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I was heading to Mac's America Bar in Sabana Sur, and made a Uturn at the light.
I shouldnt have. I should have turned that left and turned around in the street.
As I parked in front of Macs, the cops pulled upand it was obvious they were there for me.
After I gave them my registration and current passport, he still asked for a drivers license. I gave hm my current florida licence and he as ok with that.
There were 2 of them and they started with a ticket that was $600.
I apologized profusely and they eventually gave me a ticket for 51 mil, for 'disrespecting a fixed lane"
They might have been trying to shake me down, but i was nice and respectful. The only complication was that the first cop commented that he could smell alcohol on my breath. Hard to argue with that.
I am happy to have learned such a lesson for $100.

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Having too much fun. 8)

Gotta love being able to pay the judge and jury on the spot. Hopefully they do not go ahead and file the ticket anyway and whomever owns the car will have a nice surprise when they go to register it next time as the tickets stay with the car. You would not believe how many cars get scrapped because of tickets that they do not have the money to pay.

If he said that he paid the 51 Mil on the spot, I missed it........... and English is my first language.

I got a ticket to pay. Looking back I could have offered a bribe, but what do I know. Lol

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Having too much fun. 8)

51 Mil is a reasonably lucky result for an illegal u-turn in that part of town. I'm not too familiar with the Sabana area, but I do know the cops like to hang out there. There's a lot of traffic, and it's a solid middle class area, which I guess means people who can afford to pay traffic tickets. The times I do remember driving through that area, the transitos were hanging out at the intersection by the AMPM, which might even be the same intersection where you made your u-turn.

My niece (a Tica) lives in Jaco, and she told me about a month ago that the transitos are all over that area, writing traffic tickets and parking tickets. According to her, there's an unofficial push to boost government income from traffic fines.

Used to be that 10 Mil would get you out of a u-turn with no paperwork. It sounds like these guys were playing by the book. As long as you're not belligerent, most of them will downgrade your ticket, as they did in this case. Even the cops know that these fines for u-turns and simple speeding are ridiculous, and they're usually open to letting you pay less unless you make them angry somehow.

I got nailed by Transito on the "Mountain of Death" once. I was driving from Perez Zeledon to San Jose, and a transito got me for speeding. I gave him $50 US on the spot, and he said in English, "OK... no ticket." I found out later that the fine would have been about 15 mil ($30 US).

Ah, the good old days. A few years ago, all tickets went up as much as 1500%, yes 15x the previous fine. There are tickets where the fine would equal 6 months salary for a blue collar Tico.

I'm sorry but driving after having any alcohol is just stupid, especially in CR.

If you get caught trying to bribe a cop or any official for that matter it is a crime in costa rica and you can end up in jail. Not a good idea. Best to take the ticket.

If you live here in CR, here is a little tip if you choose to use it. I have been stopped many times over the years and have never paid a bribe. Some transitos have tried to get paid, but I always tell them give me the ticket. The reason is, you have eight days to appeal the ticket. Just write a letter appealing the ticket for whatever reason you can think of and present it to the local oficina de transito. I have done this for every ticket I have gotten and never heard another word about them. Don't know why this works, but it does. ( for me )

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not as good as I once was, but as good once as I ever was

That's always a risk, to be sure, but it's not a likely result these days. I don't get pulled over very much, but I've always gotten out of a ticket with an on the spot payment. I certainly wouldn't offer an outright bribe. I've always played like I don't know how it works:

"I'm sorry for speeding. How does it work? Do I just pay the fine to you, right here?"

I even got a warning once on highway 34. I was just nice to the cop, and he just let me go.

The new, higher fines are actually kind of nice. They're so high that even the cops will rebel against them, if you give them half a chance. The typical attitude is "This Gringo's a nice guy. I'm not going to write a Gringo tourist a ticket for $600 for making a u-turn with no conflicting traffic."

If you ask me, the biggest traffic problem here is that nobody knows how to use a roundabout. It's hard enough getting used to driving on the right side of the road.