Potrero Chico, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

We were up at 6:30am yesterday to get an early start for the border. The Columbia Bridge border crossing is actually about 25 miles (40 kms) west of the city of Laredo. We like this crossing because it’s never busy and there is lots of easy parking for an RV of any size.

The downside of course is that it’s almost 40 miles (64 kms) out of the way because you have to drive back towards Nuevo Laredo once you’re on the Mexican side. We think the convenience of the crossing is worth the extra drive.

As we arrived at the bridge, the American border guards were pulling everybody over. They said that Sherman had to go through the x-ray machine and they had a vehicle lead us to the x-ray bay. We’ve had this happen before when entering the U.S., but never when leaving. This procedure took about 15 minutes and then we were cleared to cross the bridge. We paid the $3.00 bridge toll fee and crossed over. Immediately on the other side of the bridge we were stopped by the Mexican military and they did an onboard inspection of Sherman.

That only took a few minutes, and I thanked the military guys for their security.

Then, we were allowed through the Mexican customs. Mexico border inspections are totally random. As you pull up, either a red light or a green light comes on. You can probably guess what they mean. Sure enough, we got a red light. That’s fine, although it seemed like everybody was getting a red light. Maybe it’s because they were bored. Who knows. Anyhow, they pulled us over and two girls did the inspection. A third girl brought a drug sniffing dog over and he went through Sherman’s interior including jumping right up on our kitchen table. We thought that was funny. There was a bowl of Whiskey’s food there and the dog didn’t even sniff it. The girls all thought Whiskey was cute and the couldn’t believe she’s 15 years old.

So we passed all of the inspection, including the double checking of Sherman’s paperwork. We have a 10 year permit for the motorhome that we got in December 2007 so there’s a few years left on it yet.

Then we were sent inside for our immigration paperwork. We were issued 180 day visitor permits and then sent to the cashiers desk to pay 262 pesos ($21.00) each for the permit.

The entire border crossing procedure took about an hour. Not bad.

Then it was off to the Mex 85 highway heading south to Monterrey. The beginning section is a free road and then you have the option of taking a free road or the toll road. Toll roads in Mexico are very expensive, however they save a lot of time and they also save a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle. The first couple of years we stuck to the free roads because we were trying to be thrifty, however we now use more of the toll roads when they are available.

The first part of the toll road was 135 kms (84 miles) and it cost 246 pesos ($19.70)

The second part was 9 kms (5.5 miles) and cost 43 pesos ($3.44).

Then we headed about 30 kms (18 miles) north on highway 53 towards the town of Hidalgo. To get to Potrero Chico you have to go into the town and follow the signs towards the huge rock faces that are popular with the climbers.

We arrived at Homero’s at about 12:30pm. We didn’t stop at all except to pay the toll fees, so we made good time. Nobody was there, but as I was wandering around Homero drove in. He remembered us from when we were here in the spring and welcomed us. He warned that there was a church reunion going on tonight, but they should be quiet. I have never seen a quiet Mexican party, so I was not really convinced!

We had a quiet afternoon. We were waiting for our friends Chris and Juan however for some reason they never showed. We don’t have internet here yet because we haven’t had a chance to recharge our Mexican cellular internet stick. So we have no idea what came up, but they never arrived. I’m sure we’ll see them tomorrow.

Some people showed up for this party tonight, and with lots of children. There’s a swimming pool here so  they were busy playing and having fun. As we were getting dinner ready, one of the children came over and brought us a couple of small cups of homemade ice cream!

And so here at 9:30pm Saturday night as I write we are listening to Mexican music and a bunch of church goers having a party. The music isn’t overly loud though and I’m pretty sure that because there are a lot of children that it won’t go all night like a lot of Mexican parties do!

Our GPS co-ordinates tonight are 25.95728 -100.47757

We drove about 290 kms (180 miles) today. 

 (Can't post any pictures from this internet connection!)