Chapter 4 - Mexico Here We Come!

 Hi again - 

We last left off returning home from Pensacola, FL to celebrate Christmas in Minnesota.  It was definitely a very different Christmas for us,   For the past 20+ years, we have hosted Christmas Day dinner for 30+ people in the Campion family.  Not this year.  We were home for 5 days and ran our tails off getting ready to leave for our Mexico road trip.  We were busy researching and ultimately buying travel insurance and Mexican auto and scooter insurance.  Just like in the U.S., there are a ton of options in Mexico too.  We chose Safety Wings for our travel insurance.  We wanted some type of emergency medical insurance if we need to go to the hospital.  Costs about $138 for both of us monthly.  We chose ABA Auto Seguro through International Insurance Group for auto and scooter insurance.  The auto insurance for 6 months was $431.49.  The scooter insurance for 6 months was $228.69.  Finally, I'm done with the boring insurance details.   

On December 26, after saying emotional goodbyes to our puppy Charlie and our moms, we departed in the early morning.  We really hoped Charlie would stay healthy so he could join us in February.  Spoiler alert...Charlie does join us in February...more to come on that experience in Chapter 5.  

We saw the most beautiful sunset in Kansas.

I think it was our first wide sky sunset.  

Boring paragraph ahead.  Feel free to skip it. 😀 Our general route to the U.S.-Mexico border was Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Des Moines, IA, Kansas City, KS, Wichita, KS, Oklahoma City, OK, Wichita Falls, KS, Abilene, TX, San Angelo, TX, Del Rio, TX, and Eagles Pass, TX.

We decided to convert USD to Mexican pesos at a money exchange in Eagles Pass, TX.  We converted $2,300 USD to about $46,000 pesos and they charged us $185 to do so.  Really?  We were pissed.  Major price gouging!  😠  

It took us two full days of driving to cross the border to Mexico at Eagles Pass, TX,  I spent a large amount of time researching border crossings and decided Eagles Pass, TX was the best crossing based on the "On The Road in Mexico" Facebook Group.  I highly recommend joining the group if you want to make road tripping in Mexico a reality.  When I started research border crossings, I had no idea there are 48 U.S- Mexico border crossings.  Who knew?

I'm not going to lie...I was a nervous wreck about crossing the border and getting our Mexican FMM (Forma Migratoria Multiple - tourist visa) and TIP's (temporary import permits) for vehicle and scooter.  Will we get 180 days on our tourist visa?  Will our vehicle be inspected?  Will we have to declare stuff?  If so, what?  Did I bring all the needed documents?  Did I bring enough copies of the needed documents?     

On December 28, we crossed at Eagles Pass International Bridge 2 (Camino Real Bridge).  Crossing costs $4.00 USD.  The Rio Grande River was smaller than I thought it would be.   

The Mexican side on the left was very welcoming and decorated with 

lots of Christmas decorations.  

The U.S. side on the right was razor wire and train tracks.  Yuck!

We were pulled aside to inspect our rig.  They were very interested in the scooter of all things.  They had a tough time finding the VIN to match the title.  It was in the most obvious place possible, but when nervous obvious things get missed.  

The INM (Instituto Nacional de Migracion - immigration office) was located right after crossing the border.  We got the 180 days we asked for no questions asked.  Whew!  Why did I worry so much about that?  The cost of a Mexico tourist visa is $30 USD.  Then we had to go upstairs to the Banjercito to get the TIP's for the auto and scooter.  That's where the shit show began.  We waited in line forever only to find out we needed copies of the partially completed FMM before we could get TIP's.  What?  😠  And then we discovered they don't have a copier in the building?  What?  😠  So after leaving the INM, we finally found a grocery store in town to get copies twice.  Front and back of FMM.  I have quite a bit of patience, but I was at the end of my rope and was ready to throat punch someone....I was so frustrated.  We get in the second line at the Banjercito and learn we have to process TIP's for auto and scooter separately.  Corp got TIP for auto and I got TIP for scooter.  One person can't have two TIP's.  Another what?  😠  Corp goes to one window and I go to another window and we are not suppose to talk to each other.  Get ready for this.....we had to show passports, original titles for auto and scooter, copies of Mexican auto and scooter insurance, copies of U.S. auto and scooter insurance, and copy of marriage certificate in my case because my name was not on the scooter title.  I literally made 3 copies of everything I thought we might need.  After paying the TIP deposits and processing fees, we had to go back downstairs to FMM office to get our tourist visas stamped.  Then back upstairs to Banjercito to complete TIP's.  It took 4 hours to get through immigration and get TIP's.  We had to pay $400 deposit each for auto and scooter.  Hope we get that back when the cross the border back to the U.S.  We also had to pay $60 each for auto and scooter for TIP processing fee.  I'm really glad I did my research.  Thanks again to the "On The Road in Mexico" Facebook Group.  Everyone's shared experiences made ours a lot easier in hindsight.  Not sure if all INM's and Banjercito's don't have copiers, but they definitely need one at this location.  I can't believe someone doesn't have a copier in the back of their truck in the parking lot.  They could charge $10-$20 per copy.  We would have begrudgingly paid it not to have to find a copier in town.

