We purposely planned to arrive in Nogales during "business hours" because we had a few things we needed to take care of before our border crossing the next day. We checked into the nastiest friggen motel (yes, I said MOtel) I've ever stepped foot in, then got to work. And by "got to work".... I mean Bloo and I moped in our cigarette-smelling, wifi-less, disgusting turd of a room while Ty went to buy Mexican car insurance and to have the car serviced. (There are limited lodging options in Nogales to begin with, but it gets even trickier when you have a big, hairy fur baby in tow....Motel 6 was the only place that would allow a dog over 25 pounds. Boooo.)
So, while I was sitting in our nasty room wondering how many felonies had been committed in it, Ty bought a year of full-coverage insurance (for like 200 bucks!), and he got the oil changed, brakes checked, tire pressure checked, blah, blah.... We walked to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and then went to bed early to be at the border when they opened at 6:00am. Ty fell asleep in like 23 seconds as per usual, and I proceeded to lay there for hours and hours totally mortified by the general nastiness of my surroundings. The cigarette smell alone was keeping me awake. It actually caused me to have my first real wave of home-sickness knowing the home I loved (and my clean, comfy bed) were a million miles away and no longer mine... Long story short... Ty slept like a baby and I got a whopping two hours of sleep last night.
This morning we got up early, loaded the car and drove the 3 miles to the US International Border and waited in line. I'm the first to admit that I've been super nervous about crossing the border and about driving through Mexico in general. I've seen too many Mexican drug lord and kidnapping movies not to imagine every worst case scenario possible. I envisioned us at an inspection point with some machine-gun toting officials ripping our luggage apart and questioning everything (even though our mini van only has clothes, fitness equipment and golf clubs in it.) I was especially worried about Bloo being let across the border even though we had all his documents in order. In fact, we have a very neat and tidy binder full of all our official documents and were ready to produce them in an instant. What nerds. Nothing even close to that happened. All 374 miles we traveled today were anti-climactic, really. (Deep breath, mom!!)
After we paid our toll at the border, we went about 12 more miles to the tourist visa center and where vehicle permits are obtained for visitors driving past the "free zone." We already have 4-year temporary resident visas so that part was simple enough, but we needed a vehicle permit which may turn out to be a pain in the booty. The clerk who helped us (who seemed very certain and spoke English well) informed us that we have to drive BACK to the border within 30 days to complete our permit process. Uggggghhhh, say what?!? Considering that would be a very expensive 4-day, 40-hour round trip drive, Ty's determined to find another way....we'll worry about that later. We were given our temporary permit and were officially on the highway by 7:00am this morning.
Highway 15 South is pretty well-maintained, much better than we expected, and large stretches of it are actually brand-spanking new or currently being redone. I would say about 80% of the roads we drove on today were comparable to the United States (as far as smoothness goes.) Again, not at all what I was envisioning. Every so often there would be little "rest stops" where semi-trucks seemed to take breaks...complete with street vendors, beggar kids, and lazy, unleashed dogs. Aside from these little blips of life in the desert, and the occasional toll booth....our ride was uneventful, at best. It was mostly never-ending hot asphalt, vast desert in every direction and listening to the same playlists over and over. And a LOT of boredom.
The most entertaining thing we did today was use the Google translate app to translate road signs... We practiced pronouncing them and tried to think of the U.S. equivalent... "No Tire Basura" (Don't throw garbage)...."No Maneje Consado" (Don't drive tired....they really love this one for some reason!) We probably learned 25 new words today just trying to entertain ourselves. Only like, one million more words to go and we'll be all set.
The hardest part of our trip was driving for 8 straight hours with only one 15-minute break halfway through! There aren't real "rest areas" here like there are in the States, and we wanted to minimize being pulled over as much as possible. So, we stopped at a bright, clean, new-ish gas station to use the facilities, grab a snack and let our poor, tired puppy out for a minute...and then we were right back on the road for the second 4-hour stretch.
As I type this, we are currently lounging in a very comfortable, air-conditioned Best Western in Navojoa, Sonora for the evening...complete with room service and a pool. Arriving here was easily the most wonderful part of our entire week. We're all so exhausted and tired of the van. Captain Ty has driven a total of 2,338 miles so far by himself without a single complaint!
Tomorrow will be our hardest, longest and last day of driving. We're going to wake up at sunrise and hit the road by 6:00am...and drive the 12 hours to our little La Cruz. I'm already dreading the drive but looking forward to our final destination!!!
We're off to the pool! Buenas noches!
Deep breath and sigh of relief....well maybe when you get to La Cruz!
ReplyDeleteI can just hear you saying all of this! Glad you guys finally made it safely! Can't wait to read more 😘
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