The Dry Run

Practice makes perfect, thus two weeks ago Greg and I decided to visit every country on our itinerary. We fired up Randal pretty early in the morning, both dressed up a little fancy to create the illusion that we were important, and headed off to do a Consulate World Tour 2012. 6 countries in 4 hours. In total, we visited all 6 consulates with varying degrees of success and experience. Upon reflection, we realized that each embassy reflected a preconceived notion that we carried about that country. Below, separated by country, recounts our thoughts and impressions.

Mexico: The first thing that strikes you about the Mexican Consulate is that it has quite a large and impressive building. The façade is a glistening white stone, with a drive-way that bends towards a portico lined with columns. Important things were about to transpire. We confidently strolled up to the door, rang the bell ready to announce the future world travelers, and waited. And waited. It was early. Maybe they were just late to work? As our grand vision slowly refocused back to reality, we saw a non-descript Mexican walk around the side of the mansion. Taking his cue, we followed him around to the noticeably less impressive building adjoined to the Consulate.

Once inside, crammed in line with about 30 other native looking Mexicans, I felt out of place. Perhaps wrongfully, we were the well to do American among these hard working Mexicans looking to get their papers in order so as to achieve this promised dream of making a life in the Land of the Free. Here we were fleeing this promise…in suits. After a short conversation with a pleasant attendant, we were sent to meet up with a person to discuss the details of our border crossing. The new consulate employee greeted us warmly and tried to answer our questions by underlining good websites and phone numbers to call regarding our inquiries. After about five minutes of continually referring us to the informational packet (all in Spanish), we decided to ask for some small travel advice to best avoid trouble. She looked at us and said, “Don’t’ do anything illegal.” I politely laughed thinking this was a jest and followed up with a question about how to best cross into Mexico. She informed us that the whole border was dangerous. Bam.

In summary: Mexico has pretty facades and history, but in practice is chaotic. The people want to help but are unorganized to do so, rather just pushing you towards other sources of information.

Guatemala: Not even in DC. This consulate was nestled up in Silver Spring, down an alley between a Golden House Chinese restaurant and some dumpsters. The inside was just as nice, with a long reception counter and an open room with folding chairs set up. The receptionist was quite friendly and “pulled a Mexico” by referring us to other numbers. I think the location of the consulate is appropriate for my conception of Guatemala: One of the dangerous dark alleys of Central America.

Honduras: Greg had to be at work, so I went solo to this consulate. Much like its western neighbor, Guatemala, the consulate was…humble. Perched above a small conerstore on M street NW and only marked by a proud waving flag of Hondruas, the consulate had a small set of steps leading up to the door. Once inside, there were a set of crumbling steps that lead to a small room with a movie box office-esque counter. There was a man in his 40s behind the class with what appeared to be his 13 year old daughter and his wife. As in most of my encounters, I was greeted in Spanish and when I replied in English there is usually an automatic switch to very excellent English. His transition was like a teenager learning to drive stick-shift for the first time (note: I am not condescending on his English proficiency given my ineptitude at Spanish). What followed was, from what I could gather, some information about how to get a car into Honduras. He told me pay the fee. I asked if there was anything else. He slyly smiled at me and with arms spread wide said, “Welcome to Honduras”. I mentally noted that I would be extra careful in Honduras. When asked about safety, his 13 year old assistant/daughter interjected saying, “I don’t think you have to worry.” I’m a little worried.

Nicarauga: A quaint building with friendly people. Not very helpful people though. She did not give us the run around, rather just gave us straight up advice or said that she did not know. They did have coffee though!

Costa Rica: We seemed to open up the office in Costa Rica, as we followed in the consulate employee to her desk. There she was very pleasant and answered each of our questions, sometimes quickly calling a number to get more detailed information. Meanwhile, to keep us from getting bored, she constantly fed us travel pamphlets about what to do in Costa Rica. Tourism is obviously the thing.

Panama: The last intended destination on our trip left us with the best impression. The staff was kind and helpful and we were actually invited into a back office to talk with an official. There Ms. Cuevas took our information down and promised she would write a letter detailing border crossing information. Panama: 1 The Rest of Central America: 0

The other silly thing that we encountered often when inquiring about getting extorted when crossing borders was a lot of finger pointing. “MY country won’t give you problems, but you might want to check with those other unsavory countries.” I’m excited to see how these first impressions on the dry run match to our experiences on the road.