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Traveling in Mexico
Sent: Tuesday,
March 23, 1999 4:42 PM
How Rick got
home.
Scott McGill pointed out that I never explained how I got
from Tampico to the Belize border. That
was a little mini-adventure for me, while Moses was driving through by himself.
My adventure:
I watched Moses drive off from the trailer park, leaving me
to get to the Tampico airport. I
had given him all the paperwork on the trailer (including my Mexican tourist
permit and a handwritten letter authorizing him to drive the Scout &Trailer through to Chetumal) and now I simply had to get a cab.
Well, they wouldn’t come to the trailer park, which is out on the
bypass. Eventually, the owner of
the trailer park (very affluent, eh?) took pity on me and took me to the
airport, wouldn’t accept any money for doing that.
At the airport, I found out I couldn’t fly to Chetumal without going to
Cancun & spending the night. I
decided to fly to Villa Hermosa and take a bus to Chetumal.
I got into Villa Hermosa about 1PM and to the bus station (right downtown)
by 2PM. The next bus with space
available left for Chetumal at 8PM that night.
I tried to buy a ticket (180 pesos, about $18US) and discovered I only
had 150 pesos. Hundreds of US
dollars, but not enuf pesos for a bus ticket.
They told me to change money I needed to go across the street to the
bank. I went over, and there was a
big sign on the door "FUMAGADO” The
place was closed to be fumigated, and it was apparently the only bank in the
area!!
After wandering around for a while looking for an itinerant
moneychanger, I walked upstairs to a copier/fax/business computer place, and
they told me about a bank that was “down two streets and up two blocks”
I went there, and there wasn’t a bank in sight.
Money machine, but no bank. I
went back to the bus station & talked to the only person I could find who
spoke some English and she only knew about the bank across the street!
Eventually, about 5:00, I walked down two blocks and over two again, and
there was a guard, armed with an AR-16, walking around.
I asked him what he was guarding and he said “Banco!” and pointed
upstairs. I went up, through two
armored doors, and into a money changing operation that had more dollars than
Brinks. They changed a couple of
hundred dollars for me, and I was back in business.
Back to the bus terminal, and buy one of the last two remaining seats on
the 8PM bus. Across the street to
the allnight café, where I played some great music on the jukebox (Los Tigres
del Norte – “the tigers of the north” – a GREAT
Tejano band) and had some great Mexican food and a couple of Coronas
(¿La
cerveza mas fina, por favor?) Everyone
got friendly, and helped me play the jukebox – so I discovered again, that
music, beer and food are the keys to instant friendship in the third world.
Works in Nogales, why not Chetumal?
The bus ride was gentle, because much of the time we were
cruising through fog at reduced speed – maybe 25 or 30.
I even slept for a little while. We
got into Chetumal about 5:30 in the morning, and I hung around until 8 and
headed to the border. They
wouldn’t let me out of Mexico without my tourist permit!! (They’re afraid
that you might sell your car in Mexico.) So
I had to wait in Chetumal for Moses to arrive and give me back my permit. I checked into the Holiday Inn, (the most expensive hotel in
time by double) and settled down to wait. I had a good time exploring Chetumal
on Sunday and Monday, and Moses showed up Tuesday morning. He actually got in
the night before, and spent the night in a cheap hotel.
Sr. ric
Copyright, CASELab, 1999. All rights reserved
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