1. Viva Mexico
Another day… I am up way before the sunrise, once again. This time the heat is not the main reason. I am crossing to Mexico today. This is the first time I have to go through the process of obtaining a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for my motorcycle. You hear horror stories about border crossing and I don’t know what to expect. I chose Sunday morning as I expect there won’t be too many people. And I was right. I was the only one in the building. I had all my paperwork ready so lets the fun begin. First, you need to “import” yourself, i.e. immigration. Pretty straight forward affair and the officer even filled the paperwork for me. Gracias! With the copies of my freshly obtained immigration I moved along to tackle the bike permit. They had a few question regarding my registration and expiry days but all was good. I signed bunch of papers, paid lot of money and I had my first TIP in my hand. You need to get TIP for every country you enter. They take a deposit when you enter the country and you will get it back when you surrender the TIP when you leave. Depending on the country, it could be quite a frustrating times. Here are the prices I had to pay:
TIP deposit: 7,056 pesos = $533
Immigration: 687 pesos = $54. (valid for 6 months)
TIP itself: 971 pesos = $76. (valid for 6 months)
Mexican bike insurance: $510 (valid only for 20 days 🙄 - but still cheaper then back home!)
Total cost for Mexican fiesta is $640
The whole process took me about 35 minutes. The bar is set pretty high for the rest of the trip.
With all my papers in hand, I packed it in and off I go on an adventure. Left behind are all the comforts of the first world and it is pretty much all unknown ahead of me. The route to Chihuahua was quite short, about 260 km. And I gained an hour going westbound. The road was more interesting but still not too much to write home about. I didn’t want to be in the town too early as check-in is 1500 for this hotel. I booked the hotel last night, so no guessing where I gonna go. Part of the road was a toll road. I got to the pay booth and the display showed the price - $72. Wow. The road was good but not that good! It always gets me in Mexico as they write the symbol for Mexican peso as a dollar sign. OK, 72 pesos is more like it. No need to freak out. Soon enough, I was going through the burbs of Chihuahua. My GPS took me straight to my hotel. I picked hotel IBIS as I know this brand when working in EU. We’ve had crew overnights in many of them and they were quite comfy and clean. Only I am 3 hours early … Luckily, there was one room ready and I was set. On my question where can I park my bike they told me to park it right in front of the main entrance. Works for me 👍. I got a nice room on the 6th floor and all was as advertised. After spending 10 days in dumps this is a nice treat and many levels above. And for half the price of the cheapest US motel!
Anyway, I settled in and start planning the next few days. I will be meeting with an other adventurer who is doing exactly what I am about to do. Except he is on the way home. He is from Vancouver and rides the same bike. And I “met” him online after watching his YT channel, The Dutch Way Down. It is like having my own personal scout. Now I need to get all his intel. We’ll be meeting on Tuesday in my next destination, Parral. But wait when you see the hotel I booked. OMG, it is something else! I will be two nights so I’ll take some quality photos. But that’s next …
I went out for a walk after sunset and apparently, the whole city had the same idea. Only stores open were ice cream shops. There was an evening market and people everywhere. Old, young, in between, everybody was out. It is the only time you can do it as daytime temps were 38˚C. I followed the sound of the music and got to the town square. And it was full of people. There was a band playing and people dancing. Clearly they were enjoying themselves. I was hard not compare out cultures. North of the border, everybody is in their little kingdom, locked in their own world. Supposedly a safe place. Here, on the other hand, everybody is out socializing and having a good time. Interesting concepts …
I totally feel that my journey starts only today. And I wasn’t disappointed. Tomorrow is a short day, about 230 km and I am looking forward to start exploring some “off the beaten path” places.
Adios amigos 🤙