Traveling Dilemmas: How I Took a Risk, But Was it Worth It?
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
So I wanted to get into El Salvador from Nicaragua, but I ran into some problems:
the flights were really expensive
a bus ride would was be incredibly long
the border crossing via bus would cross through Honduras, which is dangerous right now
So back to the drawing board.
When I looked at flights to Guatemala, on the other hand, they were half the price and upon further review, there was a layover in San Salvador.
So what if I just got off in San Salvador? Could I do that? Is that legal? I started digging and discovered something called “skip-lagging.”
What Is Skip-Lagging?
Skip-lagging is when you book a flight with a layover and intentionally get off at the layover city instead of continuing to the final destination. It’s not illegal, but airlines frown upon this. If you do it too often you can even be blacklisted by the airline.
But this was just once and it would save me a lot of money and time.
The biggest obstacle? Carry-on only. If you check a bag, it will go all the way to your final destination without you.You also can’t have a return flight or they will cancel the rest of the ticket once you are a “no show” for the flight.
I decided to chance it.
When we landed in El Salvador, everyone headed toward their connecting flights to the right and I peeled off to the left— straight to immigration.
Immigration Questions I Was Not Prepared For
The officer looked surprised when he saw me.
“Hola, es este tu ultimo vuelta?” Is this the end of your flight? At first I played dumb and said “yes,” but when he asked me for my flight details, I thought it best to just be honest.
“Okay, okay, technically, no.” I explained that I’d decided to stop over because I had friends telling me how great it was here and thought it would be fun to visit for a few days in El Tunco and then later head to Guatemala on my own.
Then the questions started:
“Who do you know here?”
“Where are you staying?”
“When are you leaving?”
When I’m pressed or stressed I talk faster and I overexplain, “Well, my youngest son, Weston, is in college and he’s twenty-two and his girlfriend, she’s darling, and she’s named Emily and her mom is from El Salvador and so she has family here. So technically if my son and she get married (which I hope they do) then they will be my family!”
“So what are the names of your family and phone numbers please?
“Well I don’t know them yet, but I can try to call Emily and see if she can get me that information”.
He never stopped typing on the computer while making phone calls at the same time and flipping through my passport.
I stood there smiling nervously, scrambling for names of people I might know. I gave him my driver's name, Pedro, and then frantically texted him and asked that he would vouch for me if immigration called. Finally after thirty minutes and a lot of sweating and smiling, he let me through.
I skipped on out of that airport with a huge smile, and a successful skip-lag under my belt. Whoohoo! A driver was waiting for me with my name on a white board. I was the happiest girl alive. I knew this was going to be a great adventure, I could feel it.
Sometimes you take a risk and it works out.
Was it worth it? 100%
Would I do it again? Probably not.
The amount of stress and anxiety I had getting through immigration and then the worry I would be flagged for future flights was pretty exhausting. You can’t put a price tag on peace of mind.
What is a calculated risk that you’d be willing to take? Maybe it’s taking an art class or possibly going on a solo adventure? Maybe it’s just going to a coffee shop alone or striking up a convo with a stranger. I’d love to hear your stories!
But if you feel that little tug in your heart to do something exciting and then think, Maybe I’d rather not, I’m starting to see the wisdom in that too.
Maybe you’d just rather pitch in to keep me going and wish me good luck from the comfort of your home.
Comments