El Paso, TX. Huh!?!

How did we end up here? Can you say “Learning experience”?

We had a leisurely start to the day yesterday – showering, eating a heavy breakfast assuming a late or no stop for lunch, and stopping at WalMart to pick up a few forgotten odds and ends. We got in line and ended up crossing the border into Agua Prieta around 9:15am. Topmost on our mind at that point was that we had forgotten to fill the tank on the US side and had better find a gas station before leaving Agua Prieta. The US border agent stopped us and chatted a bit then sent us on to the Mexican agents. We were going to ask them where to find a gas station, but they just waved us on through. We were surprised they didn’t ask to see our passports or car insurance, but, hey, what do we know?

We found our Pemex station on the outskirts of Agua Prieta, filled up, and were on our way east on Mexico-2. The drive was pretty boring at first except for the fun of trying to figure out what the road signs meant. Then we got into the mountains and the drive became both more nervous making and more beautiful. Nervous making both because the roads are narrower than current standard US roads and there were essentially no shoulders and no guard rails. Beautiful because the desert mountains are and the air was so clear you could see a long way. We tried taking a panorama photo at one spot, but the depth is just lost in the photograph.

View looking north off Mex-2 a bit west of the Sonora-Chihuahua border

We made it through the mountains and turned south on Mex-10 at Janos. We figured we’d stop to fuel up the car and ourselves in Nuevo Casas Grandes in 32 miles.

How things change! About 13 miles below Janos we came to a check point and pulled in. The lady asked for our vehicle permit and Ken gave her our insurance papers. That wasn’t what she wanted. Apparently, when we crossed in Agua Prieta we were supposed to have our vehicle inspected and gotten a temporary vehicle import permit. If you are going to the interior of Mexico some variable x number of miles beyond the border, you need one of those. In all the checking Ken did with AAA and various other agencies, the insurance was mentioned but not the permit requirement. And all Ken’s previous driving trips to Mexico had been within the “frontier” zone where no permit was necessary.

The upshot was that our vehicle was impounded. We needed to go to back to the border (the nearest one was Palomas/Columus NM), pay the fines, and get the necessary permits before we could get the Tahoe back. And the office was only open M-F from 9-6. We gleaned all this with them only speaking a few words of English and us speaking only a few words of Spanish. Plus the help of a big Spanish-English dictionary we had brought along. The language barrier meant I couldn’t ask (or probably understand) so I don’t know why it took so long, but we didn’t finish all the paperwork until sometime after 4pm.

When we finally understood that we couldn’t just turn around and take the car back to the US, the plan had been that we would take a bus up to Palomas, cross over into Columbus, and have Ken’s son-in-law drive down to pick us up and take us back to Tempe. And then we’d come back down Monday to try to get the Tahoe back. We had earlier established that a bus would be going up at ~4pm and would stop across the street from the inspection station. Indeed, it did. While we were still trying to get all the paperwork signed.

So the next suggestion was that they would stop a southbound bus for us at the inspection station and it would take us to Nuevo Casas Grandes where we could catch another bus up to Palomas. Which is what we did. I couldn’t (and still can’t) figure out why we couldn’t catch the next northbound bus to Palomas there, but I didn’t know how to ask that either.

Of course, when we got to Nuevo Casas Grandes, the next bus to Palomas from that operator was at 2am. Luckily, there was another bus station right next door with a bus leaving soon. Too soon. It pulled out as we dragged our suitcases over. But we were able to buy tickets for the one leaving at 7pm. Two hours to kill. I asked about nearby restaurants and had a very tasty bowl of Camerones Especial. Lots of shrimp in a clear tomato/chile based broth with lots of cilantro. Muy Bueno.

Back to the bus station to wait for our bus. Which turned out to be the one to Juarez with a stop at Polomas on the way. We verified that with the bus driver and got on. A couple of times along the way (including stopping across from the inspection station) he asked us for our destination and we said Palomas and settled back with our eyes closed. It seemed to be taking a long time but we really couldn’t remember the distance and had neglected to ask about the arrival time. Finally, the bus driver asked about our destination again and when we said Palomas, he said we had passed that a long time ago and were coming into Juarez. That certainly explained the duration! I guess we were supposed to ring the bell and tell him to stop. But it was after dark and we hadn’t a clue where we were so we didn’t. At least that’s what I think was supposed to happen.

Luckily there was a wonderful young lady with more than a smattering of English who volunteered to guide us through the Juarez bus station to the buses to the border. By that time we decided we really wanted a taxi so she guided us there. And we were directed to a taxi that would take us to a border crossing. Unfortunately (and surprisingly to us since it was a border city) he only had a smattering of English. He did say $40 fare and then gave us a choice of three crossings. We had no idea which one to choose but settled on the downtown one. We got there, zipped through surprisingly easy – no inspection, no nothing – wandered around a bit, found another taxi, and asked him to take us to a decent hotel. We settled on an a hotel near the airport since we had decided to fly back to Phoenix from El Paso and checked in about 11:30pm Arizona time. I was fried.

So that’s why we are in El Paso, Texas. Our flight leaves this afternoon and we should be back in Tempe around 4pm. Then tomorrow we’ll take another car and drive the 5+ hours back to Deming NM (~30 north of the border) to stay the night and go down to Palomas Monday morning to do the paperwork dance and retrieve the Tahoe. We’re assuming it’s going to take a while so we’ll probably spend another night down there because I don’t trust myself driving back at night when I’m so tired. That would get us back to Tempe sometime Tuesday afternoon. If all goes well.

In any case, the trip as planned is down the tubes. We’ll regroup when we get back to Tempe with both vehicles and, after some significant sleep for me at least, decide what we want to do with our remaining time. Ken has another house guest coming in on Feb 6 so we must be back in Tempe by then.

On the up side, it’s sunny and no snow. And we were looking for some adventure.

[Update: Sometimes things work for the best even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. Looking at a map and remembering the view out the bus windows, I think the Palomas bus stop would have dropped us off at a crossroads about 25 miles south of Las Palomas. In the dark. So I’m glad we went on to Juarez. I’ve been in Las Palomas before during my RVing days and had been surprised by the lack of lights out the bus windows. I’m sure we never went there.]