In honor of this, I thought I'd share a memory of a trip Suzi and I took to Palenque, Mexico. After seeing the beautiful Mayan ruins in the Chiapas jungle, we needed to return to Merida where our study abroad program was based. Since we were struggling college students, we chose to take the cheap bus back to Merida and thus started our adventure with the Corn Police.
First of all, the bus arrived late. That was sign that maybe we had made an "interesting" decision on buying bus tickets. Then, we stopped at a sketchy restaurant in the middle of nowhere for a restroom break. In addition to the lack of tp in the smelly outhouse style bathroom, I remember the large rocks that were spray painted bright orange outside.
My favorite part of the trip, however, was when we crossed state lines and went through an agricultural inspection. The ancient man in the seat ahead of us had his large wheel of cheese confiscated by the agriculture agents. The agents had corn on the center of their badges hence the nickname, Corn Police. The old man was quite upset at the loss of his cheese and said that the agents were going to eat his cheese. At this remark, the Corn Police laughed and said, "Maybe if it had been marijuana or cocaine, we would use it. However, your cheese will go in the trash with the other food."
After the drama of the confiscation, the bus driver walked by and asked in Spanish if we understood what had gone on. When I said yes, he seemed relieved and went to the other foreigners on the bus to make sure that they had understood as well. While I feel sorry about the poor man losing his cheese, it was one of the most interesting bus rides I took in Mexico.
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