It was the night before our flight multiple flights back home. Naturally I was packing and didn’t think it would take long since we weren’t bringing too many newly acquired or purchased items back from Colombia. Just some coffee and candy as gifts for my parents and friends.
I was pretty much done packing when my mother-in-law mentions something about plastic bags and how we can’t take any back to the U.S. She explains that sometimes the plastic bags can be made of cocaine and that the drug can later be extracted from the bags.
Bryce’s aunt starts gathering clear plastic bags for us to use to pack dirty clothes, shoes, etc. in, which apparently are OK to use. It’s just the grocery bag-type that are white or colored plastic bags that are a no-no.
Who knew? I didn’t.
“These plastic bags I brought from home are OK though, right?” I asked.
Bryce and his family all gave me a “no.”
“But this Safeway bag says ‘made in the USA’ on the bottom of it!” I pointed out.
“Anyone could have just printed that on it,” Bryce said.
OK, fair enough. Time to repack!
I suppose Customs wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a real made-in-the-USA grocery bag and a grocery bag made outside of the USA with those same words printed on it.
To not cause problems, I left all plastic bags in Colombia.
You always learn something new while traveling, huh?
otter travel more 