“All right,” I said. “What’s going on here?”
“It looks like a traffic checkpoint,” Sherry answered. “There are two lines of cars but whichever one you get in looks like a long wait.”
We were barely over the border going from Belize into Mexico and already at our first traffic stop. I pulled over, rolled down the window and settled down for a long wait. In the lane next to us a carload of tourists were arguing with the Mexican policeman.
“Señor, this car is not legal,” the policeman was saying.
“But why?” the driver asked. “I don’t understand.”
“What kind of car is this?” the officer asked.
“It is an Audi Quattro.”
“Yes, but you have five people in this car. Cuatro means four. You are only supposed to have four people in a car that is marked for four.”
“Are you out of your mind?” the driver said. “Quattro for an Audi car is not even spelled the same as cuatro in Spanish.”
“The law is the law, Señor. There is nothing we can do about it. Your car is illegal with five people in it. You must remove one passenger.”
“This is crazy,” the tourist said. “I want to speak to your sergeant.”
“He is not available right now.”
“Why isn’t he available?”
The policeman said, “He is busy arguing with two men in a Fiat Uno.”
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