The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Yesterday was our day to go down to the border crossing at San Luis to get our tourist visas and import stickers for the Jeep and truck.  So how did that all go?  Well it was interesting to say the least. 

 Here we're going through Somerton before San Luis.  They have tamale festivals and the yellow sign says November is corn month.  Who knew?

 Lots of fall crops growing here as well.  Here we are at just over 100 feet elevation which is a far cry from 8000 ft.  I think we both ended up with a bit of altitude sickness from all the changing elevations.  It didn't help that Eric has a cold as well. 

When we arrived in San Luis we parked in the Chase Bank parking lot like we usually do.  We did see a sign saying that the area was patrolled for bank customers only but...no one was in the lot and it was Sunday.  We walked down to the border with our paperwork and it didn't take long to get our tourist visas and stickers for the vehicles.  Very quiet because it is Sunday but there were lots of people returning from Mexico to the USA. 

 Paperwork done we walked over to the port of entry pedestrian area.  If you've never done this you'd find it hard to figure out where you should go.  When we got to the walkway to the US customs it was packed.  Probably over a hundred people waiting in line in the hot sun.  Great.  It took about 45 minutes to get through and then we walked back to pick up the Jeep and head home....or so we thought.

When we got back to the bank parking lot the Jeep was gone!  Towed.  Can you believe it.  Yes I know it was our fault because the sign said we would get towed but we were only gone a couple of hours and it was a Sunday and the parking lot was empty.    I called the number on the sign and the guy gave me the address for the lot.  I said " We're on foot how are we supposed to get there?  He said he'd come and get us.  When he arrived he said he was the owner and not actually working that day.  To say we were a little annoyed would be an understatement.  He wanted $100 cash.  $75. tow and $25 storage even though they'd just towed it.  I didn't have cash so he said we could come back on Monday.  What the heck...we are on foot how are we going to do that.  In the end he said well ....get money out of the bank.  Yes...the one that just had us towed.  I got money and he took Eric to get the Jeep.  What a scam the whole thing is.  A cash cow for the towing agency.  He told Eric the signs are all over town because the Mexican workers leave their cars all over town when they go to work in the fields and that there is a pay lot at McDonald's where we could park for $4 but how were we to know that.  We were the third one we got that day.  Not very good advertising for the town.  Eric ended up calling the guy amigo by the end as there was no point in making him mad because he would have left us there.  No amigo of mine!  

Back on the road $100 US poorer.  A quick stop at Walmart for beer (I needed a few last night) and buns for sandwiches.  Dinner at the Asian Star again last night and again very good and reasonable.  Eric had shrimp chop suey and I had Thai chicken with lots of vegetables.  Both meals were huge and excellent and we got out of there for under $25.  

Today I got laundry done, picked up butter and cheese for Mexico and tonight we'll try the Las Palapas taco place just across the street.  Tomorrow we are off to Nogales, Az and then into Mexico on Wednesday.