We were advised to stay on toll roads, which we did for most of the trip.  

Roads were in much better condition that we expected.

Paying tolls was a great way to break larger pesos down.  We always gave $500 pesos for every toll.  

We also learned to download Google Maps so we could use them offline when we had bad cell service.  There were lots of areas in interior Mexico and the mountains that had bad cell service.  Google Maps worked awesome!       

It took us 5.5 days of driving to get to our first official stay stop; the Riu Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta.  

First night in Mexico we stayed on Monclova.  

Super clean interior city that was not a tourist destination. 
Smiling faces and no English spoken.

Our first meal in Mexico.  Taquitos and yummy soup!  

Along the way there were lots of changes in speed limits.  60 kilometers to 100 kilometers and back and forth.  For those of you who watched The Dukes of Hazard...it felt like Roscoe P Coltran speed traps.  Thankfully, no speeding tickets or altercations with the Policia. 

Driving in Mexico is pretty intense at first.  Two lanes of road turn into 4 lanes of traffic pretty quickly.  

We drove on the shoulder most of the time since people
wanted to pass us all the time.  

A shout out to and thank you to Qroo Paul YouTube channel for his Mexican driving tips.  We were advised to get gas when down to a half a tank.  There were very few towns for gas in the Mexico interior.  

Second night we stayed in Aguascalientes.  Along the way, we saw the aftermath of a big bus and semi accident.  

Lots of busted out windows. 

 

We stayed at a Hyatt Place in Aguascalientes.  My reason for mentioning this is we only paid $35 per night!  We couldn't believe it.  I also got stuck in the elevator for 10 minutes.  I hope that doesn't happen again.  It was kind of unnerving! 😟  The Hyatt had a great continental breakfast.  

Corp was excited to enjoy a chocolate covered bismarck.  His favorite!

Driving through Guadalajara (city of 5 million people) went pretty smoothly.  

Beautiful bridge in Guadalajara.  

After Guadalajara, we entered the Tepic area.  It had tons of agave fields for making tequila and mezcal.

The last two hours of our total 38 hours of driving was brutal.  The fastest we could drive was 35 mph on a twisty, winding, bumpy, with guardrails very close to the edge of the road.  

We came across this saddled horse in the back of a truck on this terrible road.

At this point, we had driven 2,300 miles.  

On December 30, we spend the night in La Penita.  

A few of my favorite pics from La Penita -
mural, hotel we stayed at, sunset, first pina colada, cute dog,
baby shoes being sold next to motorcycles, and drinking beer on the street corner

On December 31, we arrived at the Riu Vallarta in the early afternoon.  Yay!  

We made it to our first official stay destination!

New Year's Eve was a blast.  Spending NYE outside the U.S. has always been on my bucket list.  I'm happy to say I can cross that off my list.  We saw the most beautiful fireworks on the beach.  We spent 5 days with the Beniek family.

Holly and I enjoying beach time.

Corp and I enjoying NYE.  I loved my mask and NYE tiara!

Enjoying the NYE fireworks.

NYE fireworks finale on the beach.

Holly, Marla, and I are all smiles!

Cheers!!!

One last NYE couple's pic.

We had lots of laughs and enjoyed the pool games, especially the lily pad game.

Corp playing the lily pad pool game.

Me playing the lily pad pool game.

January 3 was my official last day of working for the City of St. Cloud, MN.  Corp was so sweet and bought me a tiara and sash that said "I'm Officially Retired".  

My favorite beach photo of us so far.

Miscellaneous random funny and interesting pics/videos below...

Smoking truck in front of us.

Vehicle passing is kind of crazy at times.

Juggler at an intersection.

Great mountain scenery.

Well, that's all for this chapter!  

And our adventure continues... 😉