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January 28, 2008
You've got scam!
Today we got a one-ring phone call, and ten minutes later, a text message from the same number. It read:
TELCEL URGENTE
ESTIMADO USARIO EL DIA
DE HOY SE REALIZO EL
PRIMER SORTEO EN APOYO
FUNDACION VAMOS
M E X I C O DONDE SU
LINEATEL SALIO GANADORA
DE UN AUTOMOVIL JETTA
2008 100 MIL PESOS M. N Y
UN TEL. CELULAR PERMISO
DCDSRT. 2241.2008
COMUNIQUESE A
BOLETAZO Al TEL
0456621122563
Basically, for those of you that don't read Spanish, it says that we've won a 2008 Jetta, MXN $100,000.00 and a cell phone. We are instructed to call a number about it; it is a different number than the one making the call.
I always get suspicious when we are told we have won contests, lotteries and raffles that we have not entered. I looked online to see if I could find anything reporting such messages as a scam. I found a blog article that confirmed that it was a estafa. In English, a scam.
Using a web-based form to look up phone numbers, I found that the call originated from number in Hermosillo, as had the one in the scam discussed in the other blog article. I didn't call the number back to find out what I had to do in order to claim those prizes, but I suspect that they would have directed me to phone a certain number that charges per-minute fees (like a 900 number for those of you in the United States), pay out money for "processing" our awards, or require us to buy cards for cellphone airtime and give them the codes listed on the cards (thereby giving them the airtime).
The original blog entry was written in 2004, and a follow up entry indicated that such scams were still going on two years later. I can verify that they are still going on here in Mexico, and without much change in the modus operandi.
The original site gives some tips on avoiding being ripped off by these scams. For our readers who do not speak Spanish, I will give a quick and dirty translation.
- It's unlikely that you are going to win a prize in a contest you did not enter or know about.
- If you are called about a prize, get the name of the company awarding the prize. Look up the number independently (don't take the number from the person offering you the prize on the phone) and call them directly to confirm your being awarded a prize.
- Reject the offer immediately if you have to spend any money to claim the prize.
- Be suspicious if they tell you that you have to call another number to claim your prize. It's probably a number where you are charged per-minute, and the per-minute charge can be ridiculously high.
- Report such calls or text messages. The second article says one can contact La Dirección General Adjunta de Juegos y Sorteos de la Secretaría de Gobernación to report them at this toll-free number: 01 800 005 8346 or this email address: denunciajys@segob.gob.mx.
- Do not be intimidated. These are crooks who will lie and tell you that they are important people in big companies in order to impress you. Be suspicious!
- Warn your friends and family members about these scams. Tell minors to never give out personal information to people they do not know over the phone or the Internet.
- Don't forget that you can get scammed in other ways too, not just by telephone. You can be scammed by email, visits to your home or postal mail too.
- Use common sense. Nobody gives things away for free.
It's too bad though. I wouldn't mind having a Jetta.
Posted by crispy at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2008
Turndown Service
Results of Turndown Service, Sheraton María Ísabel
Not all hotels do it, and among those that do, there is no consistent set of things that comprise it. Often it involves leaving a chocolate or some other little token on the turned-down linens. Also common is changing out towels that the guest might have used during the day. On occasion, I've had a hotel staff member just ask if everything is working properly, if we need anything restocked in the minibar, or if there is anything else we might want before bed.
If you have never heard of turndown service before, it's not a big surprise. Not all hotels do it. In fact, not very many seem to nowadays. Shawn had never heard of it until he went to Thailand seven years ago. Nowadays we only tend to get it when we stay at Starwood properties, and even then, it's ridiculously inconsistent.
For example, in our recent stay in Mexico City, at the Sheraton María Ísabel, we got turndown service on our second night there, but not the first. Even then, it wasn't much of a service. They didn't even turn down the linens. They moved the remote control for the tv and the guide listing which channels were which to the bed, and left us a solitary foil-wrapped chocolate. This is what confuses me: they know that there are two of us in the room, so why leave us just one chocolate? Starwood hotels are not exactly what one would call economy lodging. Can't they afford one chocolate per guest, not just one per room?
