Ambush at the Toll Booth

We approached a toll booth outside Oaxaca and saw a crowd gathering. We drove up carefully. As we tried to move through, people surrounded the car.

It was like an ambush. Some people held two-by-fours. Someone whacked the hood. A barricade came out. We both speak Spanish; we’ve both been in rough situations before — but we still did not know what was going on.

We figured it out quickly: the crowd wanted money.

We paid. They even made change. Then we drove on.