October 10, 2007

As we pulled forward to the orderly and official-looking (at least compared to what we had experienced in Central America) Mexican border buildings and caught a glimpse of the green, red and white colours of the Mexican flag, we felt like we had returned to the blessed motherland.

Yes, arriving back in Mexico was a big milestone for us and, as we reflected on the past several months, we felt a deep sense of accomplishment.

We had driven through all of Central America, had survived crumbling infrastructure, corrupt police, oppressive heat and chaotic borders, and had lived to talk about it.

And we were pumped to be back in a country where the roads are generally in better condition than Central America, where the Angel Verdes (Green Angels) patrol the highways and assist tourists who have vehicle breakdowns, where there are VW dealerships in most of the medium to large sized cities, where we had a comprehensive camping guidebook to rely on, where there lots of modern grocery stores fully stocked with supplies, and where the price of gas was $0.70 cents a litre.

But before we had the chance to get too sentimental about all of this we first had to get through a wee little border hiccup that reminded us that we weren´t home quite yet.

- - -

When we had left Mexico/entered Belize in June, we had surrendered our Mexican vehicle paperwork to a Mexican border official. At his request.

When we tried to re-enter Mexico from Guatemala – at the La Mesilla/Cd. Cuauhtemoc border crossing - we were told that we should have kept the original papers, or at least asked for a receipt from the official. Who knew?

It didn´t matter that: (1) we had been told to hand over the original papers (2) still had a photocopy of them, (3) still had the hologram sticker on our windshield and (4) still appeared in the Mexican computer system as having a valid permit.

No, all that mattered was that we didn´t have the original papers.

It took two hours of heated "debate" with the "jefe", before they finally agreed to let us cross the border (their sage advice, which we declined, was to go to the police station and report that our papers had been stolen).

But we were sternly warned as we pulled away that we could be in some serious trouble if the police were to ever pull us over as headed north.

Key Facts & Figures:

Mexican Border
-Fumigation: $5