No Comprendo!

No comprendo! That was my master plan for avoiding jail. A better plan would have been not breaking the law, but that would mean actually going back to Chicago, which wasn't going to happen. The Mexican customs would not allow me to enter Mexico with the Honda (samurai or not) without first proving to them that the Dodge had left Mexico. My car permit, bought in Chicago, says that I had permission to bring the Dodge into Mexico on August 3. So on August 4th I had to prove to this bureaucrat in Matamoros that the Dodge had left Mexico. This was in spite of the fact that the Dodge had never entered Mexico. Option 1: scrap the whole driving plan, return the car to Louisiana, and get on a flight to Guatemala. Option 2: take my chances of driving on an illegal permit through the entire country. hoping that whatever difficulties I encountered could be escaped by pleading ignorance. Being a sort of outlaw is actually no fun. That feeling you get when you see the flashers in the rear-view mirror; I had that for three days straight. I actually only got pulled over once in Tampico by a pedestrian cop. I apparently ran a red light, which was easily taken care of for $80, what I had in my wallet. I spent the 5th night in a little town called Sayula, where the 180 meets the 185 in the skinny part. By the 6th night, I was in Tapachula, ready to cross into Guatemala. I was supposed to drive into Guatemala on the 6th, and so far was on schedule. I went to the border only to discover that (whoops) my Illinois registration was missing from the car. No problem! Diana faxed it to me that day. "What? You don't accept a fax? No comprendo!!!" A guy at the customs office convinced me to leave the car at the border crossing, putting me on a bus to Guatemala city. I arrived late and enjoyed a well deserved drink at the Hotel Biltmore. Diana and Shalom arrived two days later by plane. Diana also brought the registration. Next day I was back on a bus to Tapachula. Hmmm... would the car and my $2000 worth of bikes still be there when I arrived? Would we go from a two car family to a no-car family in only 6 days? Everything was just fine. We now have our car and are dreading having to pay our 20% import tax. I wonder if I could avoid that by claiming that yo no comprendo...