MEXICO
Crossing the Nogales border into Mexico was quite an experience, given that neither of us at this time spoke a word of Spanish. We had an idea of what steps we needed to take to get through the border, so it was just a matter of finding the right buildings. After a little back and forth and doing our best to speak basic Spanish to some official looking people, we finally got our tourist cards and paid a total of US$47 for both. There was no inspection of our vehicle and no questions were asked. We were told to drive straight through the border. It was almost too easy. We were convinced they would at least inspect our vehicle, but no, we were off, and entered Mexico for the first time. Wow, what a difference! Tiny dilapidated houses were scattered in every space available with no genuine roads leading to them. Roads were thin with no defined lane dividers. At every stop light, random pedestrians would run up to the car trying to sell us baked goods, newspapers, or a dirty rag window washing for a few pesos. We drove away with a smeared windshield, streaked with dirty, recycled water…our “No gracias!” never seemed to work.
We drove about 21km south, when we came to the building where we had to stop to get the car importation permit. Somehow we forgot to get the vehicle registration papers photocopied, so we had to go to a separate building and make some copies. After some delay, we were issued the permit (good for 10 years) for US$50. We mounted the decal on the windshield and drove through the "Nothing to Declare" lane and were off again. An hour later on the road we were signaled to pull over by the Mexican military. Evidently they set up check points randomly along the highways to check for drugs or weapons. They brought up a translator who was more interested in chatting with us than searching our van. Soon several machine gun toting privates came along to search the van. They did so and were satisfied, so we moved on. Throughout our trip we were often singled out. From a mile away, the police or military were able to detect our extremely reflective, metallic sticker on our windshield (the Mexican import permit sticker), but in most cases they would just glance at the many items in our van and decided it was too much work to go through it all.
Down the road we discovered the infamous TOPES, the large speed bumps that are placed randomly on side streets, residential areas or even highways. Most were marked, but some were not. I was trying to keep my eyes open for any warning signs, but it was too late....Moreno and I both noticed the large bump as we were about to hit it. Everything loose tumbled to the floor, and our little Westy van felt like it got air. That was enough to make us both super paranoid and really keep are eyes open. Topes make a frequent appearance along our entire route through Mexico, especially on free roads.
At our first gasoline stop in Hermosillo Mexico we were given the royal gringo welcome. There was a lot of commotion, a fair amount of confusion, bad Spanish and broken English. After we left it was apparent, we had paid $50 for 27L of gas. The price per litre, we discovered at the next pump was a cheap $.77/litre. The attendant had not reset the pump. A common scam and we fell for it. 1 for the Mexicans, 0 for the Gringos.
San Carlos
San Carlos is about a four hour drive, on a four-lane paved divided highway from Nogales, AZ, on Highway 15 in Mexico. Located on the Sea of Cortez, this Mexican resort community is a good place to relax. After the tedious process at the border we needed some time to cool down. The sun was scorching hot, and we were going through liters of water. We found a great RV park, Totanaka, which for $12/night gave us access to a pool, warm showers, laundry, free internet and a flat, grassy area to park the van.
Alamos
After spending two days in San Carlos, lazing around the pool and beaches, we drove two hours to the little colonial town of Alamos. Set in the foothills of the nearby mountains, this quiet town founded in the late 17th century, is simply spectacular. There are over 400 species of birds there, though we only saw a few. The streets are narrow and often one-way only, but this only adds to the town’s charm. We found another great RV park, Acosta Ranch, and stayed there for a couple of nights. We parked in a shady, gravel area, and had the whole area to ourselves. There was a large pool surrounded by tall palm trees, and we were within walking distance to the town center. Perfect! Being the slow season, we were the only tourists to be seen in the entire town. We loved wandering around the cobblestone streets snapping up photos.
Tepic
We were a little disappointed leaving Alamos so early, but we had to stay on the road. We woke up just as the sun was rising, and left without having any breakfast. We had a long day ahead of us, and we prefer driving in the early hours, to avoid the intense Mexican heat. We had planned on driving to Mazatlan, located on the coast. It is the closest Mexican mega resort city to the United States, and apparently “it’s a great place to soak up the sun and enjoy a relaxed pace of life”. We figured because it’s a favorite destination resort of many of the people back at home, it must be beautiful. Boy we’re we mistaken. Mazatlan was an uninspiring, gringo haven, surrounded by inhospitable slums. The RV parks were expensive and ill maintained, the entire city was chaotic, it was not our cup of tea. We pushed onward on the highway, paying toll after toll. We finally arrived in Tepic at 11 pm exhausted and famished. We were fortunately able to park for free in a gated area of a hotel. Moreno’s cel phone “alarm clock” went on the fritz and decided it would wake us up at 3 in the morning, instead of 5, which is when we promised we would vacate the lot. We packed up the van, closed the pop top, and slowly crept around the parking lot, only to realize the gates were still locked, security guards were asleep in the lobby, and the clock on the wall said 3am, and the sign posted below the clock said the gates would be open at 5am. When we did reawaken at 5am, we were groggy from a night of little rest, for we had parked across the street from a nightclub, which unluckily for us had its grand opening celebration that night, so we were kept awake by the booming techno music. In the morning we decided to go to Guadalajara, the "Paris of Mexico", or so what we had heard. We arrived in Guadalajara a few hours later, but could not find any reason to stay. Maybe we will give this city another chance on the way back.
