It was in between meetings, we had just finished our staff meeting and now there was a worship time with the students, that I talked with Sergio about our need to head into town right now. We had arranged to meet the real owner today at 11 am yet still needed to check if the bike had been used as collateral on any loan before we could sign the documents. If we did not do it, we could be walking into a huge trap.


Sergio asking for directions

We left the meeting and rang the owner once more. He was fine with the arrangements. After grabbing one of our needed documents from the Internet, we jumped in the car and headed for our other debt check. We had no idea how to find the place, which turned out to be somebody's home, but once again through the helpful use of older people we found our way through the city to the other side and finally to the house we needed to be in.


The house we were looking for.

Free of Debt, Check Number 2
The lady greeted us in a very friendly manner and then told us that we could not check if the bike was free from any loans until the 24th of this month. That was 10 days away, and we needed to sign the papers in a little over one hour. We explained our dilemma to the lady and she kindly agreed to go through the process for us now because of our unique situation. We were ever so grateful.


Sergio filling out the triplicate forms.

It took almost the entire hour to complete, and included a walk down to the local photocopier place for three copies of the application form which then all needed to be filled in by hand, waiting for a very slow computer, and then signing and checking a further two forms and a book for the records. The photocopying cost $0.30, the "Libre Prenda" that we were asking for, $7.00, and we were done.

Local Cemetery
We also found the local cemetery near the photocopier's. It was filled with what looked like city multi-story parking lots but turned out to be multi-storied burial plots instead. The whole area that we were in had a dangerous feel to it, even though there were some very rich looking houses. Later, as we headed out, we saw an extremely poor section of town separated from here only by a football field.


Local cemetery burial plots in multi-stories.

Officially Changing Names
By the time we had finished our paperwork for the loan, and discovered that the bike was completely free of any debt in this area, it was time to meet the real owner. We arrived at the "Escribano" office with sufficient time to explain that even though I was buying the motorbike, it was all going to be in Sergio's name. With that explained I left Sergio in the office to do the paperwork and went for a walk through the local area.

One of my main reasons for walking through the local area was to avoid any profiteering that the owner may have tried just because I was a foreigner. As it turned out he was an honest man and there was no problems at all, but this sort of thing tends to be a little too common here in Corrientes.

With the paperwork completed, it was time to pick up my motorbike, and when we arrived the man was surprised that we had been able to achieve so much within a couple of days. He let us into the house and prepared the bike to give to me, repeating again his side of the story.


Back at the seller's home.

I Don't Want To Sell
When he came by our property the other day, he had no intentions of selling the bike. Nor did he intend to be in our area so long either. In searching for a friend in the area, he could not find their house and so rode around and around the area looking for it. He even stopped and asked where a telephone may be but there did not seem to be any working at the time.

It was at this point that he pulled up alongside our property to ask directions from one of the guys working there. Oscar saw the bike and knew that this was what I wanted, so asked him if he wanted to sell. He said no. He had no intention of selling the bike. Oscar probed again, asking if he had any plans to sell the bike at some point. Again he replied that he had no intentions to sell it.

When Oscar asked him again, he thought about a project that he wanted to finish on his house and replied that if somebody would pay him a sufficient number of pesos for the bike then he would be happy to sell it. That sufficient number just happened to be the amount he needed to finish this project on his house. He told us, I accepted, and now here we were in his house, ready to receive the bike.

Sealing the Purchase
Before we took the bike however, we wanted to be sure that all of the paperwork would be sufficient to cover us under all circumstances. So rather than handwriting a receipt, all three of us piled into the car and headed over to the "Escribano" once more to get the paperwork sorted out. An "Escribano" is somewhere between a Justice of the Peace and a Solicitor, with the powers of both.


Finishing the paperwork and sealing the deal.

Once the paperwork was sorted and mostly signed with only a few more signatures to happen tomorrow, and the money had changed hands, it was time to head back to the man's house and pick up my new second-hand antique motorbike scooter.

Receiving the Bike
We returned to his house and received a quick run-down on how to use the Siambretta and some of the intricacies of an old bike like that, and then shook hands and pushed the bike outside. Just before I took off, I remembered that he had promised me a helmet too.

He called me into the back area of his house once more, and showed me three "helmets" that I could choose from. One was a construction worker's helmet. Another was something like a canoeist's helmet. The last one was a red, full-face helmet just like the one I had seen when I was praying for the bike. The helmet was old but still workable, and was the only serious choice.


My new old bike and red helmet. Not as sexy as the other photo.

I had everything now. My bike was complete. Jumping on the old beast, I fired it up and was ready to go. After not driving nor riding for over two years, this was going to be my first real ride, and I was really looking forward to it too.

The rest was now only paperwork. The bike was now mine. Yippee.