Sorry I haven't written earlier.. but it's been a busy (and hot) few days... What follows is a little travel news and some tips for those who are following behind us and spend restless nights anticipating the horrors of a Mexican border crossing... so here goes.
Wed. Oct. 23rd: San Diego to Green Valley, AZ. This was the day... the day we make our move to head yet further south and into position for the dastardly 'crossing'. I'd canvassed countless friends asking tons of questions.. which crossing? what's the best time of day? where do we get the VISAs? where do we get the TIP (Temporary Import Permit) for the truck? what time does the bank open? will they take a credit card? etc...... and, true to form, I'd received just as many answers, none exactly the same. So, armed with our best guesses, over-stuffed with receipts and letters from the marina, and with fingers crossed tightly, we headed off early in the morning... bound for not Tucson (as most had suggested) but Green Valley... a mere half hour from the border crossing at Nogales, AZ.
We checked in to the Best Western Green Valley Inn and after only one room change due to the over-powering smell of Febreeze (and Lord knows what else).... we settled in for an unsettled rest. Chuck (the truck) was parked outside our windows as usual... and the gal at the front desk had assured us he would be safe as the sidewalks rolled up at dark and only the very elderly were still up (cuz they couldn't sleep)....
Thur. Oct. 24th: Dinner had been passable and we were up so early the only place open was the golden arches... but that's okay because we've discovered the 'egg white' version of the Egg McMuffin. It's very good, has less calories, and you can even ask for white cheddar instead of the usual yellow rubber. So, we feel quite righteous now as we drive thru those ominous arches seeking early morning vittles. Anyway, up early, food in tummies, off we went... heading south to the Nogales border crossing in to Mexico. Now the count was 50:50 as to whether we were to use the downtown crossing or the truck crossing... but all agreed that earlier was better. So, a little later than we'd planned (what else is new?) we headed off and made it to the (we chose the) truck crossing (at Mariposa) about 0715 hrs. Here's where the advice got a little sketchy. Some said drive straight through; some said stop and declare at Customs; all mentioned the red and green light torture. It's just like the airport in London... you get to pick which traffic lane you drive down. If you get a green light (which we have had every time so far) you proceed. If you get the dreaded red light... well, either your life is over, or you only disappear for a few years.. or something like that... :-)
Last year we muddled our way through but for some reason I was more nervous this year. No need to be really as we aren't sneaking things in and out of the country.. but it just felt like.. well, you know... with such a full truck (most of it used and ugly stuff... but a few new things for the boat.. all carefully listed on our marina letter of course... but new none-the-less), I was just more nervous than normal.Guess I felt like our luck might run out or something.. and we had heard some horror stories of horrendous duties being charged on items coming south... so, we agreed that Kathy had the prettier face (particularly compared to my 'not so sure what to do' pale pallor) and would do better at communicating with our border guards... and she was therefore nominated as our designated driver for the crossing. All went well in the end, but there were a couple of 'moments'. Like at the first crossing when we went into the Aduana (Customs) office believing the right thing to do was to fill out a form declaring that we had nothing to declare (cuz it was all accounted for in our letters). Luckily (because I think we might have opened a hornets nest) the girl was so very busy doing her nails she looked unpleased to be interrupted by us.. and shooed us out her door and down the way a bit. Finding no other doors open, we shrugged our shoulders, returned to Chuck, backed up and stopped. We were faced with the choice of three lanes... all with signs that said "Nothing to Declare". We studied this for a while and finally chose the middle one. Phew... a little green light flickered... and off we went.
17 KMs further south down the highway (21 KM if you're north bound) is the office where you must stop and apply for your Tourist Visa as well as the TIP for your vehicle. Both applications require various pieces of paper (copies of Passports, Vehicle Registration and Insurance, DL's, etc.) but the set up is very smooth. With much stamping of documents and moving from first the Visa counter, to photo-copier, back to counter... then on to the TIP counter, back to the photo-copier, and back to the counter... AND with the use of a Credit Card so as not to have to wait for the banjercito (bank) to open (and to make handing the TIP back in when we leave much faster) we were in and out in about half an hour.... (likely much longer later in the day... but great at 0800 hrs...). Believe it or not the hardest part was not freezing to death.. it was cold!
And then it was time to pick the damn traffic lane again.... with a deep breath, we forged ahead and... gasp!!! the light turned RED.... oh my God! Our hearts started to pound and sweat broke out upon our brows... how could this be? what to do? Ok, ok.... I said to Kathy.. "you talk to the guy, at least you'll understand what he says"... and I, armed with the marina letters and the keys to the canopy.. got out and walked to the back of the truck. He motioned for me to open the truck and so I unlocked the top half of the tail gate... and stood back. He began to reach for the tailgate itself, to open it, and without thinking I called out "oh no senor,,,, no, it will all fall out"... With that he peeked under the rear curtain and even he turned a bit pale. By that time, his partner had come along and the two of them studied the letters carefully while Kathy explained we had a boat in Mazatlan and all this 'stuff' was for the boat.... Thankfully the senior fellow advised the junior guy.. that he had seen this before and it would be ok... We were thanked and asked to carry on.. which we did without hesitation - I can tell you... Phew!
