Today the journey heads onward in to Mexico. I had a great time the past couple months, an expensive couple of months touring the USA, but finally we make our way South in to Mexico. Here is a break down of the border crossing today. We crossed the border pretty easily. No search really. They just asked us where we were going and waved us through.
After getting waved through, we parked and then had to deal with some paper work at immigration (something they don’t mention to you, but you need to know, so luckily we had done our research).
it was $25USD for the FMT (tourist visa type thing) and $49USD + $200USD deposit for the Temp Vehicle Importation Permit. I get $200 back on exit when I turn in the form. So $74 out of my pocket all together.
On that note patience is a virtue. Here was the process more or less. Cross border/clear customs. Park. Go to immigration office. Get slip to pay for FMT at Immigration, exit immigration and pay for FMT at bank around the corner. Go back to Immigration fill out FMT form (because this can only be done after you have paid…right … lol). Photocopy passport, FMT, vehicle registration (they don’t do it there, so you need to go find a shop close by that will). Go back to bank around the corner from the immigration office. Sign a few forms – make sure they input your vehicle info correctly (I would have gladly done it myself but I think they input it directly onto their computers, by looking at your docs, and print them out for you to sign). They seem to have had problems finding their way around my Canadian registration, fair enough, i guess they mostly get US registrations.
Anyway, only took 45 mins – an hour of mind-numbing bureaucracy (could have been worse). I’m pretty sure this process could have easily been simplified into two steps (1.fill out all necessary forms 2. pay) but I wouldn’t be surprised if the system was set up to make it inconvenient (governments around the world seem to love doing things like that).
Long story short, made it to El Sauzel (just north of Ensanada) today and super excited to be continuing on south. Vamos!
