Fender Bender

So it's been our goal not to get in an accident while here :) Pretty much anyone's goal I guess but traffic is a lot different in Bolivia and it's never a good idea to be a foreigner and be in an accident. On Friday we were rear ended while coming home from school together in our big truck. There was a bus on the side of the road that was stopped and so the vehicle in front of us stopped fast and changed lanes so we put on our brakes and the Jeep behind us did not. He did not hit us too hard and since our truck is a monster there was no damage on our part. The Jeep had a few scrapes and bumps. So we get out and immediately draw a large crowd of bystanders. One of the bystanders gets very involved and starts saying it was our fault. In Bolivia the person who does the rear ending is always at fault. Some of our friends were also driving home from school and stopped which was very nice for us. One of our friends is Bolivian and he said you aren't at fault just leave. But we didn't want any trouble so we talked and finally the guy said give me 50 Bolivianos or we'll have to get the cops and the insurance all to come out. 50 bolivianos is the equivilant of 6 dollars. So our options were pay 6 bucks or wait and go through a 2-3 hour ordeal with cops and insurance. We decided just to pay him after we wrote a paper saying he was at fault which he signed. As we were paying him another vehicle stopped and a man came up and said --You know they are taking advantage because you are gringos? That afternoon I was very aware that I was a foreigner.