Once we made it to Honduras...
Trip Start
May 07, 2009
1
Trip End
May 24, 2009
Where I stayed
Ecomarine Backpackers
Utila,
Bay Islands,
Honduras
Sunday, May 10, 2009
I was not concerned. I am a young, healthy man, if not in years, in my own mind and my queries of individuals who have found it their lot in life to deal with these societal health issues were met overwhelming with anything from disbelief that I was concerned about such things to outright laughter and stories of throngs of people, sure that either they already had contracted the flu bug or were sure they were going to do so in short order.
Today, I find myself waiting for a bus outside of the San Pedro Sula airport free from the 1/2 hour wait in a line of people outside the plane during which I filled out a health questionnaire that was, I thought, far too vague to distinguish the perfectly happy and healthy people from anybody with anything more than a mild case of heat rash
the plane to get to Honduras via Houston, Tex
. I did, however, have the pleasure of having my temperature taken... No, not with some more invasive means, but instead, with a thermal imaging camera that, I imagine, displayed the heat my body was producing in degrees.I felt slightly, as though I was being shot with a radar speed sensing gun by a police officer who pulls everybody over that is speeding over, say 66 mph.
95.6 degrees- pass
93.7 degrees- pass
97.8 degrees- pass
98.4 pass oh, wait, pull that one aside for further questioning.
Oh ya, and the aforementioned health questionnaire... who the hell are you to ask me if I've spent the night with a wheezing Mexican prostitute after an undercooked dinner of pork ribs wrapped in bacon and topped with 3 day old hollandaise sauce?? I mean really - hello - what do you care anyway?
My contention is that you don't care, you're just doing your job, I get that, but did you have to keep me standing in front of your infrared microwave ray gun thermal meter of death for so long? I mean it was like an eternity longer than the four people ahead of me had to endure your high tech probing of their core temperature..
San Pedro Sula Airport Arrival
.I thought that I felt a sweat rising within me, concerned that I may be pulled from the line, shuttled aside to some phone booth sized, concrete encased room where I would be subjected to vacation eating days of quarantine, probed, poked, prodded and asked a litany of questions by self proclaimed health professionals wearing biological warfare bunny suits, accompanying respiratory and shoe covering booties that are more reminiscent of over-sized socks mad of tissue paper than proper germ abating footwear and the mandatory hair sock that in my opinion makes most people look like giant white translucent mushrooms.
But I digress; admittedly that was just my fear. Finally, after having this overly graphic and intrusive visage of how I was going to spend my next few days, I was waved through the heat seeking funnel of travelers and on into a surprisingly short line to speak briefly with an immigration officer, and then on to baggage claim and eventually to the well shaded piece of concrete on which I now sit.
All of the aforementioned adventure was undertaken with a friend, roommate and fellow traveler whom I shall refer to hereafter simply as Shoop. Shoop is, I believe the only person that I know that possess the following triad of attributes; born/raised in Montana, possessing of the "Y" chromosome, and despite the two previously mentioned attributes, spends time in my presence without receiving either a thorough verbal bludgeoning or outright physical pummeling. I think it needless to say that, historically, I haven't liked men from Montana (I'm working on it). Well... so Shoop is along on this particular Central American adventure with Kirstin and I, having never been out of North America. He has recently acquired his passport, immunizations and plane ticket to come and join us for a couple of weeks on the small Caribbean island of Utila. He's been, by his own account anxious about going to a third world country and excited about the adventure of it all.
Kirstin and I look forward to sharing the fun that is Honduras with him!
Comments
Bitch!! Bitch!!
At least he didn't check your temp with a rubberglove while you were bending over.