Nogales AZ to Navojoa Sonora and it was a long tortuous day!

This is Wednesday.

It's 8pm and it was a very long day so I'll make this as brief as I can. Last night's dinner did not agree with my stomach so I was up and down last night.  No breakfast which is sad because the Hotel Americana has the best complimentary breakfast we've run into.  Eric had some scrambled eggs and coffee and I had tea.  

Ready to go at 7am and about 360 miles to go.  We wound our way down to the border and crossed with no issues.  First stop the Tourist visas and importation.  You will remember we tried to import the truck and cargo trailer a couple of days ago and it was a no go.

We expected this to go smoothly this morning but it did not.

First we were told our truck was over weight and was now into the commercial or work truck status.  This rule came into effect in May 2023.  OK,  we were informed of that in San Luis when we were doing our paperwork.  The young agent said I had to go take a picture of the door sticker that shows GVW.  I returned with the picture and once again I'm told it's too heavy and needs special permission.   Then we're asked for pictures of the front, back and inside of the truck so Eric did that.  More humming and hawing and now they want us to print the pictures..  They send me to the copy place who sends me to the guy who sells Mexican insurance.  Getting dumber and dumber by the minute.  He was real techy and accessed What's App on my phone, transferred the Google photos on my phone to his phone and printed them.  Back to the agent.  Now she says we need to see the aduana which is the customs officer.  Take a seat or come back in a half hour.  We waited.  We go to see him with paperwork and now he's humming and hawing and using Google translate to tell me he's helping us out, that the agents don't know what to do etc.  In the end we figured out he wanted money but he was waiting for us to offer.   Eric said...no way were we doing that.  Finally after we showed him our electrical bill from our house in Mazatlan we think he realized we'd been coming to Mexico for some time and we knew what he was up to.  He finally went to look at the truck and take pictures which is his job and what he should have at the beginning. Now back to the agent but we have to wait again while he talks to them.  They ignore him! Finally we see a different, very efficient agent who quickly completes the paperwork, we pay and can go.  Something that should have taken 45 minutes at the most took 2 1/2 hours and I was completely exhausted.  Can you imagine what would happen if a group of RVERS with 3/4 or 1 ton trucks came in.  You can't pull an RV with a half ton unless the RV is really light.  The reason given is that bigger trucks could be used as work trucks.  Let's get serious any truck can be a work truck in Mexico regardless of weight.  We understand its Mexico and they can make any rules they want.  Next year a different plan for importation. 

           Over the border and  the first little town has topes or giant speed bumps.  Lots of the time the are hidden...Surprise!

    The wide open highway.

Before Hermisilo large vineyards appear. 

    

The circus is setting up somewhere.

It was now 10:30 and we still had 585 km to go.  Off we went.

My pictures are out of order as I'm fighting with the internet!

The rest of the day was usual with construction and slow downs due to police stops.  A delay going through Vicam as they are working on the main street.  Lots of tolls to pay as well.

 A little bit of showers when we got to Obregon and it continued to Navojoa where we are tucked into the Fiesta motel for the night. A light snack type dinner, beer a shower and bed.

Tomorrow is about 350 miles on worse roads but we'll at least be at the end of this journey.

Vicam and they  are putting a four lane highway right through the middle of town...what a mess.

We're through Vicam finally..that's the huge Yaqui ststue.