by Bo Keeley
(Swans - September 6, 2010) My Mexican-American amigo was hired yesterday here in Felipe to watch a beach property measuring 400 meters by 5 kilometers, the standard Mexican parcel. He was told to stand at the beach road entrance, and expect someone to drive up and try to claim the property. Stop them! Armed with this info, he grabbed a sombrero, book, thermos of water, and waited in the thin shade of a socorro. At mid-day, five cars pulled in, including two police, one city, one crammed with meaty characters who ejected and followed the driver of a third flashy sedan to my amigo standing in the road with folded arms. Two attorneys and a policeman for the driver mediated, showing recent documents of possession. At this, my amigo waved his sombrero high in the air. From a nearby hut a third attorney for the original land owner emerged, and huddled with the two attorneys for the claimant. It was a contrived showdown. After shouts and insults, an agreement was reached, and a 40-meter x 100-meter perimeter was staked around the original owner's home on the beach, that was encompassed by a larger perimeter of the rest of the property for the claimant. A handful of retired Americans stood at bay from the police, bewildered. The entire property includes about twenty beach tracts that Americans and wealthy Mexicans have been leasing for years, now forfeited in the turnover. My amigo leaned against a post observing, rubbing his chin, and thought to ask a hefty staker what the bottom line was. He replied that the new owner had spread $100,000 around the city and court to obtain new legal title. The amigo then informed the original owner of the plot, who laughed conspiratorially. His original deed would take precedence over the new legal one in court. In a swoop, he had ousted the American leasers as the beach property value skyrockets. "Everybody wins!" grins my amigo, flashing a $10 pay note, and asserting, "It's like a tennis match. This is the second time the owner has played the game and won!"
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About the Author
Bo Keeley is a retired veterinarian, former publisher, author of seven books on sports and adventure, national paddleball and racquetball champion, commodities consultant, school teacher, psychiatric technician, traveler to 96 countries, and executive adventure guide who has been featured in Sports Illustrated and other national publications as an alternative adventurer. (back)