Feeling pretty proud of ourselves we carried on down the highway and, in not too long a time, found ourselves driving into a town called Hermasillo. As we came around a bend in the road we drove right into a police take-down about to start. Police with guns were everywhere, police cars were everywhere.. there was even media filming. We, and several other cars heading south, wound ourselves through the melee and continued on - glad to have not been stopped. We hadn't gone more than two blocks when to my wonderment I saw flashing lights in my rear view mirror. "Oh no" I said "we're being pulled over". A marked Municipal Police Car pulled us over and a youngish officer came up to my door and asked for my license. I gave it to him (probably won't do that next time), whereupon he began to explain we had been speeding in a School Zone. "School Zone?" I said, "What school zone? All we saw were policia everywhere...." He assured us we had been speeding in a school zone and then pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and wrote two numbers on it. The first was 1500p. The second was 120 US. He explained that he could write us a ticket but that would cost 1500 pesos.... or we could give him 120 USD instead. Even though my heart was beating mightily (I hate getting pulled over) I remembered that we'd heard about this kind of 'corruption' in La Paz.. and, above all else, we were not to support the corruption by paying them..so I said "OK, give me the ticket". There began a debate between he (with no English) and me (with no Spanish) about whether or not I would give him the cash.... or, as I kept demanding, we would go together to the Station where I would pay the ticket. He was so surprised at my insistence to go to the Station that he didn't know quite what to do and, when his senior partner came up to the window to see what was taking so long, he explained my demands... the senior guy said something to the younger guy (probably something like "you're wasting your time with this one"...). By that time I had retrieved my DL by pulling it slowly from the officers hand and he finally said... "Ok, good bye... go on to San Carlos"... and he leaned in and shook both of our hands... weird. I expect he'll be more practiced when he tries that kind of stop again. What's upsetting is that you/we spend our time worrying and being careful to safeguard ourselves from thieves and robbers and the like... and it's the damn police who tried to rip us off. Upsetting to say the least. But, with yet another story to tell, we headed on down the road... what a day!
We arrived at Guaymas by mid-afternoon and checked in to the Armida Hotel.. Not everything works out the way you plan it. We had stayed at this particular hotel with Sophie last year and, given our experiences in lesser hotels in the area... the room was fine. This year we've been spoiling ourselves a bit and maybe that's why my nose kind of turned up a bit when we got to our room... and I did try really hard to ignore the few ants and, well, smallish crawly things in some of the darker corners.. after all 'tis the season here and we were on the ground floor... right?? WRONG.. when the creepy crawlies started getting bigger and coming out after dark.. and when the huge one scuttled from under my bed, across the floor, to under Kathy's bed... I declared "Enough!!" and we moved. Not far tho; just upstairs.. for the night. Checked out the next morning and moved into the Holiday Inn Express. It was beautiful and clean and fresh.. and it even provided a lovely breakfast. Phew.
PS: Nick, if you get this... Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn't call on your special day... hope you had fun.
Fri. Oct. 25th: This was a day we had set aside to look at boats and to visit with friends Chris & Chris on SV Scintilla (in the boat yard at Guaymas, Seca.) and Margie & Chuck on SV Dreamcatcher (in the boat yard at San Carlos, Seca). We had very nice visits with both couples and shared a couple of meals. We also took the opportunity to look at a few boats that were listed for sale in San Carlos. Having crawled up and down the ladders and poked around in the sad creatures looking for love... I can tell you that none met our needs. I did learn, however, that the Ericson 38-200 has a layout that would work and has a good reputation as a solid, good-sailing boat. This model is now on our list of 'possibles'.
Sat. Oct. 26th: Finally, our last leg; the drive from Guaymas to Mazatlan. We had our rules... stay on the toll highways (they're much safer)... don't stop in the wastelands (there's safety in numbers)... carry spare gas (check)... drink lots of water (check)... always carry TP when you go to the washrooms (check)... Pemex gas stations always have clean washrooms (hmmm). Oh well... first you have to find one that's open :-) and it's true, they are much better than the rest... So, off we went and, without much more to report.... 9 1/2 looooong hours later, we pulled in to Mazatlan... right up to the door of our little bungalow (#6 at Mar Y Sol Bungalows)... just down the road from the two main marinas that we use. They're so nice here and they keep a very clean house... no creepy crawlies (maybe a baby ant or two, but nothing we can't handle), have a little kitchen and the place is right on the main drag and a quick, 5 minute drive, to the good ship Shannon.
So we're here... it's very hot and humid... and we're working on Shannon. She's in good shape having been well cared for by Tony's Boat Management. We'll be here for several weeks getting her ready for her new life. And, we'll be researching the boat listings and connecting with our cruising buddies who will all be showing up over the next week or so. We've even had a quick dip in the pool at El Cid... ahhhh, what bliss. The waiters all remembers us and as long as we order something, they don't mind if we visit... besides... we are 'officially' visiting friends (Ron & Fran on SV Calliope who are BCers.. all the way from Nanaimo and whom we ran in to on the ferry leaving Victoria... small world.).
I think that's enough news for now... sorry to have taken so much of your time but wanted to catch up and share a story or two with you. We hope all of you are well and enjoying the little bits of sun we hear are poking out here and there.... in BC anyway. Take good care of each other... will talk again soon. Adios.... CJ
