A quick trip into Mexico

Our site at Mountain View RV Ranch. Good satellite reception and lots of room. We always parked back here with the Alfa. 

 Just some of the desert plants around the campground. 

The new owners seem to be cleaning up a lot of the park, most of the old decrepit RVs that were in storage are gone.

 After it finally warmed up we took off to do some errands . We went to Nogales, stopped at Denny's for breakfast then on to buy our Mexican vehicle insurance. We have used Sanborns since 1978. The one time we needed them their service was excellent. So after getting that done we continued on south. We take the Mariposa truck route to the border. The U.S. crossing. We used the car lane, when we head out with the RV we will take the truck lane where that RV is. 

Anything much bigger than a big pick up would have problems getting through the car lanes.

And a few yards later into Mexico.

All the trucks lined up waiting to get into the U.S. The lane between the barrier and the double yellow line is the lane for cars and RVs going back into the U.S. Coming back I always feel weird in that lane. 

Only a few miles down the road the first toll booth. And they are collecting tolls, at least here. 52 Pesos for a car. And of course we had to go through it coming back. Another 52 Pesos. 

Heading to the first Mexican check point about 1/2 mile. Be sure to stay to the left of the barrier both with cars and RV.

Entering the check point. If in an RV be sure to go to the right the lane next to the bus. It looks wide enough to take an RV through under the green arrows BUT after the barricade there are two very tight turns - no way an RV could make them. The bus/RV lane is straight out to the highway. No one stopped or looked at us. barricade arm went right up. 
A mile or so later the first construction. Shifted to  the north bound lanes.

New concrete highway going in. 

Coming up to Kilometer 21 where we will do our paperwork. Watch for the big metal tower. 

Lots of park available for autos and big rigs. The first place you go to apply for the tourist cards is the little building you can barely see behind the black pick up on the right of the picture. Have your passports ready. 

After filling out the tourists cards we went to the banjercito to pay and to do the vehicle paperwork.

Between the banjercito and the first building is a place to make copies, a money exchange and an insurance office. One stop shopping. The exchange rate given there is not good. Don't' know anything about the insurance company. 

The banjercito - You can see Bill standing in line. There were several people in front of us. Some who had never been to Mexico before. To make things easier be sure to have your new filled in tourist cards, your passports. If you are taking a car in have the ORIGINAL and a copy of the registration. We DID NOT need the title. Also your driver's license. I've always taken copies of our passports and driver's licenses but this year they only kept the copy of Bill's passport for the vehicle and this year they asked him to put his phone number and email address on the copy.  Notice the sign below. No hats, sunglasses or cell phones. Bill was asked to take his hat off and another person was asked to take their sunglasses off. Tourist card $25 each. The car $367 deposit must be put on a credit card with the drivers name on it. Will be returned to credit card when we leave Mexico

It took about an hour from the time we got out of the car and were on the road again. Lots of people in line. Our time was about 15 minutes. We put all transactions on our credit card with an exchange rate of 19.02 U.S. 
Didn't take to long to go through the U.S. border on the way back. 
Today shopping and a visit to Verizon. Hopefully not so hot today as AC in Jeep is being snotty.