Solitary Chocolate, Sheraton María Ísabel
To me, it seems like if you are going to bother with turndown service, you ought to do it right. Why go through the trouble just to do something lame like leave a chocolate that people have to fight over. At least leave a knife so the two guests can cut it into halves. If I were running a hotel, I'd offer much more interesting turndown service. Maybe like the carts they have in prisons and hospitals, I'd go around with DVDs or books people could enjoy before turning in for the night. Heck, since it's my fantasy, I'll even throw in the option to have a story read to you if you want. You could also provide a short massage for those that were so inclined. Of course, if it was a big hotel, you'd have to have a fleet of massage therapists, and even then, you'd probably want to schedule each person's at a specific time.
I have also read that some places leave an aperetif on the nightstand in their turndown service. I don't tend to like apertifs, so I'd probably offer a fifth of bourbon and, since I'd have to be living and working where folks were not so uptight about drugs, a couple of valium or vicodin, delivered by a geisha that would also give you a good-night haiku.
So if you could design your own ideal turndown service, what would it include?
Posted by crispy at 09:45 PM | Comments (1)
January 25, 2008
$#¡†load
There is a fascinating discussion going on at the WordReference Forums for Spanish/English General Vocabulary about the proper way to translate a popular vulgar expression for "a whole lot."
Thus far, the discussion continues for five pages. It is a great example to show how some translations better match the tone of their source material than others.
For example, montón, which is literally a 'heap' or 'pile,' conveys the meaning, and is what Spanish speakers would most likely say to express "a whole lot." However, un chingomadral is much better at getting across the feeling of the original English expression.
It is probably only a fun read for those who speak a little Spanish, and it's not recommended for those who might be offended by what my mother would call 'potty talk.'
Posted by crispy at 09:41 PM | Comments (3)
Mexico City By Night: Part Two
Twilight view from 10th floor of Sheraton María Ísabel, Mexico City
We switched hotels today and got a new view.
Twilight view of the Angel of Independence from 10th floor of Sheraton María Ísabel, Mexico City
Posted by crispy at 06:19 PM | Comments (1)
Mexico City By Night
Sunset view from 16th floor of the Sheraton Centro Histórico, Mexico City
Shawn and I went to PapaBeto Jazz Bistro last night, where we saw the Juan Alzate Cuarteto. They said the cover was MXN $80, but we ordered food, and it seemed that we were not charged this. Their one vegetarian entree was spaghetti with a tomato sauce with tons of mushrooms, so despite the fact that I despise mushrooms, that's what I got. After picking them out and donating them to Shawn, it turned out to be pretty tasty.
Yet it is obvious that you don't go there for the food. The space is pretty small, the color scheme hideous (maroon, pink, grey and green), and I've seen better bars on airplanes. Still, given the fact that it's the only place yet I've been to see jazz in this country where they don't use an electronic something (synthesizer in place of piano, a drum machine instead of a drummer), I was thrilled to kick back, throw down a few Jack Daniels (at around MXN $70 each), and enjoy the show.
Sunset view from 16th floor of the Sheraton Centro Histórico, Mexico City
I was pretty impressed with the piano player, Nicolas Santella. He was both cute and talented.
Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, so I did not get any photos of him. That also kept me from snapping shots of the smorgasbord of hooker ladies lining the street we took getting back to the hotel. There was no effort being made at all to look discreet. They were clad in such stuff as white leather miniskirts, tube tops and huge cha cha heels. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
I must sign off for now, as we need to check out of the Sheraton Centro Histórico and move over to the Sheraton María Ísabel, the grand dame on the Paseo de la Reforma, which our taxi driver told us yesterday was the first five-star hotel in Mexico City. Maybe that's true.
Posted by crispy at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Panama: Parting Thoughts
Now that we are back safe and sound in Guadalajara, I have time to post a few random thoughts about Panama that are too small or not funny enough to merit individual entries.
