Sensational & Savvy at 70: First Mexican Challenges!

We are safe and sound in Mexico however our move wasn’t without its horror stories! After an uneventful drive from San Antonio to Laredo, and filling in all of the paperwork for our possessions to be exported across the border, we checked into a hotel and let Sadie and Ali out of their carriers. Sadie (our female cat) was extremely nervous so she crawled under the bed where she stayed during the evening. Later she kept us awake all night with her meowing and pacing and jumping on the bed. Since we couldn’t sleep, we started for the border and made our crossing at 6am.

The border crossing went smoothly – too smoothly we found out later. Four hours into Mexico, I was driving and running out of petrol. I saw a sign that showed a pump and 1 km so I got off on an access road. There hadn’t been any petrol stations right off the toll road. Mexico roads are notorious for their potholes plus they aren’t just any potholes – some of them are craters! They also have topas (speed bumps/sleeping policemen) quite often on busy roads. After carefully dodging all the potholes for about 1 km there was no petrol station but I came to water across the road. Steve told me to take it easy and slow so I went to the far left side because the water looked shallower there although it was muddy so it was impossible to tell. As I slowly progressed, all of a sudden the front of the car went down into a deep hole and we were stranded with water up to the bottom of the door. As we got out to inspect the damage, we were both thinking, here we are in the middle of nowhere in Mexico with no cell service and no one around. Steve waded to the front and following some checking he thought he could lift the passenger side of the car enough that I could get traction and reverse out. I killed the engine several times, then finally we managed to reverse the car out. Steve was now soaked with muddy water as he checked under the car. Fortunately, he didn’t see any serious damage – just some scrapes. The picture isn’t our car but we neither one had our wits about us enough to take a photo. This is just to show you how much the car dropped off into a big hole!

Not our car - just to show the angle!

We carried on and got to Guadalajara around 7pm. It had already been 13 hours and we were tired of sitting in the car so we decided we’d stay somewhere there for the night. Nothing is on the toll roads so we got off at an exit for a road into the city. It turned out our chosen road was almost a carpark with bumper to bumper crazy Mexican drivers. We saw signs for hotels but driving round and round, we could never find them. After well over an hour we were frustrated, tired and also stuck in non-moving traffic that merged into a large intersection where several roads converged. There were no traffic lights so it was every man for himself. When Steve forced his way in, we discovered why traffic was backed up so far. The whole intersection was one gigantic pothole after another with hardly an inch between them. There were also two sets of railroad tracks running across the street we needed to take with the pavement badly eroded around them. We bumped our way through the potholes scraping the underneath of the car the whole way across. It was now 10pm, 16 grueling hours after starting out that morning, when we made it out of Guadalajara and checked into a hotel on the way towards Puerto Vallarta.

Morning came all too quickly as we started the final leg of our journey early, arriving at the condo midday. It took several phone calls to track down the person with the keys so we could get in and when we did, my jaw dropped when I saw the condo -- it is so unbelievably gorgeous. The photos we were sent just don’t do it justice. It’s much more stunning and the view looking straight out from our balcony is dazzling blue water with old town Puerto Vallarta to our right. Our few possessions (we thought it was few until we had to move the boxes!) arrived early the next morning (Thursday) and one of the security guards and his friends helped us move everything in.

That afternoon, Steve emailed our Mexican attorney to let him know we were here and told him about our crossing. He asked about our visa document that we needed for our residency but we weren’t told to get the appropriate document. We had the visas and the Temporary Import sticker on the windscreen of the car so we were just waved on through. When we met with him the following morning he said that our missing document is a critical step in getting our temporary residency. The only way we could do that is to drive back to Nuevo Laredo and go to the Immigration office - no other choice. Since we were already in the attorney’s office, we started filling out more required forms to apply for our temporary residency.

I only got in the wrong lane once!

Sunday morning, we left at 5am for the 17 – 18 hour drive back to Nuevo Laredo, arriving at 10pm. As the Immigration office is open 24 hours, 10.30 on Sunday night is the perfect time to go. We completed yet more forms and quickly received the appropriate document with no questions and no problems. We didn’t even have to exit Mexico into the US and come back in, which was a big relief!

After sleeping in Nuevo Laredo for 5 hours, we started the 18 hour trip back, arriving totally exhausted at midnight Monday night. This time we made the whole 1,800 mile return trip in 42 hours without the car being caught in potholes and we are learning quickly how to drive like the Mexicans. Monday, I made a U-turn from the right hand lane with cars coming at me from both directions and Steve was overtaking slower trucks and cars on curves and hills when driving through the mountains.

To add to our trauma, Sadie has been in attack mode, mainly towards Ali, so we’ve had to separate them and keep them in different bedrooms for a week. Wednesday morning, a week after arriving, was the first time we’ve were able to let them out into the same room.

After being here for a week, we went back to the attorney and completed yet more paperwork and had photos taken. Our forms are now with the Mexican authorities and we are waiting for the notice to meet with them and get our finger prints done. We are also hoping that we can now get everything unpacked and in place and have a less stressful time.

This adventurous start hasn’t stopped us from having a drink on our balcony every evening and enjoying the sunsets! Stay tuned for more of our Mexican adventures as we get settled.