12/15/08

Having some trepidation about crossing the border, we stopped in Tucson for two days to prepare for our departure.  We did all our laundry, organized the contents of the van meticulously, and even made a typed inventory of the large and/or costly items.  Administrative-wise, we made copies of our passports, title, registration, driver’s licenses and health insurance cards.  On Monday morning, we made a few last minute phone calls, suspended our phone service, left the USA and headed to Nogales, Mexico.

The Nogales border crossing is somewhat unique in that you pass through customs some 21 km before the stop to get your tourist card, and in our case, a temporary vehicle import permit.  We chose to cross at the “commercial” crossing in order to avoid driving through downtown Nogales.  At the border toll booth, the lady asked us if we were going to the city.  After processing her Spanish for a moment, I replied no, we were headed to Hermosillo.  She told us to stay left, so as we pulled out of the toll booth we proceeded all the way left, around a big line of cars, presumably headed to downtown Nogales.  Having “skipped” the line, we sailed through customs, getting the green light (literally) at the pass points, and proceeding slowly through the speed bumps.  We were surprised to drive right through without talking to anyone, with only as much as a wave and a smile.  We had nothing to hide, but having someone filter through the van’s contents didn’t seem like fun, not to mention time-consuming, so we were very pleased with the whole process.

Next stop was for the tourist card, which was an open square of red tents.  Although many people were trying to “help” us, we managed to find the official tent, a few stalls down on the right.  We were required to show our passports and driver’s licenses as well as fill out the official copies of the tourist cards.  The official informed us that we needed to make copies of our passports, title and tourist card to give to the bank for our vehicle import permit.  We chose one of the other tents to make these copies and were off to the Banjercito bank.

The Banjercito bank is 3 km further south with several official buildings and another checkpoint as well.  Luckily there were no lines at the bank either – after producing both the originals and the copies, the bank teller processed the paperwork and posted the bond for our vehicle.  We opted to give a credit card for this bond, which totaled about $39 – for a cash bond it would be about $2000. Twenty minutes later we got a holograph sticker to put on the windshield, good for keeping the van in Mexico for six months. 

After changing some dollars into pesos at one of the exchange stands, we headed out onto Mex 15.  Although Mex 15 is a four lane divided highway, it is somewhat narrow throughout the northern section and has virtually no shoulder.  However it is a pleasant and scenic drive south to the Guaymas/San Carlos region.