Great pics of your awesome adventure!
And man-oh-man, life just isn't complete without an epic Mexico border crossing story - LOL!!!!
Please share yours when you have the downtime!
EPIC (SORT OF) BORDER CROSSING STORY: Drove to Yuma to cross the Mexican border at Mexicali. Running a little late on time, because we wanted to get to San Felipe in the Baja by sundown. (You can’t drive at night in the Baja, not because of bandits, but because you might hit livestock, or hurt someone, or tear your truck up on highway speed bumps.) So we went a grocery store to get food, and met a kind Mexican gentleman who advised us we could use a small back crossing at San Luis and avoid the chaos at Mexicali or Tijuana….
So we took his advice and went to San Luis, the Border Guard waved us through into Mexico without even glancing at ANY documents, including Passports. Now we had to buy Mexican Auto Insurance, but it was Sunday in the small village of San Luis, and the insurance shops were closed. And there were no remotely acceptable hotels for us in this small town. So we borrowed WIFI from a pharmacy, and got auto insurance on-line from Geico. Done.
Then we found a money changer and got 40 million pesos (hahaha). Done.
But we still needed a Temporary Motor Vehicle Permit for the Ferry ride to Mazatlan and mainland Mexico later in the trip. So I walked back to the Border Crossing to try to get this document…. No one here spoke any English, and I only speak broken Spanish, at best. And there was hardly anyone around late Sunday afternoon.
A police officer with a machine gun directed me to go to the the Banjercito Office. Banjercito is the Mexican Bank closely associated with the Border crossings. The Banjercito/Bank sent me next door to the Immigration Office to get a Visa form. The Immigration Office sent me back to Banjercito/Bank to pay for the Visa form. Then the Banjercito/Bank sent me back to the Immigration Office to get the Temporary Motor Vehicle Permit The Immigration Office gave me the Permit, then sent me back to Banjercito/Bank to pay for the Permit. Banjercito/Bank officials walked out to my truck to make sure it was not an oversized vehicle. Then gave me the completed prized Permit.
Every bit of this was the required procedure. This would have been incredibly complicated at a larger border crossing. Fortunate to have been given good advise from our Mexican friend. Odd, inefficient, but finally, well over an hour later, Done.
And off to the Mexican Baja!!!
