el crispito

Before our acquisition of Larry's camera, which is much more efficient in its battery usage, the camera we used on trips was a nearly 10-year-old digital Kodak camera that consumed AA batteries like you would not believe. If we were out for an day of sightseeing, it was not uncommon for us to have to swap out the four batteries it uses three times during the afternoon, maybe four if the excursion continued into the night and required use of the flash. For this reason, we usually traveled with around 20 rechargeable nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries in our luggage. We (used to) carry some in the camera case, others in a carry-on bag, and the majority in a checked bag.

It should be noted that security checks in Mexico are a lot more polite and a lot less intrusive than in the United States, with the people inspecting the bags doing it in plain view of the owner and explaining what they are about to do before doing it. Sometimes they even ask your permission, although I suspect they do not expect anyone to deny them permission to do what they plan on doing. When you are used to the standard, courteous treatment normally offered at Mexican airport secutiry, it is shocking to suddenly be treated like a criminal suspect. All of a sudden, you feel like you are going through security in the United States.

A few months ago, Shawn and I were returning to Guadalajara from one of our brief vacations in Mexico City. We were stopped at security in the Toluca airport and asked if they could examine our bags. They seemed to take issue with a clear plastic bag of AA nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries that we had in our carry-on for use with the old energy-guzzler.

They asked us why we needed so many batteries and I explained it to them as best I could in my mediocre Spanish. They told us that we would be allowed only the ones in devices and another four, because, "batteries can explode from the pressure changes resulting in changing altitude." I did not argue that they would be in the pressurized cabin area; if they did not already understand that, my explaining it would make little difference.

I asked why this was the first we'd heard of this restriction, since we had not been hassled about the same bag of batteries on our flight from Guadalajara to Toluca. The guard answered with the following, and even after living in Mexico for two years, I am still having a hard time getting over this one: every airport in Mexico has its own distinct set of regulations for what they will allow through security checkpoints.

I stopped myself before commenting that this seemed ridiculously inconsistent, because inconsistency is universal in Mexico. Instead, I asked how a person was supposed to keep track of the different regulations for the republic's some 130 civil airports. I was informed that supposedly every airport has an office where one can get a listing of disallowed items for all of the country's airports.

I was still skeptical about this regulation, having never heard of batteries being a problem before. I gently suggested my suspicion that someone in security needed some AA batteries, and I asked for proof that they would be destroyed and not just given away to someone for their own personal use. I was told that I could return to the airport and file a form to receive such documentation at a later date. Of course!

(By the way, every time I tell a person that lives in Mexico this story, they respond at this point with the exact same thing: "No, they weren't destroyed. Someone needed some AA batteries, and they took yours home.")

Since they would not let us pass with all our batteries, Shawn removed five from the bag of about twelve, and played dumb, like he didn't understand that he was supposed to have only four remaining. That seemed to satisfy them. They let us board the plane with the remaining seven. The letter of the law is not that important in Mexico, and at least this time, that worked in our favor.

A couple of weeks ago, we flew out of Guadalajara to Panama City. Our experience of losing about USD $20 worth of batteries in Toluca led us to pack all our NiMH AA batteries in one of our suitcases.

At the Guadalajara International Airport, they do not x-ray bags, they check them by hand before you check-in. The attendant checking the bags pulled out our bag of 20+ batteries and asked if we really needed all of them. I said yes, as I was not about to throw away another USD $60 in rechargeable batteries. She called over a supervisor who explained that we could not have all those batteries in one place. Luckily, upon our asking, they said it would be okay if we divided the batteries between us. Apparently, in contrast to the regulations in the Toluca airport, it is not okay to carry batteries, or at least not so many all in one place, in checked luggage either, at least not when flying out of the Guadalajara airport.

I suspect that this is based on wild tales of lithium batteries spontaneously bursting into flame, but it might merely be a misinterpretation of the 2004 Office of Aviation Research report. In any case, it does not seem that air safety administrations and security personnel around the world are not being educated as to the difference between various types of batteries, like alkaline, nickel metal hydride, and lithium ion.

It doesn't seem like I am the only one to encounter this problem, as another world traveler notes in his blog.