Mugging # 3...........by the Police!

Being right next to the border it didn't take long to get there.

 The Brazilians had me out of their country in no time and all and then it was a short ride across the bridge to Argentina. This was the quickest entry across any border, I didn't even have to get off the bike - immigration and the carnet for the bike were done in minutes(sorry about another rubbish picture but I seem to have got out of the habit of taking shots as I ride along).

Just as I was leaving I saw a money exchange place so hopped off and was waylaid by a Customs officer "was I looking to change money?" So in to his office and a deal was done at a better rate than the cambio next door so that was handy.

It is funny being back in Argentina after all this time. The scenery soon looked familiar with wide open grassland, cows and Gaucho's. I didn't really have a target town in mind but decided to have a relatively short day (it is also funny that I now think of 500kms being a short day) and stopped at a nice town Posados. It lies on the bank of a large lake and I found a nice hotel just out of town. 

The next day was an early start as I was thinking in terms of heading over to Cordoba and I wanted to kick on a bit. The sun was shining, the wind was at our back and the roads were good. It was all going beautifully and I was smiling behind my visor. I got to Corientes and swung through town until the exit where I was stopped at a police roadside "booth". The younger office took my papers (and as always looked at them upside down) he said that their colleagues had radioed ahead to say that I had done something wrong. I played dumb and said I didn't understand. At this stage I was thinking it is possible as I had missed an exit on a round a bout and had to do a U turn. Was this the problem?

This all took some time and then the older officer came and had a chat. He started talking about the fact that I had gone through a "no entry" sign! At this point I knew it was all a load of bollocks. Whilst waiting to see what they did next I took some photos (knowing they would hate that) and boy did he get excited! He wanted to put cuffs on me & take the camera, finally he settled for me deleting them.

To cut a long story short (I had tried to bluff for about 40 minutes) He started at a bizarre fine of 100 litres of fuel! (that would be about £100) but that then got reduced to Ps425 which he said I could pay at the bank - so I said "Ok give me the ticket and I will go and pay it". He started fidgeting and doing everything he could NOT to write the ticket...."or I could play here"!

I said I don't have that much money and showed him what I had in my pocket (about Ps125). He said that would be fine. Bloody crook! I wanted to stay and argue but I was running out of time and patience so I let him have it, needless to say he did not write me a ticket or give me a receipt!

I was disappointed more than cross but I was also thankful that it had taken 10 months to have got mugged by a policeman. I was also pleased that he was too stupid to realise that I had a load  more cash hidden in my moneybelt!

I talked to people afterwards and they just shrugged their shoulders - it is an endemic problem in Argentina and does not reflect well on the country. Such a shame but that is the way of things over here.

I ended up in a small town near Santa Fe. I had done nearly 800kms and I was tired.

Next day was a reasonably short hop to Cordoba - this was recommended as a nice old town. When I got close I could see it is a massive industrial sprawl which I really didn't fancy. I had also been told of Carlos Paz a nice town in the hills nearby. I saw some signposts for that so headed there, I knew I had made the right decision once I got there.

I had pulled in to get an hotel when 2 bikers arrived. They were having a coffee and saw me go past. They invited me to have a coffee with them back at the petrol station, where their Bike club meet regularly. Once again a bunch of very nice guys (one of whom is an American living in Paz). They invited me to join them in the evening and dinner. Which I did. These are hardcore riders, one having entered the Paris Dakar 3 times (7 days was the longest he survived). They also had some video on their phones of them on their trial bikes in the mountains - bloody madmen! 1 video shows one breaking his leg trying to cross a river. They strapped his leg and he rode out - took 3 hours! This was two months ago and he still had a bad limp.

Another guy broke his arm so they cut up a Coke can and strapped that over the break and he rode out too.


I was surprised at how much of the conversation I understood, especially as most of it was about politics and how poor they felt the future was of Argentina because of the corrupt politicians. Such a shame as from my perspective it is a country with a lot of potential.