Foiled By The Shrew in the GPS

What a day.....but we are in Mexico!

We left our hotel in Pharr, TX this morning about 8:00 a.m.  We were concerned about being able to exchange some USD.  On Wednesday night we had asked several people where to find a casa de cambio and no one seemed to know!  So we stewed about what to on Wednesday night and wouldn't you know....on the last eight miles to the border there were about three casas de cambio on every block.  So we had pesos.

I had tried to do research on the procedure to get our vehicle permit at the Pharr crossing, but the best info I could find was at the Loredo crossing.  The blog entries I read stated that the Aduana (customs) building was several kilometers past the border.  We entered the entry line about 8:30 a.m. and a US immigration officer asked for our passports and wanted to know where we were going and for how long.  He seemed concerned about how much money we were carrying.  After a few questions he waived us through and it was time to go through Mexican customs.  There was only two cars ahead of us in line and we all received a green light to go right through....which was good because no way did I want to unpack all the stuff in this car.

There was no Aduana office after the boarder, we were just in the border town of Hildago.  Immediately the shrew in the GPS started sqwacking at us to turn right.  We did...completely ignoring the fact that all the other cars were going left.   We followed her mindlessly as she took through about six streets in Hidalgo before dumping us on a major street.  At this point, I started looking for the Aduana sign.....and we kept on driving and driving.  Finally, after about 45 minutes on the road we saw it!  I was so relieved....but that was to be short lived.  The immigration officer at this stop was just checking to make sure we had our tourist visas and vehicle permit.  Couldn't obtain it here....so we had to back track 45 minutes to the border.

Once at the border we quickly found where we should have been in the first place and there were only a few people in line in front of us.  The whole procedure took about an hour.  We handled our immigration, customs and permit in that one stop.  I've waited longer just to go through immigration and customs at an airport.....never mind getting a car permit!  We met a couple at that Aduana office that were dealing with issues from the permit they had received 12 months ago.  The laws have changed this past year and they thought their car was entitled to stay in country as long as they were....so they let their vehicle permit expire and I know from their experience this is something I never want to do.  And, it turns out, that they live in Ajijic!  They went on and on about how much they loved that town....I'm so ready to be there.

So Matt and I started driving and we decided to take the "cuoto" or toll roads whenever npossible.  We had no idea how many toll booths we'd go through and how quickly the tolls would add up.  I think we spent about $50 in tolls today and we're only about 1/3 of the way there.  But the roads are fantastic....better than US highways and there is very little traffic on them.  The libre (free) roads have a lot of large truck traffic.

We were about two hours into our drive when we noticed a storm coming in.  We're in the dessert here, how often can it rain?  Well, we found out that when it rains it does pour.....and just for good measure we got a lot of pea sized hail and lots of lightening.  The water was standing in the highway in some places about 12" deep.  We decided time to pull over.  We ended up sitting about 45 minutes in a 7-11 parking lot waiting for it to slow down.

Then.....through all the clouds and the mist....we saw mountains!  I had no idea there would be mountains on our drive!  I was amazed....they were so beautiful with those fluffy clouds around them.  I didn't notice the look on Matt's face, maybe not sheer terror but close to.  He was terrified we would have to drive through them.  Well....so far so good, we've stayed at the base of the mountains.

Our reservation for tonight was at the American Business Inn in Satillo, MX - one of the few hotels on our drive that will accept dogs.  The reviews on TripAdvisor noted how difficult this place was to find....the sign only has a stylized "AB" and then Bien Venidos.  One review clearly described where it was on the north side of Satillo so we started looking as soon as we hit town.  But the review said it was on the south side of the highway so we were looking left.  Unfortunately it was to the right.  We drove through Satillo (which is a beautiful college town) and decided to stop at a gas station for directions.  The young man I talked with was great, he knew where it was, but of course he only spoke Spanish.  I swear, I tried to use everything Angel taught me, but about the most I could understand was go down two block to Fernando something drive, turn left and it would be before the airport.  But somehow we ended up in a residential neighborhood, and then a business neighborhood, and then the barrio.  At this point we weren't sure we could find our way back to the main road, but finally we made it.  My next plan of attack was to stop at a hotel for directions.  The Hampton was great!  The man at the front desk spoke English and he even gave me a map and marked where we were and where I was going.  I thought great!  No problem!  What I didn't realize that this map was by no means drawn to scale and although it showed all the Satillo hotels, where they were on the map did not match where they were in real life.  To compound the situation, the main road is a divided highway and everytime we needed to turn around we had to go way back into town before we could turn around again.  Well after stopping at one gas station, two hotels, and one restaurant, we found our hotel.  We spent an hour and ten minutes roaming the streets.

Obviously, although we didn't gain much ground today, it was a tough day.  We were stressed about what to expect at the border and what condition the streets would be in.  Really, if it weren't for our initial mistake at the border, the gully washer rainstorm and wandering through Saltillo for over an hour, this would have been an easy day.

Tomorrow we have much longer to drive to reach Ajijic, probably about 500 miles.  It does look like we can get a toll road for most of the trip so that will really help us make some good time.  And then by tomorrow night we will no longer be homeless.  We're all three tired of living out of suitcases and a car.

I took a lot of pictures today of this beautiful drive, but can't get the Ipod to transfer the pics.  Geez...old people with new toys.  But maybe tomorrow we'll get it figured out.