well, about 10 miles later, we were stopped again at a police checkpoint. this time because i had forgotten to turn my headlights back on after filling up with gas. they made me pull over and a couple minutes later their chief strolled on over. a big guy (not fat, but tall and solid looking) dressed in all blue, with a gun by his side, sunglasses covering half of his face and a small digital camera in his hand. after talking for a minute, he invited me into his office where he told me that i had two options: 1) he could give me a ticket for about 900 pesos ($250), which i’d have to pay before i left argentina; or 2) i could pay him 300 pesos now. i can probably guess another two things: 1) the fine is not actually 900 pesos for forgetting to turn your headlights on (especially in the daytime); and 2) the 300 pesos is a bribe, since the government probably does not allow cops to accept cash, and would certainly not offer a discount.

from some other travelers (the same german couple who had warned me about insurance), i had heard that threatening to call the embassy was often good enough….so i told the officer this, and asked if i could use his phone. naturally, he said no, so i said i would call from my cell phone. back in the car, adrian and i spoke for a few minutes and decided to make the call. just as i was about to, i was called back into the office. with a phone and lonely planet in hand, the officer asked me what my decision was. i told him that i was going to call the embassy and see. he said that he was going to write up the 900p ticket and that if we changed our mind, we could adjust that later.

so, i returned to the car and made the call. while listening to the pre-recorded message about the embassy being closed, the lower-ranked officer hurried to us with my license and told me that i could go. ushi 1, argentina 0. (thanks to adrian, though…since i was getting ready to pay some money).