Traveling to any country is always an exciting opportunity for discovery and learning. This is a lesson well learned when traveling to a foreign country, especially when the country is so completely different both socially and economically than the one from which you've come. I had left Miami on a warm October day bound for San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This was my first taste of Central America in over 10 years, having last traveled to Costa Rica, and briefly into Nicaragua before the fall of the Sandinistas. From the air the sights seemed familiar; dense lush jungle, banana plantations, and rising rugged mountains. I was coming for a ten day visit with my Mother, herself back in C. America after nearly 20 years, when she had visited my brother and his family in Panama for the birth of her first grandchild. Incredibly my Mom had realized a long held wish to join the Peace Corp and was now experiencing a goal she held steadfastly to since Kennedy's call almost 40 years earlier, a fact that brought great pride to me as I neared my destination.
Arriving in a third world country for anyone who has never experienced one can be a bit nerve wracking, boy soldiers slinging automatic weapons which often times are nearly as tall as them. Suspicious looks, and antiquated security measures are the norm; things were no different on this trip as I neared "customs". I knew my bags were in for a "housecleaning" and sure enough I was greeted by an obviously under worked and overly bored x-ray machine operator who stopped and started the conveyor belt feeding my bag into the monstrous machine over and over again. Finally he ordered me over "venga aqui", I grabbed my bag and carried it to the designated search area, where upon he and I then aroused the 3 "boy soldiers" as he neatly unpacked my bag of clothing, books, and the numerous food provisions I had the fore thought to pack for my Mom. They appeared amused to see such exotic items as sardines, clams, salmon and white tuna. I also carried with me things a son thinks his Mother needs, as if I were now the worried parent of my child going off to summer camp--- insect repellants, candles, aspirin, toothpaste, soap and various other sundries that now seem almost funny, but at the time not knowing what her situation was seemed necessary.
Of course my "inspectors" were having more fun with me than they probably had all day, curiously inspecting the country of origin on all food stuff items, each time a suspect item was uncovered they would produce the "list" and check it off against the banned countries listed. Banned for what I never found out, one thing I do know now is that if anything you are carrying does not say it was caught, killed or packaged in the U.S., it's most probably banned. Case in point: clams: origin, Thailand, no matter that they cleared the FDA as acceptable, they are not safe in the Republic of Honduras. Tuna, caught in the fertile waters of Chile-- unacceptable amounts of "mercury", hmm...shouldn't these astute customs officials be sharing this information with the USFDA? Eventually after my entire luggage had been emptied onto the table and the offending items separated, after which I was allowed to repack my bag, and was lead to a Quarantine area where I was asked to wait for a quarantine official. An English speaking gentleman came out and introduced himself and began to explain my infractions, which at this time worried me less than the fact that I had been delayed by over an hour and was worried my Mother might think I had missed my plane. I explained to the man that though I was quite disapointed that he was confiscating perfectly good edible food which was intended for my "starving" Mother, I did understand and just wanted to move on, he offered that he would destroy the items in my presence so that I would know that weren't merely kept by the officials. I commented that it wasn't necessary, and on the contrary I hoped he would keep the items, and enjoy them, telling him that with all due respect, if these items are acceptable for human consumption in the states, it was probably a safe bet to eat them here also. He thanked me, and finally I was waved through. I walked through into the thick humidity laden air, and immediately was able to pick out my Mother's smile, she looked fit and tan, and it was good to just hug her. I was in Hondo now, and the next ten days had me excited for what was yet to come.
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