It should be noted that we did not venture beyond Panama City except when we went to Colón, the port city on the Atlantic side that is the destination of the Panama City Railway. I might post an entry about Colón, because it is probably the most dangerous city that I've ever been in, and it might prove helpful for those planning to take the train to know about it. We highly recommend the train trip, but the several hours that one must pass in Colón if one takes it (unless it's part of a tour package) might be enough to recommend against it. Note that it takes a lot for me to recommend not taking a train whenever possible. Colón is that bad.
Yet that experience aside, our time in Panama was limited to the captial, and there is a lot of beautiful country to visit outside the city. We prefer the amenities that cities provide, so we tend to stick to urban centers when we travel. Panama City did not disappoint. It is vibrant and exciting, rich with history and a very promising future. Shawn and I both expect it to become one of the world's premier destination cities within the next decade, and it is impossible to ignore the growing pains they are currently having along the way. They have gone from a city whose main reason to exist was to support the canal and the people servicing the canal to a city where people flock to enjoy the gambling, food, beaches, nightlife, retirement opportunities. They have not been able to grow fast enough to meet the demand, but it is not for a lack of trying.
According to our driver Roger, the Ministry of Tourism in Panama has been trying to educate service personnel on how to deal properly with foreign tourists. Unfortunately, employers do not want to allow the employees the time off to attend such training, nor do they want to pay for it, even though the Ministry of Tourism pays for half. Unfortunately, it shows in the level of service one receives at the restaurants and hotels there. Most of our complaints are about a phenomenon that we started to refer to as: This is what you want. This is what you get. You ask for one thing and you get what the service provider decides to give you.
Among our complaints about Panama are some of the following. The majority are about restaurant service.
Restaurants are often out of or do not really offer items they have on their menus, and servers do not seem to know about it.
Shawn and I had several experiences in restaurants in Panama where we would order something on menu only to be told a considerable while later that they did not have it. I believe that sometimes they had run out, but at other times, I think they just never stocked those items. As vegetarians, we order things that people never order otherwise in these meat-centric countries. It is amazing how frequently the things kitchens happen to have "just run out of" are the vegetarian items.
In one case, Shawn ordered a falafel sandwich from the menu. When it arrived, some 25 minutes later, it was a chicken sandwich. He called the waitress over to tell her, and she confirmed that he had ordered falafel. He opened it up to show her that it was chicken, and she just stared at him. We told her that we were vegetarians and could not eat pollo, and she silently picked it up and took it back to the kitchen. She returned a couple of minutes later explaining that there was no falafel; she offered no apology and no offer of anything else.
Servers that suck.
On another occasion, Shawn and I ordered the ravioli at a restaurant. The waiter came out after a while and told us that they did not have ravioli. At least he told us this before bringing us whatever the cook decided to serve us instead. He asked us if we would prefer to get spaghetti or fettucini in the sauce we had selected. Shawn asked for spaghetti and I asked for fettucini. When the food arrived, we both had spaghetti.
I would like to say here that we did have notable exceptions to this complaint, with excellent servers at Manolo's Cafe, the Four Points hotel restaurant and S'cena. However, Panama has a reputation for really bad service, and our experience generally supported that finding.
In general, Panamanians are not very friendly.
This was inconsistent, and we met a few people that were exceptionally friendly, nice and helpful. Yet on the whole, the people there do not seem very friendly. They are not mean nor rude. They just are not very friendly. It is hard to win a smile from Panamanians.
Almost any time that we would say thanks (or in most cases, "gracias"), people would not acknowledge it. Often when they did, it was with an "Okay." It seems the more educado of the people there would say the equivalent of "it is nothing," or "it is my pleasure," so I do not think that it is a cultural thing where the concept of "you're welcome" doesn't exist.
It's not cheap.