Morelia
Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, and an UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of our favorite colonial cities thus far. It is very well preserved and clean. The buildings, all charming and unique in character made it a blast to take photos. The only drawback for the city was that it was exceptionally busy and crowded. The handsome cobblestone streets were heaving with congestion, and the Hispanic tourists were abundant. We were unable to find any camping areas or areas that would let us park for the night. We also had trouble finding cheap accommodations as the more affordable areas had no vacancies. We settled for a hotel charging a lot more than we wanted to spend but, but in turn got a lot more hotel. It had gated parking and it was still the cheapest we could find. We loved the cathedral, made with pick volcanic stone, located in the centre of town. Construction of the church began in 1640, and took over a hundred years to complete. There was so much to see around the city, it would have been great to spend at least a few days exploring the area, but with the cost for accommodations so high we were forced to leave the next day. We did have a chance to celebrate Moreno’s birthday at Onix, a trendy restaurant across the street from the cathedral.
Patzcuaro
Located about an hour away from Morelia, Patzcuaro is a town we regretfully had to skip spending the night in. We drove through the colonial town, looking for cheap accommodations, and again, there were no vacancies or camping. It would have been great to discover the beauty of the town, but we didn’t want to get stuck driving at night, and had a long haul before the next area of interest. Hours later we found no decent places to stop for the night, the sun was about to set. The nearest town was Lazaro Cardenas, which turned out to be an extremely sketchy town that sees no tourist action. Our only accommodation option was an hourly rate hotel seemingly run by a thick skinned, street-wise 12 year old boy. We bargained for a cheap room, for the “whole” night, and parked our van outside of our bedroom door. We covered the bedding with our own sheets, reluctant to have any of our skin touch the potentially germ infested bed. The only advantage was that we had air-conditioning, and in that heat, it was a blessing.
Our PEMEX experience
We drove to Acapulco, in search of cheap, safe accommodations, only to discover, neither existed. Acapulco feels like Mazatlan, but has nicer views, if you’re wealthy. However the majority of the city was unpleasant and the vistas were spoiled with the garbage that was carelessly strewn everywhere. So we put Acapulco in the rear view mirror and burned on down the scalding highway. The frequency of the towns which we passed south of Acapulco diminished rapidly. We finally settled on the town of San Marcos, we think that was it, as the sun was setting. The first two hotels were asking $25/night, but we wouldn’t stay there if they were free. The third was an hourly rate, and equally disgusting, so we settled on staying at a PEMEX gas station. There was an armed guard patrolling the grounds, but we still felt uncomfortable. Maybe it was the warning we received about the frequency of armed robberies in the area, or the way people would look at us. What ever the reason for this distress, we both had our guards up. We didn’t get much sleep, as we were blocked in by two cars, three trucks, and about 20 people, some of whom were sleeping under our van. We had the uneasy feeling that something might get stolen from our vehicle once we close our eyes. Luckily, nothing was.
Tapachula (Border city to Guatemala)
Navigating our way to and around Tapachula was a big undertaking. There were very few street signs and no indication of one-way roads until you were heading the wring way down them. Tapachula is a not so pretty border city. It had no colonial charm, or pre-colombian ruins and isn’t very cultural in the charming sense. It was dodgy, unwelcoming and polluted. As soon as we entered the city we were flagged down and made to stop by a group of boys and men claiming they were supposed to help us with the cross border paperwork. We got away from them in a hurry and went to look for a hotel that had safe parking. The cheapest hotels we could find, were asking $30, but they were dirty, had no parking and felt like they were in potentially unsafe areas. We had to fork up $47/night for a pretty decent hotel with secure parking. There was no option of parking overnight or camping. We would have crossed the border to Guatemala the next morning, but we were also here to visit a friend, Melissa, who Ashley worked with back in Vancouver. She had recently moved down here and was soon to be married. We visited her at the school she was teaching English at and had a great time catching up. Unfortunately we both ended up with upset stomachs, so we ended up spending the next 3 days at the hotel, taking advantage of unlimited internet use, and planning our route through Guatemala. Note: Tapachula and the entire border between Mexico and Guatemala can be quite dangerous as gangs and allegedly para-military groups commit robbery, harass, rape and even murder the many of the thousands of Central American illegal migrants who cross the Mexican border in search of prosperity.
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