Why, Az to Edgar’s in Santa Ana,Sonora…..and it’s a sad story.

So…how did the day go, well all in all not that bad. 

We were up at 7am and on the road by 9am.  Not a huge distance to go but there was paperwork to be done at the border as well as San Emeterio so no time to dawdle. 

Heading towards Lukeville and the Mexican border.  First small glitch was when Eric realized he’d left the hitch pins for the RV ladder sitting on the pavement  by the Casino.  We’d pulled into the parking lot to load the RV ladder into the garage.  It hangs out to the side and when we travel in Mexico it’s always in danger of getting whacked off.  Eric set the pins that attatch it to the RV down and forgot to pick them up.  No big deal as we weren’t far down the road.  Onward!

There has been a huge amount of rain in the last few months and the desert is electric green.  We’ve seen it green before but…nothing like this.   Just beautiful.

Heading south.

I tried to get a picture of the ocotillo cactus which you can just see a tip of on the right as they are as green as we’ve ever seen them.   Usually they just look like dead brown sticks but not now.

A beautiful drive today. 

There is an ocotillo in the middle and to the left an organ pipe.

Coming up to the border and I wondered if we’d have an agricultural check.  The actual regs for coming into Mexico say no meat, vegetables or fruit of any kind but it is discretionary.   I won’t tell you where my meat was!

When we pulled through there was no ag check but the army decided to do a full shake down.  One guy was in the garage of the RV for at least 20 minutes opening every cupboard and checking every drawer.  Checked the kitchen cabinets too.  Not sure what he was looking for but he found nothing as…we have nothing.  We then parked to the side and walked back to get our tourist visa which was a slow process.  First we were given a slip of paper to take to the banco across the street.  Hard to find as it wasn’t marked.  It is actually a town bank so it was busy and that took about 1/2 hour to pay for the visas.  1066 pesos for two visas.  Back to immigration to finish it off and just as we were leaving about 5 RV’s came in.  The army started a check on them as well and we boogied off for San Emeterio to do our vehicle import papers.   Luckily we were ahead of that large group.

Maybe they were only going to Puerto Penasco as they were all from California. 

Highway is pretty good here and it is again beautiful and green.

Here we are at San Emeterio or the “Gulag” which is what it looks like to me!

When we turned our paperwork in back in April this is where we were led into….the bus entrance.  We pulled in and parked in front of the bus stalls.  The young woman out front wanted us to leave and come around through somewhere else.  She called another woman over who said it was fine that it was fine.  She just made us move a bit farther forward.  We also noted that they have taken out more of the curb where you exit so you won’t bark your tires as you go through. 

We went inside and completed the paperwork for the truck, bike and RV.  They were nice, spoke English and very efficient although the lady helping me wanted to go outside and take a picture of the VIN on the door of the truck.  This is usually only done when returning the stickers.  Always a new twist!  We confirmed that we should come in the bus entrance to get and return our stickers.  They said it wasn’t high enough coming through the car lane and that the bus entrance was correct.  We were also told we could go through the bus exit and park farther down so we wouldn’t have to back up to get out.  They have a door at the south end of the building so they have no problem using it to come outside to remove stickers when we return.   You can see to the left behind us where we will back up and exit this area.  When we were done we pulled farther down before leaving and had lunch.  There is plently of room there for more than one RV to get paperwork.  Now….if they’d only have immigration for tourist visa’s here as well like they used to. 

Here we are coming into Cabora.  The highway from San Emeterio to Caborca was decent for the most part but really bad for a few Km’s around km 127.  We hit a huge pothole in the middle of the road that we couldn’t avoid. 

Pitiquito now abandoned.  Another huge waste of money.  We started getting paperwork at San Emeterio, then Pitiquito and now back to San Emeterio.  It was much easier staying in Yuma and going down to San Luis to get everything done before we crossed the border but not worth the trip there this year. 

Not a soul in sight. 

Coming through Altar.

Coming into Santa Ana and they have repaved the road…very nice. 

So now for Edgar’s RV park.  We pulled in and one of his sisters was outside helping us park.  I asked about Edgar and it is not good.  He fell three months ago and in doing so hit his head.  He is now in a wheelchair and unable to walk.  He is not cognizant all the time and it is taking both of his sisters to look after him as they have to lift him out of bed.  He is unable to control the side of his body damaged in the motorcyle accident over 50 years ago so he can’t walk at all and is incontinent as well.   She said that she brings him outside in the morning to get some air.  That is not even the worst of it.  She hired a man to look after Edgar and in the five days he was there he stole many things from the house, some of his clothes and his money as well.  He took Edgar to the bank every day and emptied out his savings account.   She has gone to the police to report what happened.  The charge to stay the night was 300 pesos and I gave her 500.  A small donation but she was thankful.  Perhaps people could make an effort to stay in the park and add a little to the nightly fee to help them out.  Over the years it has been a safe stop and we have always enjoyed both Edgar and Ana’s company.  Such a sad way to end a story.  I wonder how much of Edgar’s deline is due to his loss of Ana two years ago.  

At this point the sisters and the nephew intend to carry on with the park.  They all live in Hermosillo but they are making it work as best they can.  We did not see Edgar and it is unlikely he would have recognized us and I think I want to remember him the way he was.   We will stop here again on our way home. 

While we were there she had the electrician working to upgrade the power to a safer level.  It was out for a couple of hours but…no matter to us.  The lady next to us was very rude about it because she couldn’t watch TV and her microwave wouldn’t work!  Edgar’s sister offered to microwave “Lila’s” dinner for her.  I assured the sister that all was well and it was not a problem for us as she was very stressed by the whole affair.   Power was on a bit later and all was well.