We're off to Mexico today. It's a medium length (4-5 hour) drive from Casa Grande, through the Lukeville border crossing to Puerto Penasco. also called Rocky Point.
Getting good information on Mexican paperwork requirements is not easy. Obviously passports will be required to identify us, and vet records for the dogs, and auto insurance for both the motor home and the car (purchased online in Canada). But then it gets a bit confusing. Normally, tourists are required to get an FM-T tourist card, but we have some documents that say if you're staying in the 'free zone' (which is 30 km or so from the border) you don't need this, EXCEPT if you're going to Rocky Point. Then there's the TIP (temporary vehicle import permit) which again, is absolutely required unless you're only going in certain areas or for certain lengths of time. The rule has exceptions and the exceptions have exceptions. Our plan is to go to the border and find someone in authority who speaks English, and ask them. Governments take note...we want to comply, please tell us the rules in plain understandable and non-ambiguous terms, and we will comply.
Sunday night was windy and rainy and Monday morning dawned with grey skies and rain showers. This seems typical of our travel to date, where we get the motor home and the car good and dirty, only to arrive at a campground where there hasn't been any rain and we look like something the cat dragged in. On the other hand, we are going from (relatively) cold to warmer, so shouldn't complain.
We left in the rain at 9:30 and got gas in Casa Grande. Price was $2.739 per US gallon; Elaine had read that the best gas prices were in a little town called Why, just before the Mexican border. Down I-8 to Gila Bend and turned in there, looking for propane. None to be found at the Love's station, so went down the road to the Texaco which had propane, but took 20 minutes to find the only guy who could unlock the equipment. Back on the road to Ajo, and now the rain has changed to the odd shower. US85 is a two lane road with fairly narrow shoulders, but otherwise good. Lots of Border Patrol vehicles in evidence this close to Mexico. When we got to Why, gas prices were $3.24, a significant increase from Casa Grande, especially since it is supposed to be cheaper.
We stopped at the Organ Pipe National Monument Visitor Center to see if they had any info on paperwork needed for Mexico. No luck. So on to the border...where we got waved through with not even a stop, let alone a check on paperwork or stuff we were carrying. Oh if we'd only known we would have done more grocery shopping in Casa Grande.
Of course, as soon as we were in Mexico, we were flagged down by someone who was providing 'visitor information' but in reality was getting marks to look at condos. We ended up agreeing to a Thursday session, but need to figure out how to avoid this. We then had to make our way through Sonoyta (the town on the Mexican side of the border) which was interesting in itself. They detoured us due to road work, but the detours are (sometimes) marked by small hand lettered signs that had no arrows, just words. We finally got on what we assumed to be MEX-8 towards Puerto Penasco, but there were no signs that confirmed either the highway number or the destination. Finally, after 20 kilometres, there was a small MEX-8 sign on the side of the road. Good, we're actually on the right road. This wouldn't have been a problem with Sarah, our GPS system, but she doesn't have maps for Mexico, so we turned her off.
We got to Puerto Penasco to find that they had put us in a spot that a 32 foot motor home barely fit in. We know this because he was still there! Elaine convinced the office to assign us a different spot, which was good since we're closer to the internet antenna and have a 'slightly' bigger spot.
After setup, we took the dogs for a walk along the beach (they're proud of their 3CPO status...that's three countries peed on) and then went grocery shopping for some of the things we didn't think would pass the border inspection. Of all things, they didn't have eggs or bread, and of course everything else is in Spanish, so we had to make a few assumptions. The other interesting thing is they have parking lot monitors, people who guide you into and out of spots in their lot. The lot is only for about 50 cars. After shopping, we came home, had dinner and we'll have an early night.
For those interested in statistics, we are as far south as we are going this trip.
- 1360 miles (2175 kilometres) almost directly south of Calgary in a straight line,
- 1875 road miles (3000 kilometres) traveled to get here,
- about 34 hours driving time but we drove on 7 days so that averages to about 4.9 hours per driving day, and
- we took 19 days to get here.
