Jim and Elena Buie are friends of ours from Wilmington, N.C. Great folks!! It was a pleasure to have them as guests. We ate, toured and soaked in hot springs while they were here. It was a good time, for sure, for sure!! Anyway, I emailed them on Sunday morning to make sure they got back to Tarboro all right. Thankfully they did, but the adventures did not end when they got on the plane. Any of you out there who travel to any extent, especially by air, then you know the trip isn't over until you are in the house, unpacked, and kicked back in your own space. Let me interject that she speaks Spanish and he speaks English, so when they got married, each had to learn the others language.
So, his reply back to me is the story which follows:
Arnie, I didn't mean to write a short story but it is almost comical to re-hash the events of last night. So get a cup of coffee and enjoy…
Thanks for checking on us--as it seems like always; nothing went according to plan. They put on that damn bus and we had to wait for all the slowpokes. Since we boarded the bus first, we were last off. Several international flights arrived at the same and there were a ton of people waiting to clear immigration. Many people didn't/couldn't read the signs and the citizen lines were bogged down with people having to fill out forms and process visas and such. I didn't declare any food because all we had was some of the cookies from El Salvador. I thought that if it was cooked or packaged, it was OK. When the agent asked us if we had anything to eat, we said just some sweets--you would have thought we were cocaine smugglers. She said you have to declare anything eatable! She wrote "FOOD!" on our form and let us go. By the time we got to luggage claim, most of it had been claimed. Then we couldn't find one of our suitcases. We waited and waited and then the belt stopped and I thought they had lost it--but being the savvy person that Elena is, she said, "wait here," and darted like a rabbit looking at other luggage that people had claimed. Sure enough, one of the passengers had it and Elena just grabbed it! The lady said, "That's mine!" but Elena just ignored her and we finally got out of baggage claim.
I had forgotten that we had been labeled food smugglers and we waited in line until we got to the exit. Then agent gruffly said, "You have to pass through agriculture inspection!" We go wait in line there and then the agent calls us forward. We show him the cookies and a bag of chips he says, "No problem--do you have any other food?" Elena pulls out a package wrapped in plastic that looks like a ham and both the agent and I hear "Salami!" I was not aware of any other food so I had not declared it! I got upset with Elena and told her she should have let me know she had meat with her--in that moment, I thought she had bought something from the market with Dennis the night before or you guys had given her a gift of local meat of some kind. In the mean time, the agent had pulled out a huge knife and was slicing the wrapping and jabbing it with the point of the knife. I was fuming mad with Elena because these people mean business and we could have been fined or held up. By this time it is around 10:00pm, we're tired, and I am not thinking straight--we had been in Washington over 2 hours and we were still at the airport. My plan had been to be on the road by 8:30 pm and no later than 9:00--I am a naive country boy! Then it dawned on me--Elena had said "Ceramic!" I never the saw the way the lady package the piece of pottery that Elena bought on the way to Arenal and it really looked like a ham or a piece of wrapped meat. I told the agent it was a Ceramic piece and he said, I thought she said, "Salami." I said, "Me too!" I asked Elena why she had given him the pottery when all he asked was if we had any more food. She said she had been nervous and misunderstood. Then I felt bad for getting upset; but the "Salami" thing was a surprise and it held us up for another 15 minutes.
Then we get to the transportation area at last but we didn't have our cell phones with us--I thought the hotel would have a courtesy phone to call for the shuttle. I asked Elena for coins and she gave me all she had. I called the hotel and got the wrong Fairfield--I used the last of our change but got it right the second time and they picked us up. We pulled out of the hotel parking lot at 10:30 pm. There is a toll road that we had to take from the airport and I got a dollar from Elena to pay the toll--it was exact change only and we had spent all of our coins on telephone calls! With no other options, I ran the damn light and we'll deal with that tomorrow. Stopped for gas and a cup of coffee and we got home around 2:15 am. The drive home was not bad and we may have gotten home an hour later but I am not sorry that we flew out of Washington--it was just another adventure!
