The Crossing (9/29/10)

It was an early start at 6:00am so I could meet Sal and Barb at their hotel at 8. One last fill-up on the gas so we could get as many miles as possible between us and the border. Originally, we were going to cross at the Columbia Bridge a few miles upstream of Laredo, but Sal's brother thought the road on the Mexico side would be too remote.

Instead, the idea is to use the main Laredo/Nuevo Laredo crossing. There is a little bit where you drive some local streets in N.L. which made me a bit nervous (they've had some major gun battles here), but I have faith in S and B. After breakfast we stop at a local cambio in Laredo to exchange $ for pesos. I got $250 worth, about 3087 pesos (exchange rate of 12.35. Later using my debit card and going thru my bank the rate goes up to 12.45. I think the bank typically gets a better rate, but we wanted pesos on hand for any immediate needs).


Waiting in the "declare" line. S and  B
are in the white pickup on the right

 S and B needed to declare some goods they were bringing in so we got into that line (I followed them so we all stayed together). Usually, to declare doesn't take much time, but today the Mexican border agents were being thorough. I clocked it at almost 1-1/2 hours. Just after we pulled onto the road in Nuevo L. Sal got pulled over by two cops on foot. Seems he wasn't wearing his seatbelt and the cops wanted some money to make it go away. Sal offered the cop 50. The cop thought, oh, $50, but when Sal offered the 50 pesos, the cop said, you must need it more than I do, and waved them along. From everything I've ever read or heard this is a classic "mordida" move. Mordida means "little bite", the euphemism for bribe.

At the building where you get the visitor and vehicle permits we both ran into problems. Barb, who is American, didn't have the proper credit card (I think) and she was having a tough time getting her visitor pass renewed. When I went to pay, my VISA credit card was locked out, as was my debit card, and they don't take AMEX. A couple of calls back to my bank in Evergreen got things moving again (otherwise you need to leave a $400 deposit. To be returned when you leave the country).


Mexican flag over Nuevo Laredo

 Finally, after close to 3 hours we're ready to go! I'm in Mexico. Zero out the odometer, the real journey begins here. There is a major checkpoint about 25 miles down the road where S and B got picked for a search. I didn't. It's luck of the draw, you either get a green light or a red one. About 2 hours in we arrive at a large, serious checkpoint, lots of guns here. I think everyone gets stopped. They asked me where I was going and they glanced in the back and I was waved thru.

We then stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop. Among the Subway and Churches' chicken was a Mexican buffet restaurant. I ordered the straight-up grilled chicken, rice, beans. They brought over tortillas, green salsa, pico de gallo. Oh, man. Maybe because I was actually back in Mexico, I don't know, but I was really happy eating that meal! Sal had ordered a couple of grilled jalepenos stuffed with some queso fresco wrapped in bacon. Awesome.

South of Saltillo, while driving

I gotta say here that S and B were invaluable to making this day work. Sal is a native and his spanish and knowledge of what's going on helped tremendously. We continued our drive, on toll roads when possible, and arrived at Matehuala around 7:30 some 325 miles south. Once you get to Monterrey, the countryside gets really pretty, lots of big hills and most everything is green. Very long day, so I got a room, as did they, at a nice little hotel here.

As I'm writing this the next morning, I realize I never got a picture of the two of them. They've already left for home, so maybe I will see them in April as I make my way north again. I hope so.