I recently returned from Peru and absolutely loved the country, the food and the people. Since I love all things travel, I also love shows that are related to travel and one of those is "Locked up Abroad". The entire time while I'm there I keep imaging and of course saying out loud that particular places are where I would hide if I were smuggling drugs. Of course, I only told my travel partner this and tried not to say it when there were others around.
After an 8 hour flight from Lima to LAX I just knew customs would be a breeze since I recently had signed up for the Global Entry Pass. Yes, I love all things travel related, except for the long lines at customs. As I breeze though customs I am overly excited about how quickly everything is moving. I was initially approached by Custom and Border patrol agents before I can even get a chance to look for my luggage. The usual questions are asked, "where are you coming from" and "are you traveling with anyone else"? Of course, I answer and grab my bags and continue to listen to "Happy" by Pharrell. I finally make it to the exit and am politely told to go the right and then two officers come along side of me to escort me for a secondary search.
At that moment I realized that talking about "Locked up Abroad" the entire trip might not have been a good thing. As they make me empty out the contents of my luggage I see my travel partner also get escorted in to the room and say to me "it's all your fault because you kept talking about this". As they proceed to go through every thing that I brought back with me I am relieved by the fact that I didn't smuggle any type of drugs back with me and that I packed my own bag. The most hilarious part was when I was asked if I had brought more than $10,000 in American money with me. I had to laugh because I didn't even have a single US dollar in my pocket. I did have some Peruvian money, but I figured they wouldn't care about that. I can say that the show did help me prepare for my secondary search, but I think that this experience was one I could have done without.
After an 8 hour flight from Lima to LAX I just knew customs would be a breeze since I recently had signed up for the Global Entry Pass. Yes, I love all things travel related, except for the long lines at customs. As I breeze though customs I am overly excited about how quickly everything is moving. I was initially approached by Custom and Border patrol agents before I can even get a chance to look for my luggage. The usual questions are asked, "where are you coming from" and "are you traveling with anyone else"? Of course, I answer and grab my bags and continue to listen to "Happy" by Pharrell. I finally make it to the exit and am politely told to go the right and then two officers come along side of me to escort me for a secondary search.
At that moment I realized that talking about "Locked up Abroad" the entire trip might not have been a good thing. As they make me empty out the contents of my luggage I see my travel partner also get escorted in to the room and say to me "it's all your fault because you kept talking about this". As they proceed to go through every thing that I brought back with me I am relieved by the fact that I didn't smuggle any type of drugs back with me and that I packed my own bag. The most hilarious part was when I was asked if I had brought more than $10,000 in American money with me. I had to laugh because I didn't even have a single US dollar in my pocket. I did have some Peruvian money, but I figured they wouldn't care about that. I can say that the show did help me prepare for my secondary search, but I think that this experience was one I could have done without.