I had just gotten out of bed and sat down to send you a message when I got yours--so yes, we are home safely! We are the ones who owe you guys the thanks!! Putting us up, feeding us, taking the time to be our guide and taxi, the meal at Café Mundo, the trip to Arenal, the wine, the smoke, the hot springs, the gifts--it just couldn't have been any better!
We appreciate your hospitality and you are welcome at our home any time!
Jim & Elena
Thanks for checking on us--as it seems like always; nothing went according to plan. They put on that damn bus and we had to wait for all the slowpokes. Since we boarded the bus first, we were last off. Several international flights arrived at the same and there were a ton of people waiting to clear immigration. Many people didn't/couldn't read the signs and the citizen lines were bogged down with people having to fill out forms and process visas and such. I didn't declare any food because all we had was some of the cookies from El Salvador. I thought that if it was cooked or packaged, it was OK. When the agent asked us if we had anything to eat, we said just some sweets--you would have thought we were cocaine smugglers. She said you have to declare anything eatable! She wrote "FOOD!" on our form and let us go. By the time we got to luggage claim, most of it had been claimed. Then we couldn't find one of our suitcases. We waited and waited and then the belt stopped and I thought they had lost it--but being the savvy person that Elena is, she said, "wait here," and darted like a rabbit looking at other luggage that people had claimed. Sure enough, one of the passengers had it and Elena just grabbed it! The lady said, "That's mine!" but Elena just ignored her and we finally got out of baggage claim.
I had forgotten that we had been labeled food smugglers and we waited in line until we got to the exit. Then agent gruffly said, "You have to pass through agriculture inspection!" We go wait in line there and then the agent calls us forward. We show him the cookies and a bag of chips he says, "No problem--do you have any other food?" Elena pulls out a package wrapped in plastic that looks like a ham and both the agent and I hear "Salami!" I was not aware of any other food so I had not declared it! I got upset with Elena and told her she should have let me know she had meat with her--in that moment, I thought she had bought something from the market with Dennis the night before or you guys had given her a gift of local meat of some kind. In the mean time, the agent had pulled out a huge knife and was slicing the wrapping and jabbing it with the point of the knife. I was fuming mad with Elena because these people mean business and we could have been fined or held up. By this time it is around 10:00pm, we're tired, and I am not thinking straight--we had been in Washington over 2 hours and we were still at the airport. My plan had been to be on the road by 8:30 pm and no later than 9:00--I am a naive country boy! Then it dawned on me--Elena had said "Ceramic!" I never the saw the way the lady package the piece of pottery that Elena bought on the way to Arenal and it really looked like a ham or a piece of wrapped meat. I told the agent it was a Ceramic piece and he said, I thought she said, "Salami." I said, "Me too!" I asked Elena why she had given him the pottery when all he asked was if we had any more food. She said she had been nervous and misunderstood. Then I felt bad for getting upset; but the "Salami" thing was a surprise and it held us up for another 15 minutes.
Then we get to the transportation area at last but we didn't have our cell phones with us--I thought the hotel would have a courtesy phone to call for the shuttle. I asked Elena for coins and she gave me all she had. I called the hotel and got the wrong Fairfield--I used the last of our change but got it right the second time and they picked us up. We pulled out of the hotel parking lot at 10:30 pm. There is a toll road that we had to take from the airport and I got a dollar from Elena to pay the toll--it was exact change only and we had spent all of our coins on telephone calls! With no other options, I ran the damn light and we'll deal with that tomorrow. Stopped for gas and a cup of coffee and we got home around 2:15 am. The drive home was not bad and we may have gotten home an hour later but I am not sorry that we flew out of Washington--it was just another adventure!
I had just gotten out of bed and sat down to send you a message when I got yours--so yes, we are home safely! We are the ones who owe you guys the thanks!! Putting us up, feeding us, taking the time to be our guide and taxi, the meal at Café Mundo, the trip to Arenal, the wine, the smoke, the hot springs, the gifts--it just couldn't have been any better!
We appreciate your hospitality and you are welcome at our home any time!
Jim & Elena
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