Of Drug Busts and Inflight U-turns - 2006-07-20 21:45
As you may know, we are currently in the great land of Honduras for my brother-in-law’s wedding. We left DC on Wednesday morning at 7:30 and had a lay-over in Miami. We were supposed to take off around 11:45 for Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but as we were sitting on the plane, the captain came on the P.A. system. “We are sorry to inform you that someone’s luggage is on board, yet the person isn’t. We are trying to locate and remove those pieces of luggage, but it may take some time. Thanks for your patience.”
That’s nice and all, but before we boarded the plane, we noticed a man off to the side with some police as well as a bomb/drug-sniffing dog. We’re not sure what type of nose this specific breed of dog had, but we were pretty sure the guy wasn’t up to much good. The majority of the family believed it was drugs. We ended up sitting on the plane for 2 hours while watching the airport staff take off all of the luggage piece by piece, and then put them back onto the plane. The air conditioner didn’t work for a while, so as you can imagine a plane on a tarmac in 100 degree weather wasn’t the most delightful place to be.
After that was all taken care of, the actually flight was fine. Until we got to Honduras. If you have ever had the pleasure of flying into Honduras, you already know what I’m about to say. The rest of you have never seen a tough landing until you have been to Honduras. The pilot has to manuever over a set of mountains, take what feels like a 270 degree turn and plop down on the shortest runway I have ever been on. It feels as if he is trying to put down a plane in the middle of a volcano. As he is making the sharp turn, you can see houses 100 yards from the tip of the wing. Absolutely insane. I would hate to be one of those houses, hearing a plane roar over head every few hours. And just being a house would pretty much stink. Always in the same place, never being able to move. Never under-appreciate the beauty of feet.
We drive to Gissela’s house (Chris’ fiancee) and the drive over reminds many of us of Turkey. One of the interesting features of the streets of Tegucigalpa are the street guards. Many of the streets with houses along it have a man that walks up and down the street with either a machette, a shotgun or a semi-automatic. Nothing like a man walking around with his finger on the trigger of a loaded weapon to make you feel safe. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a license for that thing…
Ok that landing would scare the shit out of me. I also have a weird thing about enclosed spaces and a lack of fresh air so I would have been extremely cranky before even taking off.
I’ve never been to Turkey so I can’t really get the comparison. I can’t say I’d feel too safe with those guards around though hehe I’d be like, bringing them cookies and milk so they like me and don’t shoot my ass tomorrow on the way to the grocery store.
Yeah, I’ve experienced close to 100 landings, and this one by far is the scariest. My mom is the same way about being claustrophobic and there is no way she would have lasted on the plane.
The guards themselves don’t look scary, its just the fact that there are random men carrying all sorts of weapons around (and I’m pretty sure all the weapons aren’t registered…) The people of Honduras are very nice and hospitable, but they have had reasons to be precautious. There are many stories of kidnappings as well as murders that cause the people to want to have protection. Thankfully we don’t have to worry as much about this in the States.