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busted

I just don't understand how everyday can dish out something better than before. we hop the 20 hour bus back to BA and around 9am, 2 hours outside the city, we realize we're stopped for not just a long time, but a really long time. a few guards come on the bus - they're spot-checking bags (including ours) and have brought a drug-sniffing dog on board. the bus is going nowhere so after about an hour, people start getting off to see what's up.

all I can see is a guard house, a bunch of guards standing around (must be union) and what looks like a dis-assembled table in front of the guard house.

another hour goes by and we start to understand that someone on our bus is getting busted for posession. another guard shows up with a keyboard & cables. for real? this station doesn't even have a complete computer to book the guy? now that the 'puter parts have arrived, we figure this'll wrap up soon, but not so. they also have a hammer and chisel and actually that's not a disassembled table but a bed frame. and that's really not a bed frame, but a ruse and a way to (hopefully) smuggle 30 kilos of pot.

riiiiiiight. the gurads start chiseling away the top veneer to reveal bag after bag. we're moving in with cameras but they wave us back. they keep chiseling for the next 3 hours. after the second hour, the guards are as excited as we are, it's hot, we've all been standing in the sun forever and so we make some-what friends with them. we get to move in closer, hang out in the shade with them, sniff the wood (its seeped in the peety smell) and the photo taking picks up again.

meanwhile, the dude that's been busted is sitting in a chair, cuffed, with a t-shirt over his head. crazy that while we're goofing around, his life is toast. in all, they IDd 172 items (from bags to pieces of the bed frame). they were going to book him outside (sweet!) but thought better of it and moved the party inside (awwwww). but we asked to use their bathroom and to get to it, we walked withing 10 ft of the guy. that was intense.

in one of my dimmer moments....well, I pocketed a piece of the bedframe to save for collages. I had a bigger one in my hand and a guard said not to take it cause the smell was still there and would trigger a drug dog if it was in my bag. OK, so I dropped the big piece but the other one is so small...well we find the drug dog sleeping and I decide this is a perfect time to test if he can smell it or not (plus its a good photo op - me-n-the dog). I hold out the wood, whoops, the dog has slack in his leash. I step back while he steps forward. petros, you got the photo yet? the dog is definitely sniffing...maybe getting a little excited. then WOOF, he lunges at me, I freak out, back step, slip, fall on my bum, is there any more slack in that leash?? I'm on the ground, shaking, but not biten.

well, of course this gets the guards to come looking. I don't want them to know exactly what I was doing so I motion that I was just trying to pet him. the guard says "he doesn't know you". with the guard there, the dog turns into a puppy, but if you look close, he's got the biggest canine teeth I've ever seen. as petros asked, "would you pet a drug dog in your own country? then why would you in south america?" idiot (he didn't say the idiot part). like I say, not my finest moment, but anything for a photo....

so 6 hours later, they finally book the guy, take statements from the bus drivers (I think that's why we had to stick around) and we get back on the road to BA. I'm seriously afraid to top this but man, that is the best souvenir from south america - a gen-u-ine drug bust!

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