THE BORDER was a series of stops, kilometers apart from each other, so it was kind of questionable as to whether we were done with border responsibilities. I'm sure each border crossing location is different, but from Nogales, this is what we encountered:
First, we drove toward a booth between two lanes (I took the lane with no vehicles, since there were no visible signs, and had to back up 20 or 30 feet to re-enter the other lane. As I pulled closer, I noticed a sheeet of scrapwood leaning up against a sawhorse, behind a bunch of cones that had the two words spraypainted on either side: "cars" and "trucks". Apparently I was a car.) A policia standing outside the booth on the driverside asked where we were going and how long we were going to be there. He also asked if we were familiar with the area and said to be careful and have a good trip. The end.
Second, we came to a more structured area with a real building and parking spots and lanes with vertical (metal detectors?) things about 6' tall on either side. As we went through, an alarm went off (as it did for the car behind us), and a uniformed guy with a german shephard came up to the driverside and asked if we spoke Spanish. I told him I spoke a little. He continued on in English, asking where we were going, if on vacation or immigrating, what was in the RV trailer (besides a dog), etc. ( At that time I wondered how he knew we had a dog in there.....) He then asked us to open the trailer door to look inside with his dog. J opened the door for him and immediately came back with a distraught Eli. Eli really dislikes riding in the trailer for some reason, and we only have made him do it twice for brief periods of time. Anyhow, he briefly looked around, poked his head in the bathroom door where the cats were, and told us to drive on. The end.
Third, we came to a very structured series of buildings a few kilometers later (maybe even 10) with a large parking lot. We parked and went up to the closest building a filled out a short form with name, birthdate, passport number, address, etc that we had been given. We returned the forms (one per person) and were asked if we were driving a car or what. Then I was given a tiny piece of paper that he said to take to the bank out the door and around the corner. I left the building and walked past a copies building and down a walkway to a series of windows at the "bank". They looked at my little piece of paper and asked questions about what we were driving, checked the titles to the vehicle, trailer, and motorbike, kept copies of each title, asked for $47 for the bike, $50 for the trailer, and needed a visa for the vehicle (charging another $30 something). She kept copies of our passports, one for each vehicle. Then she asked me to go back to the first building and get two copies of my form at the copies building, and come back. The guy at the first building tore off half my form and kept it after seeing I had paid my fees at the bank, then I paid for two copies of my half of the form, took it back to the bank teller who was waiting. She had me sign a few more forms, then I was done. The end.
One thing that made all that paperwork easier, was following advice from a guy who wrote a blog about trailering a boat through mexico. He suggested having an expandable file folder with multiple copies of each vehicle title and current registration, passport and current drivers license, insurance info, etc FOR EACH BORDER CROSSING. We started out with 4 copies, plus originals, of each. We also have our printer/copier with us to make more if needed. We were never asked for the health certificates for each of our animals (a $350 expense), but we have those as well. If you dont have copies with you, its an adventure of running back and forth between the copy place and the bank. We had no lines at any point during the border crossing (about 15 miles worth, total). I attribute that to the bad publicity of recent crime/murder rates, since we crossed about 10 am on a Saturday at the end of April. Our experience was not at all difficult or unsafe. The border guards seemed fairly relaxed and helpful, not at all like they were nervous about any illegal activity, and they werent trying to rush everyone through or have a sense of urgency. It was a good experience.
FYI- Before crossing the border, we were getting insurance at Sanborns in Nogales ($316 for combined vehicle values of 20K for 1 month or 6 months -same), where a local told us that they arent taking US dollars at retail establishments in Mexico anymore. (In the past they have taken payment in dollars or pesos.) However, the border crossing and rv parks have been taking us dollars so far, and we think the gas stations would've taken US dollars as well.
AS OF APRIL 30TH, EXCHANGE RATE IS 11 PESOS FOR 1 US DOLLAR
Just to be on the safe side, we exchanged some money prior to crossing the border.
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