I flew to Dallas and spent a fairly long layover exploring the airport, reading and brushing up on my Spanish with Duolingo, an online language program. I met Bette's plane and we flew together to Guatemala. Our departure was delayed due to an amazing mix of passengers. There was a group of about 30 middle aged French speaking passengers, and the airline officials had to check each of their passports. None of them seemed to speak Spanish, so it was a slow process. Next, there were about 15 young adults in wheelchairs traveling as a group, perhaps going to a wheelchair sports event as they looked very fit. Finally, there was a woman who was obviously ill who was taken on to the plane with an entourage of medical people and a stretcher full of medical equipment. By the time everyone was settled and regular boarding began our flight was an hour late.
Everything went well, but after we had landed and gone through customs, it became apparent that there had been a tightening of security. Very few people were being waved through without bag inspection. Usually, Bette and I manage to get waved through and out the door by positioning ourselves behind some large family or suspicious looking group without having our luggage inspected or X-rayed. What we're carrying is perfectly legal, but a "thorough" inspector might decide to check every bottle of pills, detaining us for hours. Tonight we got shuttled into the X-ray lane, and both of our big bags, the ones filled with bottles of pills, were pulled out to be checked. Luckily, I had my "letter of invitation" from Luis and my letters from the MAP international who supply the medications. The customs official who had been busily digging around among the medications, took one look at these magic documents, pulled his hands out of my suitcase, zipped it up, thanked us, and loaded the bags back on our cart! Luis' letter is very official with lots of government stamps and is full of flowery language about the good works we are doing for the poor of the country. It begs for the assistance of the kind officials in this blessed service to Guatemala. It did the trick. Tomorrow we're off to San Marcos.
Everything went well, but after we had landed and gone through customs, it became apparent that there had been a tightening of security. Very few people were being waved through without bag inspection. Usually, Bette and I manage to get waved through and out the door by positioning ourselves behind some large family or suspicious looking group without having our luggage inspected or X-rayed. What we're carrying is perfectly legal, but a "thorough" inspector might decide to check every bottle of pills, detaining us for hours. Tonight we got shuttled into the X-ray lane, and both of our big bags, the ones filled with bottles of pills, were pulled out to be checked. Luckily, I had my "letter of invitation" from Luis and my letters from the MAP international who supply the medications. The customs official who had been busily digging around among the medications, took one look at these magic documents, pulled his hands out of my suitcase, zipped it up, thanked us, and loaded the bags back on our cart! Luis' letter is very official with lots of government stamps and is full of flowery language about the good works we are doing for the poor of the country. It begs for the assistance of the kind officials in this blessed service to Guatemala. It did the trick. Tomorrow we're off to San Marcos.
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