Borderlands

It was a long drive after Las Vegas, snaking our way south on secondary highways, our focus shifting to the international border (memories of the long waits at Peace Arch not too distant).

More desert, weird dusty Californian outposts, some sightings of the Colorado River (which looked tiny despite how near it was to its mouth). Gas jumped up in price. I got lost for a bit and we actually crossed into Arizona (does that count as another state visited for Sarah?). The towns started to feel a little… Mexican. More Spanish on the signs, a subtle shift in the people we saw wandering about – not the California that I knew.

The desert remained relentless and near the end of our drive turned into full on dunes. There was a big gathering of offroaders there, but for those driving through no good place to stop and take pictures so we took some through the window (as above).

I stayed in El Centro when our family came back over the border from our time in the Baja (man, what year was that?). The name and it’s general location halfway between San Diego and Yuma my only memories of it. Our hotel was deeply uninspired. I locked myself out of our room. The wifi was absent. It was also clean and comfortable enough, but I was done paying $100 plus for lame roadside stops. We were ready for Mexico.

The actual border cross was a complete breeze. No kidding. From our hotel, we easily found the right road (still going by feel and we didn’t have any internet to double-check) and got there a little after 10. There was no stop. There were no questions. The line-up was a few minutes inconvenience and we were through. Unfortunately for us, there was more work to be done.

I’ll make a proper post about borders, but the important thing to note is that Mexico is not going to make sure that you have the documents you need. You need to know what you need and make sure you get it squared away. I’ve read more than one account of people getting too far into their adventure only to realize they need to backtrack to get the proper piece of paper.

There are two crossings at Mexicali. There’s the “main” one that we took – convenient from El Centro, you pass through the center of Calexico and are spat out into central Mexicali. And then there’s the other one that’s about 12 kilometers to the east. It’s the second one that will give you the stamps you need to continue on (at least for our journey – short stays are different [again, a summary will be forthcoming]).

The whole confusion was a tough introduction to Mexico. Central Mexicali is a strange confusing place even when you know where to go and the pilgrimage stop/go across town was stress I could have avoided with planning. So, be aware, not every crossing will have the Customs (or Aduana) that you may need. One bit of favourable luck, I was able to get our vehicle import permit secured online before we even left. We still showed up with our papers expecting them to stamp it or something, but for once bureaucracy was on our side.

We got gas in the car. I got confused and withdrew a paltry amount of pesos from the ATM. Sarah bought a bag of dog food (something we were mildly concerned about at the border that turned out to be a none issue). And gradually we eased our way out of Mexicali to begin our Baja adventure properly.

First stop was the “fishing town” of San Felipe…