We got packed up and pulled out of the park before 9 AM, and on into Mexico just after 9:30 AM. The toll across the Pharr Bridge was US$20…much more than I expected.
In Mexico is where the fun stuff begins. The first attendant can’t speak English and we are not good at Espanol, so he gets on his cell phone and calls for another guy who can. Nice guy…talks about his visit to Niagara Falls… guides us into the office and says you need to visit the Migracion office and get a FMT, or Tourist Card. It doesn’t quite work the simple way though. The guy at the counter gives you a form you have to fill out. Then you take the form to the Banjercito (sort of like an officious cashier, behind a glass enclosure). We were prepared with copies of our passports, driver licenses, vehicle ownership certs but we needed to have copies of the FMT form with our Passports. You walk across to the other side of the office to another booth that where a guy sells Mexican car insurance and does copies on the side. The back to the Banjercito to complete the paper work. We pay for the FMT cards (262 pesos each). The vehicle import permits are 641 pesos for the RV and 385 pesos for the car. If you want to work out the cost in Cdn $, divide by 12. We have paid for everything but its not over yet. You need to go over to the Migracion booth, where the guy will now stamp your FMT after you show him proof that you paid the fee. We are now done at the border and can proceed. All in, this procedure has taken just under an hour…and this was a very quiet time with no lineups. There is no search of the vehicle, just a check that the vehicle stickers match the VIN of the vehicles.
But the border crossing isn’t finished yet. About 30 km down Highway 97 we hit the "aduana"…customs office. The officer checks our FMT and vehicle import permit, then comes inside and looks around the RV, and says good-bye. Pretty simple and we are back underway.
A few kms down the road is where we get our first unfriendly Mexican welcome…a stone chip in the windshield about the size of a dime, on the driver’s side, just below my sightline. I can’t understand where the stone came from other than from a pickup truck that passed us and was 300 meters in front when the bang came. Bummer!
The highway is something new to us. Yes, it is paved, and mostly smooth, so it looks somewhat like a wide two lane highway (not the 401 here folks). There is a centre line that is solid where you can’t pass and dashed where you can. Then there is this wide shoulder with a dashed line. Not really wide enough to drive on but you straddle it so people can pass you on the left. When there isn’t anyone behind, you can move over towards the centre. It takes a bit getting use to it.
Then you have to learn a new language for turn signals. When the vehicle in front of you puts on its left turn signal, that means it is safe for you to pass! I bet you want to know what the right signal is for. It is not safe to pass. When the vehicle in front approaches a hazard, or a road work crew, he will turn on his flashers to alert you that he will be slowing down for some reason. In Mexico, drivers are trying to help out those behind them. What a concept!
The driving is very similar to what we experience in southern Texas. Miles and miles of flat farmland and you can see forever. Later on, the flatness gradually disappears and we get into rolling hills, then a big hill that taxes the big old 454 Chevy engine. Followed by a roller coaster ride down the other side, with the tranny downshifted. This is just kids stuff…bigger hills and mountains will come.
We roll into Ciudad Victoria (ciudad means city) and into the Victoria RV Campground to meet the owner Rosie. She is quite a nice character that speaks English very well and fills us in on the local info of where to shop, where to get Internet access. After getting parked and set up, we head off to the Soriana superstore…sort of like a Walmart SuperCenter but with a great liquor and wine section, and much better food. We stock up on things we couldn’t cross the border with, like meats and veggies and check out with a bill of 807 pesos. Now you are already dividing by 12 and come to the conclusion that 70 was a little much. But consider we walked out with a 700 ml bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequilla that also comes with a bottle Sangrita mixer, a 750 ml bottle of Appleton’s Rum, and a 750 ml bottle of Malibu Coconut Rum. Now you can consider the food was free and we paid for the booze! The Jose Cuervo was 129 pesos, the rum as 100 and the coco rum was 135. Four bananas were 7.4 pesos…about 74 cents. A little steep when you consider they come from Mexico. But 6 limes cost only 2.2 pesos…about 20 cents. 6 tomatoes (.5 kg) cost 8.5 pesos.
On our way to the food store, Bev spied an AutoZone up the road. Very surprising to see one in Mexico so after dropping off the food at the RV we make a visit and pickup a windshield repair kit. All the packaging is in both English and Spanish so we don’t even have to speak to someone and show our language ineptitude.
As a treat, we go out to dinner at Martin’s restaurant where there is free Wi-Fi.
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