[PUP] Provisioning for Mexico and Central America

[Ken Williams]

Greetings Scott.

We live in Seattle, and in Cabo, so go back and forth all the time.

That said, I have no experience crossing the border on a boat - so I don't
know what they do, and whether or not crossing on a plane is representative.
The "official regulations" are probably the same regardless of the mode of
transportation.

We always bring down to Cabo a large cooler with frozen steaks - typically a
two month supply. Usually, customs asks "what is in the cooler?" and we just
say frozen steaks. They have asked us to open the cooler only on one
occasion. My understanding is that chicken is forbidden, and on the one time
they did open the cooler, and saw we had chicken, they just said "you aren't
supposed to bring chicken" after which they closed the cooler, and let us
keep it.

As to wine: we always bring down wine; typically only six or eight bottles.
On the occasions they've asked what we had, we've said "that suitcase is
full of wine." They have never opened the suitcase. I believe the official
rule is that 3 bottles a person are ok. 

Good luck!

-Ken Williams, N68


-----Original Message-----
From: passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
scottebulger@comcast.net
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 7:07 PM
To: PUP
Subject: [PUP] Provisioning for Mexico and Central America

I'm a bit confused about some information I've gathered here and elsewhere.
It seems to be common practice to fill a freezer full of fresh meat and
poultry prior to heading out of the U.S.  My boating experience in the
Pacific Northwest has been if you cross from the U.S. to Canada there are
restrictions on the quantities of meat and other items (wine...) you can
have in your possession.  This is true both ways.   

So, can any passagemakers advise the practices in Mexico and Central
America?  If we arrive in Cabo with a freezer full of NY steaks and 30
bottles of wine are we going to have them "confiscated"?  Thanks!  

Scott Bulger, N40II, Seattle WA