Mexico or Bust!

It was a long night last night at the Motel 6. They are good in the fact that they take dogs, but this one was not in the quietest part of town and their was some shenanigans going on. Some people's kids.

With rather drowsy eyes and foggy brains, Mic, the pups and I started the next phase of our journey; crossing into Mexico.We had coffee in hand as we made our way across the Rio Grande and what a sight. The bridge at Laredo is quite high. Greeting us on the other side were a number of different kiosks that you drive past. Unfortunately, the border guards from Mexico, neglected to inform us to keep to the left to make our way to the appropriate customs office. A kind hearted Mexican, for the low price of $1, helped us make our way to the immigration office where we filled out "tourista" cards and obtain the required temporary import vehicle paperwork.

For today's tip, we thought immigration would be a good topic. If you are planning on driving down, be sure to stop in at the immigration office and obtain your appropriate paperwork. The border guards who inspect your vehicle, are not necessarily the best on providing that detail. Thank goodness we stopped to ask or we would have been in deep doodoo. Also be sure to have your current passport, as well as all of Fido or Fluffy's vaccination records with you in the event they ask for them. No one actually asked for the canines' records and the dogs sailed through the border without a whimper or a pat...well, Molly snuck in a few barks at the officials though.

We were off into a terrain that again resembled New Mexico and Texas, and eventually turned into what people would expect of a typical Mexican landscape. We saw some magnificent views and wound our way through the Mexican countryside passing through the odd town and village along the way.

We arrived in Monterray around 12Noon and wow, our first experience of driving in a busy Mexican city was a little intimidating to say the least. The traffic moves at a phenomenal pace with extremely aggressive drivers. Toronto, you have nothing on Monterray.

Monterray is a sprawling city with older sections but seems to be a more modern and progressive city overall. It was pretty much everything you would expect in a major city; beautiful shopping malls, progressive architecture, designer brand name outlet malls and more.

As we cleared Monterray, Mic who drove admirably through the surrounding auto chaos of the big city, and we sighed a deep breath and started to relax a little after that foray. We happily drove through some more beautiful countryside which seemed to become more fertile and lush with our travels south. We finished our day in Ciudad de Victoria after driving over 560 kilometres.

Tomorrow we will be heading more inland and will be winding up our day near Mexico City. We are definitely going to be taking the bypasses there. Until tomorrow from All Paths Lead to Roatan!