Crossing into Mexico

We decided to cross the border at Laredo, TX based on some recommendations we found online. We arrived in mid-afternoon, got our oil changed, did some errands, and planned to spend that night sleeping in a Walmart parking lot. That afternoon Ike read online that crossing at the Colombia bridge west of Laredo was easier than the main border crossing in Laredo. So we changed our plan, headed over to the Walmart nearest the Colombia bridge, and pulled in ready to hunker down for the night. Except when we pulled in we saw a sign stating that overnight parking wasn't allowed. Damn. We pulled in anyway because we noticed quite a few semis parked in the back corner. Cruising around we saw a security guard parked towards the back of the lot and went to ask her if it was OK if we stayed the night. She started to answer in Spanish, then was obviously thinking hard about how to translate to English. I told her that I could understand Spanish, so she continued on. We found out that the semis with trailers are not allowed to park overnight, but that we would be fine. And in fact, there would be security guards there all night, so we would be safe. BOOM! Bethany: 1, Language Barrier: 0.

View from the parking lot

We called all our folks before disconnecting our US cell phones, grilled pork chops beside the car, then set up our beds and prepared for a toasty night ahead of us. It was 95 degrees when we pulled in late afternoon, and at sunset it was still around 90. Woof! But the breeze picked up as the sun went down. Thanks to a stroke of brilliance by my mom, we had fashioned screens for some of our car windows and were able to enjoy the breeze with the doors shut. Despite the bright lights, noisy diesel engines, and intermittent blaring music (I vaguely remember Metallica and Thong Song), we managed to get a decent night's rest.

Our alarm went off at 6:15. We planned to arrive at the border crossing around 7am. With the last minute change of border crossing, we weren't 100% certain of the route to the border. We spent a few minutes getting our bearings then hopped on the highway heading west. About 10 minutes along the highway we notice that our gas gauge is reading ¾ of a tank, but we had only put on 15 miles since we filled up the night before. What the heck is going on now? It was still dark at this point and our GPS showed that we were right along the border. I was nervous about pulling over in this situation, but we needed to find out if Sweetcakes was leaking gas before we arrived in Mexico. We pulled over, looked under the car for evidence of leaking gas, and finding none we decided to pour gas from our jerry can into our tank to see how much it would take. It took nearly 4 gallons. After a bit more discussion we concluded that Ike must not have topped off the gas tank when filling up last night. Phew, better human error than a problem with the car. There was liquid dripping out under the car, but it was just water from the AC. I did a smell and taste test to be sure. I was pretty worried though, as I thought I'd topped off the gas, and the gauge seemed to be dropping faster than normal. Everything has been fine since though, so we feel comfortable with our deduction.

By this time the sun was coming up and we had a beautiful sunrise. We roll on down the highway and come to the border. And it's closed. Dang! Rough start to our morning. We were the first car in the “auto” line. There were a couple of semis waiting at the border already. A security guard comes strolling over and tells us that the border opens at 8. It was 7:20am. The main border crossing in Laredo was open 24 hours per day, and we did not think to check the hours of this crossing. Ike apologized for changing our border crossing plans, but I said tranquilo.... we'll just roll with it! We passed the half hour chatting with the security guard in Spanish. He told us that in December the border crossing is very busy and lines can be 2 or 3 miles long. [Bethany at first thought he said 2-3 thousand cars long, but I heard miles. #betteratspanish] He was a super friendly guy who lived in Laredo, but still had lots of family across the border in Nuevo Laredo. He assured us that San Miguel de Allende, our first destination, was in a beautiful part of the country, but he had never been there.
The border opened promptly at 8am and the first step was to pay the $3.50 toll. Next we pulled ahead, parked our car, and walked into the building that housed the migracion office, banco, and banjercito. Everything we needed in one building, nice! [To be fair, that's exactly why we picked it] We walked in and no one was there yet, except for a couple of guys standing around and a couple of women cleaning. Ike suggested that we ask someone when the migracion office opens, but I said it is just whenever the worker shows up. So we waited. About 10 minutes later the migracion office opened. The employee was very friendly and spoke great English. We filled out the forms to obtain our tourist visas, then he took part of the form and sent us to the banjercito to pay for the vias and obtain the vehicle import permit.

The banjercito employee was clearly not looking forward to having to deal with a couple of gringos. He asked if I spoke spanish and I said un poquito and he continued on like I was fluent. I was having trouble hearing because of the glass window separating us, but we got through all the paper work. The fees were a bit higher than we saw online, but I'm guessing the fees online are just out of date. We paid $25 USD each for our tourist visas. The vehicle import permit was $59 USD including tax. We also had to pay a $200 USD deposit for our car, which we will get back when we leave Mexico with our car before our permit expires.

Next we went back to the migracion office where he finalized our papers and sent us on our way. Mission accomplished. We got back in the car and drove to the final check point, the vehicle inspection. The officers asked us to get out of our car and they inspected the vehicle, looking in our tubs and asking about tobacco, medicine, guns, and drugs. The inspection took less than 10 minutes and then we were on our way. We offered to help pull out boxes they were in and made it easy for them to browse around. I'm guessing if we had crossed at a busier time we would not have had such a thorough inspection. By 8:45 we were out on the highway. Do you have Tobacco? 'Yes' Can I see it? 'Sure' That's quite a bit isn't it? 'Eh, it's two months!' Do you have marijuana? 'No sir' Do you have cocaine? 'No sir' [wrong direction champ] Do you have methanphetamines? 'No sir' [uh, do I look like Heisenberg?]


We found a convenience store with an ATM and took out some pesos, then continued on toward our destination. [Stopped at the first convenience store. No ATM. See a gringo who we saw at the border who speaks fluent spanish [and was wearing an SMU business school shirt] and we asked him. He said 20 miles down the road. See the ATM sign, hit the brakes and go over the median to get to it. Except the left lane is like, 6 feet higher than the right lane. Avoided the semis. Won the game.] Highway 2 towards Nueveo Laredo, then we hopped on Highway 85 heading south toward Monterrey. The highway kept switching from a 4 lane divided highway to a 2 lane highway, but the signs were not clear and there weren't barricades separating traffic, so when switching from 4 to 2 lanes it was a little nerve-wrecking seeing 2 lanes of oncoming traffic coming straight at you. But we survived. A bit down the road we came to a customs checkpoint. I assume this was at the border of the “free zone” in Mexico where you don't need visas and import permits. We handed the customs officer our paperwork and were on our way in a few seconds.