How to be ripped off by a Mexican taxi driver

Take a taxi – 40 pesos. A little more than expected but OK.

Take a taxi back.

The fare jumped to 120 pesos, a 200% increase.

Hand over two 50 peso notes and some coins. Driver looks back at us showing a 50 and a 20 peso note. Seems like I had a 20 peso note mixed up with the 50s?

Hand over another 50 peso note.

Driver looks back showing one end is missing. I hadn’t noticed that. Swap the note for a good one.

Driver asks if we can exchange a 500 peso note for smaller currency. Fortunately we decline.

As we leave the taxi Bruce and I query what happened.

Clearly our taxi driver had some clever tricks up his sleeve, that we gringos were not aware of.

50 pesos is worth about $4.26 in today’s market.