Again, there are some things that you can get pretty cheaply in Panama, but on the whole, it's not a bargain. Well, compared to traveling in Europe, it's a steal, but there are a lot of things that are as expensive in Panama as they are in the United States.
Our hotels that we stayed in ranged from USD $90 to $155 (including taxes) per night, and none of them were five-star establishments. Cushier places like the Bristol Hotel run about $300 per night. The Marriott is USD $280. Dinner out at Habibi's cost us USD $60 for two.
Shawn, as he is wont to do, looked into real estate listings to see how much propery costs in Panama. He saw many condos listed for USD $500,000, and he saw homes ranging from USD $250,000 to $750,000. Another source claims that new housing costs have doubled in the past two years, but apparently if you buy a used place, it is cheaper.
It is really hot, humid and rainy.
We went for the coolest time of year, and even so, it was constantly above 80° F (26° C) with 70% humidity. We were also there for the driest time of year, yet it rained 7 out of the 9 days we were there. I was not as bummed out about the heat as Shawn, although I was not crazy about the humidity, and the rainy aspect was a little inconvenient when we wanted to get out and about.
Despite all that, we loved our time in Panama, and hope to go back again sometime soon. Hopefully after they get a decent service ethic, but even if not, we would go back for the following.
The city is beautiful.
Panama City skyline, from Casco Viejo
It has some places that are less beautiful than others, but the skyline is magnificent and getting better all the time. Everywhere you go it's nice and verdant, with lots of beautiful, old, spreading trees and lush grass. It's right on the ocean and nestled up against mountains. Certain parts of it have architecture that looks like the Vieux Carre in New Orleans. There is no shortage of scenic beauty in Panama City, and we hear it's even better if you venture outside the city.
It is hopping.
After being in the relative snoozearium that is the second-largest city in Mexico for two years, it was THRILLING to be in a city that parties all night long. Sure, Guadalajara has clubs where you can dance to dreadfully repetitive techno or the same moldy Reggaetón hits you've been hearing everywhere for the past three years until 5 in the morning, but in Panama City, you have that plus bars and British pubs that are open late, late, late, clubs that play rock music, several chains of 24-hour restaurants and a handful of completely independent ones and casinos that never close.
It's racially diverse and the various ethnic groups are well-integrated.
Mexico seems really tolerant to us after coming from the United States, but a lot of times, I have to wonder if that is because they do not have a lot of racial diversity. That isn't to say that there has not been a lot of mixing in Mexico's past, because there has been. It's just that you do not see a lot of ethnic diversity here nowadays, at least not in Guadalajara.
In Panama City, you do. According to recent estimates, some 70% of the inhabitants are mixed Amerindian and white or mixed white and black while 14% are West Indian. Some 10% are white ('European'), and 6% are Amerindian. There is also a Chinese community of about 100,000. That might not be a big plus to a lot of people, but it is to me because I find diversity (ethnic or otherwise) to make a place more interesting.
The food is diverse.
This has a lot to do with the previous item, but the culinary side of travel is such a big thing for me that I think it deserves its own specific item. We had Italian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese and Mexican food while we were there, and had we more time, we could have enjoyed several other national cuisines.
Of note, Panamanian food is very heavy on meat. For this reason, we didn't have anything that was specifically Panamanian, but those that eat meat would probaby dig it.
Everything is within walking distance.
Given that it is awfully hot and humid, one can get really sweaty walking around. Yet it does seem that one can walk easily from any one place to any other in town. That's not really true, but compared to the scale of some cities we've been to, it is a walkable city. One night we dined out at a great Italian place (Napoli), walked over to El Pavo Real for a few drinks, then meandered back to our hotel, stopping in a casino to lose ten bucks in a slot machine along the way. Traffic can be very bad in Panama City, and the buses are crazy. Therefore, being able to walk around to a lot of different things for an evening's entertainment is quite handy.
They have a great selection of booze.
