Mexico first day

The border crossing was rather painless. Actually after all I heard and read about it I must say it was fairly straight forward. The only thing; one really has to know what to do, because if you happen to get a green light in the nothing to declare line, you’re good to go – so you think – no one will stop you or tell you that you have to get your tarjeta de turistico at the Migracion, neither to go to the banjercito to get your car temporarily imported. Luckily for me, my friends John & Silvia in Redondo Beach, where I was happily staying for the last couple of days have prepared me well. John has extensive knowledge of Mexico, many trips that he led as tour guide as well as motorcycle and car trips. He spent a lot of time with me, figuring out a red line for me through the country.

And also as John predicted, I could not even stop at the US border to get rid of my green three months slip stapled into my passport. While heading south across the border in Calexico passing the US immigration building everything is fenced off, two lanes become one and there is no place to park neither a way to walk across to the other, the US side. So I went on, without stopping and still have the card in my passport. I am sure the immigration officer up at the top of the world highway in Alaska who got so excited about me re-entering the USA after my time in northern Canada went into the immigration system this morning to check whether that crazy Swiss guy with his blue truck was doing as he told him to. And he’ll be even more upset with me now thinking I was still in the land of the free. So next time I’ll enter the USA I will probably get the supermega “Taliban treatment” at the border. All that said, I will check the immigration homepage, maybe there is a place I could send the little green paper in with a copy of my entry stamp into Mexico, might be the way to get rid of my “red flag” in the US immigration system and at the same time of the green slip.

I love the US; a wonderful, very beautiful country with a lot of open minded, tolerant people, however if you are a tourist wanting to spend your savings in the US rather than in your own country or somewhere else, the process at the entry points into the country is a rather intimidating one. The style of these guys working there must be something they get specifically trained on, sometimes this pseudo authority comes across almost a little comical for an official dealing with, even though not another official or an authority, but still with an adult.

Currently I am camping at the Villa Marina Campo Touristico (N30°54.945’ W114°42.863’), a fairly nice campground directly at the beach about 18 km South of San Felipe. The front row is all taken up by RV’s that seem to have found their final resting place here and except for two none of the snowbirds have arrived yet. But the second and third row are sheltered for shade and offer a roof terrace with fantastic views over the ocean, the empty beach and on the other side into the hills. The facilities are a little beaten up but everything works and is clean. There are showers (without shower heads but a pipe coming out of the wall and the water runs with sufficient pressure); clean flushing toilets and everything seems very quiet, clean and safe. To get here take a right turn at the roundabout in San Felipe towards the airport, which is signed. About 8 km down the road the paved road to the airport makes a sharp right turn shortly after that turn left, there is a bunch of “property & land for sale” signs pointing in that direction and the road is still paved and in fair conditions. About 7km down that road you will see a large sign and a short gravel road leads you to the beach and the campground.

Shaded Campsite

Sunrise from the roof terrace

As you may have noticed I have changed my blogging a little, inspired by John and looking at several blogs with him I will turn my English blog a bit more into something hopefully useful for those of you travelling too, or planning a trip to those countries I am visiting. My German blog will remain more a story book of what I experience, who I run into on my trip and how I am digesting all the impressions I get while being on the road. Hope that keeps it nice and interesting for those of you speaking both languages and give you a little more useful stuff to read should you be on the road yourselves.

Feedback is always welcome, looking forward to your comments.