Mission Apple Impossible: The forbidden fruit in hand luggage

During a trip through Ecuador, I was put to the test. Not only that I suddenly came alone – my travel companion had broken his foot and was already on the way home. No, on top of that I also turned into a smuggler.

On my own, I was sitting on the plane towards Galapagos Islands when the announcement suddenly came: fresh food must not be introduced. Fruit, vegetables – all strictly forbidden, because of possible blind passengers such as ants or maggots. Even a single crawling animal could endanger the fragile ecological balance there.

Just stupid: in the morning I quickly put an apple on the breakfast buffet. And now? While strictly protected natural paradises were waiting for me outside, I panicked inside. Will I be arrested if I don’t declare it? Do I get trouble when I do it? Where to go with the hot goods? Eat secretly? Impossible. Dispose of unnoticed? No chance – the aircraft toilet was miles away, at least morally.

For two hours, this little apple worked me, which bloated into a highly dangerous organic blast in my head. My head cinema played through all variants: public humiliation, dramatic interrogation, island ban. In exceptional situations, I tend to escalate fantasies.

Then, when putting on the runway, the saving thought. As soon as my neighbors unknown to me rose, I picked up in the backpack at lightning speed, wrapped the apple in a handkerchief – and made it disappear. To the right of me, in the seat bag of the fellow travelers. In the event of a later investigation, no one would come to me.

Without a guilty conscience, but with great relief I also left the plane-freed from fruit dilemma. And enriched for a realization: as a smuggler I don’t vas.