Living in Mexico and being involved in NAFTA, you'd think that we'd be able to get the vast array of alcohol that people can access in the United States, but unfortunately, that just is not true. I have only seen Bushmill's Irish Whiskey once in this country, and that was in a hotel bar in Mexico City. In Panama, the selection is very good. It is a little slanted towards European bottles; they do not, for example, have a great variety of bourbon, but you can get some very decent gin or Scotch.
We had a very good time in Panama. I would recommend a visit there to nearly everyone I know, but I might add the caveat that it would be better to wait a few years first. They have a ways to go before they have refined their service ethic to properly deal with tourists. Even so, if you were to go tomorrow, you would be sure to find a lot to love about Panama.
Posted by crispy at 04:20 AM | Comments (2)
January 19, 2008
Esperar
Shawn Waiting for Taxi Outside Casa Cubilete, January 2008
Posted by crispy at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Tosca
Ticket for Performance of "Tosca," Teatro Degollado 17 February 2008
Shawn and I will be attending the performance of Tosca at the Teatro Degollado next month with Miguel Chico (the equivalent of "Jr."), an opera aficionado that lives downstairs in our building. It is a "Special Presentation" of the Orchestra Filarmónica de Jalisco, and for some reason, we were not able to buy tickets online. We had to have Charles take us down to the box office at the Teatro Degollado to buy them, but they confirmed for us that it will be a full staging of the opera (not just the music), and we were able to get pretty killer seats.
Posted by crispy at 03:30 PM | Comments (2)
Shawn Gets Fired
Because he had the impertinence to ask a supervisor that promised him three extra days of vacation per year to sign off on his taking two of them over my birthday, Shawn got fired from his workplace. Maybe he should have seen it coming. He had earlier been branded as a troublemaker for suggesting to the owner of the school that the weekly essays in English that she wanted all the children to write - including the first grade and kindergarten students - were possibly too much work for them along with their current, already full, schedule.
In Mexico, legal foreign workers are granted all the same rights as workers that are citizens. Having been fired from his job, Shawn is due a severance package of three months pay as well as one day for each month that he worked there. The boss that let him go refused to give him this severance package, although he was legally entitled to have it immediately upon being let go. The boss guy said, "You'll have to take me to court!"
Silly boy! We're Americans. Like we would think twice about suing someone.
Just when things were getting tedious, I get some new and dramatic material for this blog. I never thought I would get the chance to write about exciting courtroom drama, especially the type that is likely to have big cash payoffs. In Mexico, the vast majority of labor cases are won by the employee, because labor laws definitely favor the worker. We won't be able to retire when we get the money Shawn is owed, but it will give him some greater flexibility in being able to find a decent job.
If any of you readers en este lado know of any possible prospects, let us know.
Posted by crispy at 09:22 AM | Comments (3)
January 15, 2008
Apple Pricing in Mexico
Like the rest of the non-US, we're still waiting for word on when we might get the iPhone. Frankly, I'm starting to lose interest in that.
The new MacBook Air that Steve Jobs announced today at Macworld 2008 is a bit more exciting, because it was immediately available for the rest of us. One can pre-order it right now at the online Apple stores around the world.
At the US Apple online store, the base model is being offered at the list price that Jobs stated: USD $1,799.00. Yet at the Apple online store for Mexico, it is going for MXN $24,999.00. If you convert that price to dollars, you'll see that it is a full USD $490 more, at USD $2,288.93. [See CORRECTION below; before tax figures are: MXN $21,738.26 and USD $1,985.50]
Mexican consumers have to pay almost 500 dollars [CORRECTION: almost 200 dollars] more for the product.
Converting the local currency to US dollars, the price in Canada is higher than the US, but not nearly as high as Mexico: $1,868.82. That's less than $100 more expensive than the US price (and that includes the Goods and Services Tax and any provincial tax).
Even Australia's price is lower than Mexico's: $2,222.60. Heck, you can buy one in Korea for even cheaper than that: $2,126.72.
Maybe I should just shut up and be glad I don't live in Sweden, where they really get screwed at $2,602.48.
