| Today we crossed the border into Mexico. There are no pictures since we felt they might be sensitive about it. One reads so much about the border that the crossing was a bit of an anti climax. The town of Douglas lies on the US side at our chosen crossing and it is no picture postcard. Agua Prieta on the Mexican side is all that US prejudices believe Mexico to be. And it
looks pretty dreadful - definitely third world living conditions.
However we had chosen to cross here because it was small and we thought would be easier than in one of the big towns like Nogales which are supposed to be amongst the most dangerous places on the border with drug related killings almost every day.
There was no queue but at the Mexican border we were told to park and go to the office. There we went to immigration where we were assisted
in filling in forms for immigration visas. Basically the same as we would at any border (outside the EU). Then we went to the next counter where they
photocopied all our documents, they knew what they needed for where we were going, and they charged us $1. Then on to the third counter, the
banjercito (bank). This is where you pay! A temporary import permit for the RV cost $50 US and visitor visas for us were 280 pesos (about £14 or $22). No queues, no awkward questions and a great deal of civility. 40 minutes and we were on our way, waved through the green channel.
We had read on the internet that they were asking for a deposit for the vehicle. That had led us to chose a crossing which we could use in both directions, but like a lot of information on the net and about Mexico, it proved to be false.
Americans don't need visas if they are only going a short distance and not staying for more than 72 hours. Neither do they need import permits for the vehicles. We were both staying longer and travelling further than is the norm. Actually from the net we thought the limit was 30 miles, but we have since discovered it covers the whole of northern Baja and Sonora province down as far as south of Guaymas.
| We drove south through Agua Prieta having observed no
direction signs whatsoever. We got lost in a pretty unsavoury neighbourhood,
but with a dogleg or two we finally found Mexico Route 2 and headed west.
This basically follows the border and is a two lane highway of passable
quality through some pretty inhospitable country - much like it is north of
the border since the Sonoran desert extends well into Arizona. |  |
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Why anybody would want to live within 50 miles of the border on either side
is beyond me. It must be one of the hardest places on earth and I have no
idea what they do to make a living. About 50 miles west of Agua Prieta we came to
Cananea. This is a mining town founded in 1760 with the discovery of copper.
It is also famous for the workers' rights protest movement in 1906, a
precursor to the Mexican revolution in 1910.
We stopped for a break and then got lost again owing to the complete
absence of direction signs. Eventually Jan asked for directions and we found
the way out. We should have turned right at this spike. |
| But we didn't and ended up almost at the mine entrance
before turning back The ladle is copper coloured but this street didn't lead
to the way out. However the town seems very much more prosperous than Agua Prieta. |  |
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Mine spoil heaps do make a mess of the landscape, but this is not an easy
landscape to make worse! |
| You come across these signs every few kilometres. A
sign saying this is the road to wherever would help more. These signs are
the indication that a vehicle permit is not required in this area, so the
'permit free' zone is actually quite extensive. |  |
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Beyond Cananea the country gets wilder and more mountainous and our average
speed dropped. This is another mine way across the valley. Both copper and
manganese are mined in this area. |
| There is nowhere to overtake and quite a bit of truck
traffic on this road. We begin to see the wisdom of advice not to drive at
night. |  |
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It must be fairly dangerous because there are small shrines and flowers at
the roadside every few miles. This is a larger shrine. The man is lighting
a candle on the table below this huge rock painting of the Virgin. Mexico is
a very religious country. |
| Still travelling through the mountains. This is a
very interesting road if you like rugged country. |  |
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It is also interesting that the saguaro have a very limited altitude range.
We only found them as we came down from the 6000ft high pass. We also came
to
a customs post where we were stopped, our papers examined and they came and
looked in the fridge and freezer. But they were in and out in under a minute
and we were on our way. |
| We paused for a break at Imuris just behind this
truck. This is a very common configuration in Mexico. Tricky to pass..... |  |
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Another hazard of driving in Mexico for truckers is the random check. This
queue on the 15D toll road was over 10 miles long. A driver can wait a day
to get through. |
| But mostly the view is like this. Miles of scrub as we
continue through the Sonoran desert. The road is a 4 lane dual carriageway
and is fine with toll booths every so often. But the tolls are not excessive
although the motorhome is twice as much as a car. It just seems that way
when they charge you 93 pesos (about £5 or $7). The road is fenced, but it
seems that any old bit of branch will do as a fence post. |  |
 | And so to our campsite on the northern edge of
Hermosillo. It is noisy, being next to the main road, but it served our
needs and we were too tired to care much. This was the longest planned day
on the whole trip |
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There was a toilet (but no showers) and a putting green. The grass was
artificial, but the bunker was real. |  |
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