Mistake #9: Driving Without Your License

This is another mistake that hits close to home to me.

A couple of years ago, I was driving from Lake Chapala to Guadalajara.  I took a left turn at a stoplight as the light was turning yellow and basically got caught turning on a red light. The policeman who stopped me did the standard drill; asked for my license.

Only, I had forgotten my license at home!

According to the Mexican traffic law, he could have taken my car and impounded it. That would have meant that I would have had to pay the fine for running the red light, plus a fine for not carrying my license with me, plus the fine to get my car out of the impound lot.

We worked things out. It cost me 400 pesos, but it could have been a lot worse.