I waited. And waited. And finally my number was called, and I went to the window, and a lady printed off a payment form, and told me to go to a payment window and wait until my number was called. I waited in front of the payment windows. After several minutes, I noticed that the payment form was in someone else's name, and for a different amount. I pushed my way in front of the person who was being attended by the lady who gave me the wrong payment form, and she printed me out another form, in the same wrong name as the first form. I told her that it was the wrong form, and she read me the name on the form and informed me, "yep, that's your form." I told her it wasn't. She finally printed off the correct form, and I returned to the payment window area and sat on a big concrete flower garden to wait for my turn, which, by this point may or may not have been called. After about 40 minutes (and wondering if my number had already been called, or if they'd even call it before 3pm!), my number was called, and I paid the traffic fine with JP's money. Then, they informed me that I would need to go to the next window to receive JP's drivers' license, which they had confiscated as a way to assure that he's pay the fine. I was sure that they wouldn't give it to me because I'm NOT JP, AND I'm a foreigner. But they gave it to me, and I was on my way out of the boiling hot building into the boiling hot sun, praying that I never again lose my Oregon drivers' license, so hopefully I'll never have to spend the DAY in the DMV getting a mexican license!

So, no more complaints about the DMV's in the United States! heehee! :)