Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

We had several blog entries so far describing how complicating and stressful it can be to cross borders in Central America. I don’t even know why we feel that they are so stressful, because technically, other than getting shot, the worst case scenario is that we have to turn around and try it some other day.  So far I have never heard of a traveler who wasn’t allowed into any of the counties in Central America. I also haven’t heard of anyone getting shot. Despite knowing this, they are still a pain.

 

I have crossed many borders in my life and up until now they have always been very similar. You get to border and have to deal a recognizable, uniformed, mostly (at least in the US) mean looking customs officers. He or she asks you a couple of questions and you are good to go. Not in Central America. In Central America the borders look more like market places. Usually there is one main building and hundreds of people around it doing their thing. They don’t even have flags of the country and no signs telling you that you are leaving or entering. However you know instantly that you are at the border when swarms of people surround your car and want to offer their services, sell all kinds of stuff (water, food, hats, cell phone covers, calculators, jewelry and who knows what else) or just beg for money or food. While Allison is the one who has to deal with the customs officials it is my job to deal with the crowd and also try to keep our children happy.

 

With only one exception we never found a place in the shade and the temperature has always been in the 90s. It’s always the same spiel: we find a place to park the car and Allison takes all of our documents and disappears somewhere. I never have any idea where she goes, what building she is in, how long it will take or what she is doing. I just hope that she will return within the hour with a smile on her face, because a smile means we are usually good to go.  I am amazed by how organized she is with all the paperwork.  Every time we are asked to show any form or permit it seems that she always has it ready and picks the correct one. I have no idea what all the forms are.

 

As soon as Allison leaves the car to deal with customs half of the people surrounding us follow her and I have some room to breathe.  However it doesn’t take long before they return to the car because they realize that Allison seems to know what she is doing.  At the first few border crossings I didn’t want to leave the car at all, because it holds all of our belongings and it just doesn’t seem safe. Since it is so hot we have to keep the windows open and people just stand there, lean on the window and into the car with their arms and try to talk to me. To me it seems like total chaos, but I know it isn’t. They all offer their services right away (changing money, assisting you with the papers, selling stuff etc.) and then sometimes even seem to back off, but not very far.  As soon as one of us seems to be in doubt of what to do next, they are right in your face again. And even when we had 1 guy helping us with the paperwork his buddies keep surrounding the car assuring me that we picked the absolute best guy. Allison told me once that she felt bad for me that all I could do at the border was sit around bored and try to entertain the kids while I am waiting for her.  What she doesn’t see is that it is not boring.  It is impossible to become bored here because I’m constantly confronted by new people offering new stuff and I’m amazed at the craft of the con artists. 

 

I have tried all kinds of strategies on how to deal with all these people and none seem to work. At one border I just kept saying “no entiendo” (I don’t understand) – Didn’t work!  They either start speaking English with me as best as they can, or just continue in Spanish.  They are relentless. 

 

At one border there was a little kid who put his chin on my window and was staring at me for at least 20 minutes before he finally gave up and went away. At another border I tried to talk to the people and explain to them that I didn’t need or want anything. At least I was able to practice my Spanish, but they wouldn’t leave me alone.  The worst border however was the one into Honduras. Not only where there about 5 kids who jumped in the car when I had to change Julian’s diaper, there was also a mentally handicapped guy, who kept asking me for money. He kept extending his middle finger.  He wasn’t trying to flip me off, his finger had been cut off half way and he was trying to show me how he was injured.  I told him “no” and he left. Not for long though. He kept coming back, extending his middle finger in my face and asking for food. I had a leftover Burger King cheeseburger and thought that if I gave it to him he’d leave me alone. Bad mistake!! Not only was impossible to get rid of him and his half middle finger, he kept wanting more and others were joining him. A bunch of bus drivers nearby watched him and kept telling him to leave and he at least stepped away form the car, but not out of sight. I felt very uncomfortable, because the guy obviously had a screw loose.   I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do next so I had to make sure to keep the children away from him.

 

Unless there are crazy people at the borders I feel relaxed and don’t only stay in the car with the kids. In El Salvador (the crossing with the 2 Hummer drivers) the kids where playing with the kids of the Hummer drivers for several hours.  At the Nicaragua border we left the car to play with a little girl who was selling water, but I don’t leave the car out of sight and I hope that we don’t have to go to the restroom, because the restrooms at borders are the absolute nastiest I have seen so far.

Tags: Border Crossings, El Salvador, Honduras, Honduras Nicaragua, Nicaragua, Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Honduras Nicaragua, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.