Wow, what a journey it has been. For those of you who know us, you already know that Claudia and I are serious travelers. Really serious. Last year alone, we drove over 30,000 miles exploring the Western US. But, let’s face it, driving in the states you pretty much know what to expect wherever you go. There’s no language barrier, no metric system to deal with, credit cards are accepted, you know the currency…and on and on. In short, not much drama.
So, when we headed out for Mexico last Tuesday, we were pretty much on our own. We had maps, two GPS systems to coordinate, some very basic Spanish, $500 in pesos and a lot of faith in each other to, as we say, get the job done. And get it done we did.
We crossed into Mexico at the Nogales border crossing at 7:30AM, as we had read many posts that said later in the day the crossings got majorly crowded. When we got there, it was super confusing. The signs were all in Spanish, so we blindly followed a RAM truck….hoping that he knew where he was going. And then suddenly, he was gone and we were on our own. Oh well, what the hell….we entered a lane and drove ahead. We entered a parking lot and thankfully, there were other Americans and Canadians walking toward a building holding a lot of papers under their arms. AHA….this must be the place! Claudia stayed with Tuck and I grabbed our passports, car title, Mexican auto insurance papers, vet papers for Tuck and got in a line. Here goes….we either have the right papers, or back to Scottsdale we go. Yikes….talk about an adventure.
After an hour and a half of moving from one official to another and back to the car for more papers, I was finally handed our very valuable temporary Visa. VICTORY…..we’re in!
From that point on, there was no English spoken. Nada, none, zero. But, we were OK with that. When you visit another country, you have to learn and adapt and do the best you can. We quicky realized that two things required quick responses: pulling into toll booths and gas stations. Both required a 30 second calculation as to the amount needed and what to say to the attendants. We DID NOT want to be the typical American tourists who just stood there, looking ignorant and pointing. Between the two of us, we got pretty good at both after just one day. Hey, we might be able to pull this off.
We pulled into Navajoa the second night at the Best Western….exhausted, but happy that we had passed the first tests of getting through the border, securing our visa and learning to cope with the gas stations and the toll booths. Claudia figured out from online reviews that a local food truck parked nearby had excellent food, so that’s where we headed for dinner. HA! We couldn’t read the menu and the sweet guys in the truck spoke no English. We recognized enough to order some basic things and pointed a lot. All went well until I ordered a torta, which I thought was sort of a small flour tortilla with beans. It wasn’t. The guy in the truck asked what I wanted on it and I said just frijoles (beans). and cheese. He looked puzzled and said in Spanish…”no meat, no lettuce, no tomatoes”? Thinking I didn’t want to have any stomach problems, I replied just the beans. Good lord, what an idiot I was. It turns out, a torta is a large sandwich on yummy bread. So I got a huge refried bean sandwich. No wonder he looked at me like I was an idiot. I totally was. But, all of the food was delicious. Actually, really delicious. We took Tuck on a quick walk and went to sleep at 9:00.
Since upload speeds are slow here, I’m going to break down the posts into three or four parts and add some pictures later today, if I can find all of my cables buried somewhere in the rooftop carrier. Until then, hasta luego.
Wayne, Claudia & Tuckt