[CORRECTION, sorta: I forgot that in Mexico, tax is always included in the shown price, but in the US, it never is. Going through the order process, I'm told that the tax is MXN $3,260.74, or USD $298.06. Figuring for taxes, that is still a difference of USD $191.94...still nearly 200 bucks.]
Posted by crispy at 11:58 AM | Comments (4)
January 13, 2008
Aerolineas Argentinas Continues to Suck Rocks
Readers might remember our horror stories about Aerolineas Argentinas, wherein what we came to joke about being an imaginary airline cancelled our flight to Bogota two days in a row, and passengers nearly rioted at the ticket counter in Mexico City.
It seems they have finally pushed folks over the edge.
Posted by crispy at 12:45 AM | Comments (2)
January 07, 2008
Bus Union Demands Fare Increase from 4.5 Pesos to 6
The Friday edition of the El Publico newspaper carried a story about how the Bus Alliance and the Chamber of Transportation for the state of Jalisco are demanding an increase in bus fares from the current four-and-a-half pesos to six. The state government has the final say on such increases in fares, so it is not a done deal.
The union argues that the price of a liter of diesel went up 23 centavos, and next year, it will go up 29 centavos (the gas company is a state-run monopoly, so increases in gas prices are more or less programmed by the government and known in advance). It is also complaining that bus companies were forced by the state to buy new buses, but not allowed to charge enough to make up for these new capital expenditures.
While I understand the plight of the bus companies, I have to say that it is hard to feel much sympathy after one spends time riding the buses here. I wrote before about how it brings out the worst in everyone. After you ride it a few times, you see why people are not at their best after dealing with it. The drivers often blow right by the stops, when people are obviously trying to flag them down. The buses are often extremely crowded. They are never as frequent as the Guía de Rutas says they are. They are terrible polluters. The drivers drive them like they are sportscars. On top of the fact that they're calling for an increase of 33% of the current fare, I do not think that they are going to have a lot of public support because the thought of the bus is not a happy thought.
It is too bad, really, because the city needs decent public transportation. Yet like many things in Mexico, they don't even think about making the system as good as it could be, but rather just good enough to work at some level.
Posted by crispy at 04:58 PM | Comments (1)
January 01, 2008
Assault on Batteries
Starting the 1st of January, the Department of Transportation has decreed that airline passengers in the United States will no longer be able to take lithium batteries in their checked baggage unless they are installed in the devices that use them. Passengers will only be permitted to carry up to two loose batteries, stored in plastic bags, in their carry-on luggage.
This regulation is being enacted to reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, following a 2004 report published by the Office of Aviation Research that found plastic coatings on lithium batteries can deteriorate rapidly in a fire and allow adjacent batteries to fuse, increasing the intensity of the fire. The report also stated that the fire control systems in cargo holds are not capable of stopping lithium ion battery fires.
Security expert Bruce Schneier explains on his blog that these rules should only prevent audio-video professionals from taking any batteries on-board flights, because of the type of batteries that are limited by the new regulations. According to the DOT, "almost all consumer-type lithium metal batteries are below 2 grams of lithium metal."
Yet the restrictions limiting the number of batteries that can be taken even in carry-on luggage will impact a broader range of passengers. Even if security officials are well-versed in the nuances of the new regulations and do not erroneously confiscate batteries that do not violate the limits set forth in the law, travelers that need to carry extra batteries because they are flying to distant places or facing long layovers will be seriously handicapped by these new regulations. People who are traveling to countries where the voltage is incompatible with charging devices previously have been able to get around that problem by taking several pre-charged batteries. As of the first of the year, this will no longer be permitted.
For those readers in the United States that will quickly dismiss the idea that these new regulations will do no more than mildly inconvenience a small number of AV professionals, I wish to relate two experiences that Shawn and I had flying from Mexico that illustrate how inconsistently and arbitrarily these vague guidelines can be applied. You see, the battery paranoia has been brewing worldwide for a while now.
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.
Posted by crispy at 09:02 AM | Comments (2)