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July 2000

Chihuahua and Sonora

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 19:13:53

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Monday Morning we drove into Mexico which began the first in a series of unfortunate travel occurrences. At the border we were well aware that we needed tourist cards to enter the interior of Mexico as well as a vehicle pass. So to begin with we actually had the following exchange with a border guard:

Me (rolling window down): Can you tell me where I can get tourist cards for the interior?
Guard: Son, do you have any idea where you are?
Me (desired reply): Taco Bell?
Me (actual reply): Yes, that's why I want a tourist permit.
Guard: This is the Mexican border.

This was followed by a lovely morning in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta. The process for obtaining the required documents was something like this:

1. Wait in line for vehicle permit. Reach front of line, be re-directed
to get tourist permits first.
2. Produce US Passport, get friendly old customs agent with 1942-style manual typewriter
to type out official looking form one painstaking letter at a time.
3. Pay $1 US for his time.
4. Go to bank to pay for tourist cards. Naturally, they would not tell us where the bank
was, but for $1 US they sent someone to direct us.
5. Pay $1 banking fee + tourist card fee and get receipts.
6. Return receipts to friendly old customs agent and get tourist cards.
7. Wait in line for vehicle permit. Fill out forms, pay $1 US processing fee.
8. Get sent to another copy room to obtain copies where a friendly customs agent will
gladly make copies for you for a $1 US fee.
9. Return to vehicle line with copies, receive permit, pay (gasp) $4 US fee.

After all this you might wonder why we wanted to go to Mexico... so did we.

Anyway, we finally were free to enter the country proper, which we did by ...