A lot has happened since I last wrote, and I'm writing in English because I just have too much to say. I will update the last two week of school later, but on Thursday we had dinner at a buffet all of us together and then that night had a party at a bar where we had the top floor to ourselves. Friday morning, Zac and I left for our trip up to the north part of Argentina (Misiones). Here is a short summary of the trip so far, more to come later.

On Friday we left Buenos Aires and drove for 13 hours to Posadas, Misiones. On the way we were fined 80US for not having our lights on in the middle of the day, but it was ok. We didn't make a reservation in Posadas but we had a place in mind, but when we got there it was 2AM and no one was in the reception office so we drove around trying to find somewhere to stay and finally found a hotel. 

The next day we drove out to an ecological reserve and one of the ruins of a Jesuit Mission close by. Then we went back to the original place we were going to stay during the day and stayed there. It was kind of a cabin like thing.

The next morning (yesterday) we left Posadas and were going to see the ruins at San Ignacio on the way to Iguazu Falls. On the way out of Posadas however, we were stopped at the checkpoint (there are police checkpoints all over the roads here, I think the police are really bored outside of Buenos Aires) for not having the lights on (Zac's fault). It then turns out we were supposed to have a "matafuego" (fire extinguisher) in the car (it's a law) but our car rental company hadn't given us one. They also had mounted the GPS on the front window, which apparently is also illegal. So they took Zac into their office to talk and write up a ticket and all that, because he was the driver. They told Zac it was going to be a 5000 peso ticket (1,200US) but since it wasn't our fault, it was the fault of our car company, we could see a judge and have the ticket sent to the company instead. However, it's a long weekend so we would have to wait until Wednesday. 

I had been waiting in the car, so finally I went into the office to talk to them and they asked me if I spoke better Spanish than Zac (I do). It took a while for me to understand exactly what they were proposing because he wasn't saying it outright, rather he was being subtle which I don't always catch in Spanish. He told us we could either have him write the ticket, wait in Posadas, see a judge, and get it sent to the company, or pay half the ticket now and continue on our way without writing a ticket. 

I didn't understand at first that it was a bribe because he kept saying if we paid half the ticket now he couldn't write a ticket, rather than he wouldn't. Once he said "this would stay between us" I understood and told him yes, we could do that. However, we didn't have that much money on us, I only had 120 pesos and Zac didn't have anything. We said we could go to an ATM but they said there weren't any nearby. I gave them all that had, and they joked and asked why were we so dry and asked me if I was the one paying for everything on the trip. I said yes, and they asked me what my dad did. There were 5 of them I think in the office talking to us. One of them said that we would need the money for our trip, (we told them we were headed to Iguazu) and he decided to give me back my 120 pesos and one of them asked for my telephone number. I told him I didn't have a phone in Argentina, so another asked me to write down my email instead. So I did and we got to continue  after almost an hour and without paying a single peso.