Mexico, at last

Mexico, at last

We “finally decided to take the plunge”, as people often say on Amazon when reviewing products they’ve bought, and crossed the US/MX border. For good. No more trips to the cozy side of things, from now on it’s all down south. Well, and east and west as well, but that’s details.

Pictures here: https://goo.gl/photos/aYPF288gzxB7CirN6

Entrance into Mexico was tight, in the literal sense. The lane I took had no more than one inch on each side of the rear wheels (remember, we drive a dually, where the back 4 wheels kinda stick out) and a very tight turn into the steel gate didn’t facilitate things. We made it w/o any bent rims. I take it as a token of my improving driving skills. Not that they need any improvement, just saying.

Past MX border control and into Nuevo Laredo, one would think Control Temperal de Vehiculos, the ITP office and Banjercito – all arms of a complicated scheme run by the MX government to con tourists out of their money in exchange for vehicle and visitor’s passes – would be somewhere close by. And you’d be right, as the office is directly underneath the US/MX bridge, except that the way there is a complicated one, taking many turns and reversal of directions. We got prompted by beggars and street vendors at each stop light to give, donate or buy. Either one works. We’re not exactly subtle with our 20 ft. long / 12 ft high rig sporting license plates from “The Spirit of America”. May be we should do something about it in the future: shrink Malkia Muk? At one light, two guys literally jumped on the hood of the truck to clean the front window. That’s the spirit, don’t take “no” as an answer…

At the building of Control Temperal de Vehiculos, just under the bridge where we had crossed, we queued up to get our documents. First, personal tourist permits, then a permit for Malkia Muk. Of course, being in MX, the permit was due in… US Dollars. And of course, the computers didn’t work. The choice was either to drive up North, where they had no IT issues, or just wait. We opted for the latter, so a short 4 hrs later we got issued a stack of papers, a fancy decal to stick on the windshield of the truck and the blessings of the government of MX to carry on.

4 hrs later and 250 km south, we’re at the Potrero Chico. A world famous rock climbing spot. EL Posada del Potrero Chico is our home for the night and it’s fantastic! So are the people we’ve met. More on this in a subsequent post.

Stay warm, but also be cool. We’re chilling at a soothing 80 degrees and so should be you.

Mañana.

P.

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