We had read that you could pay for the tourist visa and car permit with credit card, but they had also said it helps to have some US$ in Mexico. The USA is very much a card culture, so we had rarely used cash. Before we left San Antonio We got out some money just in case.
We drove the few hours to the border, we knew we wanted to cross the Rio Grande on 'Bridge 2' we didn't know what that meant exactly, but we knew what to look out for. We headed through Laredo which didn't look too 'sketchy' as we had heard that border towns are dangerous.
Picture of Laredo, full of fast food.
Halfway through the town on the main highway the signs indicated we were heading to Nuevo Laredo! We were on our way! We got out the passports, car titles, insurance, and copies of each ready to speak to the US customs and then Mexican customs. Our electric windows were working and ready, to wind down for each lot. We were ready, ready!
We had a toll to pay of about two dollars to cross bridge 2, no worries, we had cash! We paid and moved on, so far so good!
We got to the US section, we saw lots of armed police, more battle ready than ready to stamp our passports. They all looked at us, no emotion, and waved us through, they didn't even speak to us. No passport check. We thought it was strange and we desperately looked for a sign telling us what to do as we're getting nothing from the army types.
We had to keep going, as there were cars in front and behind us, we followed the crowd and crossed the bridge. Usually, we see what there is to see crossing a bridge, the passenger has to tell the driver all about it, as they have eyes on the road, but this time we were a bit stressed and looking for any indication we were crossing correctly.
A minute or so later we were winding through another checkpoint. The people here were also more battle ready than stamp ready, a different uniform, but the same large, mean looking guns being carried around.... We looked again for the stamping office, or some one willing to give us any indication of where we show all our photocopies for processing..... Nothing, not even a nod or a smile. Maybe we were just meant to be happy we weren't pulled over by unhappy soldiers carting massive guns?
Then....all of a sudden, we are driving in Mexico! Wait...... what?! Are we in Mexico!? How did we get through? Doesn't someone want to find out how long we are staying or the purpose of our visit?
A bit of panic set in, we are illegal immigrants in Mexico!!!!
The back streets we were driving through, were not the nicest looking with shanty type buildings, we didn't feel like getting out and asking for help, then we saw a blue sign saying 'car permit' with an arrow, we saw another and another, and after 5 minutes of driving we were at a fenced car park for the car permit. We didn't know if we could get this processed as we were illegally in the country. Could we get our car permit if we didn't have our tourist visas?
We saw a line of about 10 cars. This must be where you get the permit, so we waited in the line with our originals and copies ready, only to find out it was the line for giving back your permit!!!
We finally parked the car and went inside. We saw an information booth just in the door, the guys smiled at us. We asked 'hablas ingles'? hopeful this guy would set our nerves at ease, his response was less than hopeful. 'No'.
We then saw a sign which had the process to get your car permit, 4 steps.
We went to step 1 with all our docs, fully prepared to be sent back to the people with guns to get our tourist visa. We met a nice old man who took our passports and made some joke about lots of kangaroos, he gave us a form to fill out. Turns out, he was the tourist visa man. He processed us giving us 180 days in Mexico. Phew, we were not illegals anymore! We asked him how much and he signaled that we paid at the end of the whole process. He told us to go to número dos! We had passed the first level!
Step 2, we walked up to a guy in a booth and he looked at our stuff for 2 seconds and waived us to step 3.
On to step 3, it was photocopying! Nup, we were good thanks! We were waived to step 4. On our way to step 4 we had a Mexican lady ask us where we got our photocopying done. We told her we did it before but step 3 had photocopying. She thanked us and eventually met us in the line up for step 4.
We started chatting she was from Mexico City but had been living in Chicago with her American husband and 2 kids for the last 10years. They were all moving back to Mexico to live, Playa del Carmen (take that Donald Trump!). We exchanged email addresses and spoke a bit more until we were called up to pay and have our car stuff validated.
All the docs passed with the lady serving us and we had to pay US$402 total. We gave our visa card and it didn't work, we gave another card, didn't work..... 5 cards later and nothing..... We counted out our cash and we were $4 dollars short! We asked them where the ATM was at the establishment.......they don't have one!!! We didn't know what to do, they had all our documents processed and were holding our passports, but we didn't have enough cash! We were cursing our last beer the night before in San Antiono (although much deserved and needed after the day we had had!). We were so close to being legal in Mexico, what were we going to do?! Would $4 be the end of our Mexican adventure?!
Sensing a problem, the lady we helped with the photocopies and had been talking to in the line came up to us and graciously offered the $4. It was such a lovely gesture.
We were then given the permit certificate, our visas and a sticker to put on the car window, we were done! We had not a cent to our name in a dodgey town in Mexico and our cards didn't work, but we were legal in Mexico!
Not 1 hour into our Mexican adventure and we were already relying on the kindess of strangers...
The 'pay forward' principle at work!
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