We woke this morning after a night without incident. Last night was a night of too much worry. In the past I have been an advocate of exposing the fear factor that tends to grip many United States citizens. With too much news, too many stories, some allow fear and worry to paralyze a perfectly safe opportunity. Before allowing fear to dominate, look at the statistics, examine the facts. Burst the bubble of fear and worry.
That was my soapbox. Last night it all fell apart.
But today I was feeling better. We will make it across the border today. We may have problems, but we will survive and we will get home. Will it be a completely smooth journey? Probably not. Do I fear problems. No, not today. The sooner we know what we face, the sooner we know what we are up against. Rather than cower in worry, face the day. Let's get started.
Crossing the Border
The border to Mexico was suddenly in front of us. I was expecting some sort of long line, some sort of exaggerated farewell process from the United States. But before we knew what was happening, we were driving into Mexico.
Soon we had a decision to make. We were being directed into one of two lines. If we had things to declare go to the right, if we had nothing to declare go to the left. To declare...or not to declare?
This was a decision that we anguished over until this moment was before us. We tried to research this, but it was very vague. Do we have anything to declare? After all, we have a wide variety of stuff. Everything from kitchen things to clothes to electronics. Two laptops, a monitor, a printer. Should we declare?
We decided to drive in the line to declare....
Confusion
We were in a short line and it was soon time for the border officials to question us. I rolled down my window and our ears were filled with a bunch of unintelligible Spanish. This wasn't going anywhere. Soon we were asked to pull over in a special area.
I tried my best to explain that what we had in the car was all our stuff to live in Mexico. They didn't understand. They soon left. We waited with a couple armed guards.
They came back with a man that spoke a little bit of English, but not much. We tried to communicate with him. I explained that we were moving to Mexico. We have a trunk full of our personal possessions, and we were not sure if we had anything to declare or not so we drove into the Declare line just in case we did. We hoped he understood. He listened and left. We waited with our old acquaintances - a couple of armed guards.
Soon a team of officials were again at our car. A woman asked to open our trunk. In broken English she revealed their intentions. They would like to do an inspection. That was not what we wanted to hear.
Inspection
They slowly removed about five boxes out of the trunk and set them on the ground. They looked in the boxes and looked in trunk. They asked to look in the back seat. We were not going to refuse. At this point we were worried. Did we have anything that we shouldn't be bringing? Will they take anything from us? They stopped their search abruptly and left. We waited with a couple of armed guards.
They returned. We were relieved to hear a short but sweet word in English. "Go". We were handed a thick booklet on Mexico. "When you learn Spanish, please read this." Well, ok.
Breathing a sigh of relief, we drove off.
Lost
We still needed a visa and vehicle permit. What we had learned while being coached is that we had to drive around and find another building. We drove but were lost. We were starting to become surrounded with streets full of pedestrians. I was starting to relax. We were back in Mexico among people who were friendly and helpful. I forgot this factor.
I would roll down my window and ask for directions the best I could. People would point and smile and talk. I was remembering how much I liked this place.
We finally found the right building.
We were shuffled from line to line. We had to fill out forms. A young boy and an older woman watched us write every pen-stroke on every form. If we paused they would eagerly try to explain what the next field was asking us to write. We thanked them for their help, but secretly we were thanking them for reminding us how friendly and helpful Mexico can be.
We went through the importation process for our car. I received a sticker. Now the problem was, where do I put the sticker on the car?
It was evidently very easy to see what my problem was, because two different groups of people were eager to run up and show me how to put my sticker on the car. I love this place.
With a sigh of relief we were soon driving in Mexico. We were through with the border. We did it! And with very little problems so far!
The North
We were soon leaving the security of the border town, and quickly driving into our next big problem - Northern Mexico.
We drove for a long time. The roads were long and lonely. It was an eerie feeling to know we were alone in Northern Mexico. We felt very vulnerable.
We were determined not to stop at all in any towns until we got through the north. We filled up the gas tank in Texas before we crossed the border, so we could drive for a good 300+ miles before needing to fill up the tank.
We also picked up some food in Texas. And we have not drank any water all day so that we would not need to use the restroom. Our goal was to drive and drive and never stop for as long as possible. Here is a picture of our breakfast and lunch for the day.
We drove and drove. We tried not to attract any attention. We never got out to take pictures or even to put the camera outside the window. All pictures were taken discreetly from inside the car.
Sheep
We would pass interesting sites on the road like shepherds with their sheep.
Statue
We spotted a big statue on this hill. Few people get a large statue of themselves on a hill. We wondered who this historical character was.
Oasis
We were soon leaving the north behind us. After driving and driving, we found the perfect place to stop. It was a very nice area. It felt good to get out here.
It even had a Subway! Oh wait, no I guess I'm wrong. But it had a SANDway. Close enough....
Hotel
It was getting dark soon. We had to find a place to sleep. We were pre-prepared with the names of a few hotels in a few different cities that we could stay at. We drove to one of these.
This place was awesome. What a great place to stay at the end of a very uncertain and difficult day.
It felt good to be here. We made it across the border. We drove through northern Mexico. Now we are ending the day at a nice hotel and we are paying less money than most of the US hotels we stayed at.
Looking back on the day, I have no stories of problems really. All of our preparation, planning, and precautions paid off. We followed the route and did not get lost. There was a lot of confusion and worry at the border, but ultimately the two of us made it safe and sound.
We are now in a country where people are polite, friendly, helpful and smiling. The tension is melting and we are once again remembering all the things we love about Mexico.
We are seven or eight hours from our final destination. Tomorrow is our final day of driving and hopefully we will stop staying at hotels and finally park the car and walk through the doors of what I guess is....home.
0 comments:
Post a Comment