Ahh, La Mordita, that little "je ne sais quoi", or more " "the I know exactly what", that little unofficial tax needed to grease up the wheels of buraucracy. The extra costs, the, "I know, and you know what I want, it's just a question of how much". The bribe, the tourist tax, the "pot-de-vin" as we like to say in french. Loosely translated, La Mordita mean the little bite, the little nibble. It's what makes officials work faster, slower, or not at all.

Common practice in all of Central America, it reaches its peak in Honduras, where they perfectionned the art to something both beautiful... and painfull!!

Thankfully, with the help of the network of overlanders I came up somewhat prepared for what is now known as one of the most corrupted 130km of highway in the world!!

It all starts at the border, that are usually dilapidated towns, made up of a a mishmash of officials, police, military, taxi drivers, truckers, "helpers", money changers, food stalls and total disorganisation.

While approaching, a handful of man will run after the Jeep offering any kind of help necessary, one of the biggest one is photocopies, a ridiculous amount of wich are necessary to cross countries!! I usually take a guide, they cost 2-5 dollars and generally speed the process up a lot.

It the case of the El Slavador-Honduras border, I know from other's experience that I will be asked for a bribe, La Mordita... the question is how much: anywhere between 1$ to 100$ is the general going price. I knew that the official total coast is 42$... but in my mind, 50-60$ and I would get out of it relatively easy.

I knew when I got to the customs office that I was in trouble: the guy in charge was the stereotype of corruption, big, sweaty, overweight, greasy, and with a face that hasn't seen a smile in 10 years. The deal was this, offical price will take 3 days... for 100$ it'll take 20 minutes. I explained to him that I didn't mind waiting for 3 days, since I had camping gear in the truck and was ready to sleep in front of the office if needed. We then settled on a 8$ bribe for 4 hours of work... (2 of these hours where actually his lunch break, where nothing would stop him from indulging in eating an entire cow).

After jumping through loops, running after photocopies, arguing and negotiating bribes, I finally made it out of dodge, only to be turned around 300 meters later by somekind of unofficial official that told me I was missing 1 photocopy!!

And then then fun began!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's how I prepared to avoind bribing the 11 police roadblcoks that mine the 130km of higway between Honduras and Nicaragua:

What is needed:

2 safety-emergency triangles
1 fire extinguiser
1 reflexive stripe in the back of the truck
All seatbelts buckled
1$ bills, around 5 of them, tucked in pockets... and hide any big bills...
A smile, a luagh, and stay cool, nowmather what!!

Here's what hapenned!!!!!

I got stopped 11 times by the police!

First roadblock the young officer asked for my triangles and fire extinguisher which I gave with a big smile. HE WASN'T SMILING!!! He then started to call me "Puta" which means, lady of the night with loose morals!! After 10 times of putas, he then asked me money for a softdrink, and after making a show of showing him I had nothing, he angrely asked me to keep going.

500 meters around the bend, another roadblock, this time asking for an offical custom list of everything I had in the truck... which obvioulsly I didn't have!!! He told me it would be 100$. I told him ok, I want the offical ticket, and I'll pay at the bank. He dropped it to 20@, I said ok, but that I wanted and official ticket, and wanted to pay it at the bank... He dropped it to 5$... well you get the drift here. At the end I paid nothing... the police yelled a me, called me a paysano (derogatory term for someone of low class) and I kept driving to the next one...

The game went on and on, and in a total of 11 roadblocks, I only paid a bribe of 1$, and that was for the honesty of the police, who smiled at me, told me he didn't care for my offcial papers, and needed money for diesel for his truck... and I paid a dollar with a smile...

I must say I was nervous before the crossing of Honduras, having heard of horror stories going from 100-1000$ bribes. In the end it cost me 10$ in Morditas... which is not too bad!!

But the experience would have been much more stressful and painful if it wasn't for my travelling companions: Jean-Benoit, Braydon and Simon, with whom every roadblock became a rnning gag, where we were cheering after each one, where we were taking bets on the next ones, and with whom I lived the most corrupt stretch of highway in the world!!

La Mordita... jus a little nibble for me!!

Cheers and please send some news wherever yous are!!!

And don't forget to look at the pics at www.transamericatrek.org