day 5

day 5 - january 30, 2014

we had a lovely visit with leaha and greg last night. they were fabulous hosts, feeding us dinner and wine, and we stayed up chatting until the wee hours of the morning. this led to us starting out a little later than desired this morning, but there was no way we were actually getting up at 6 after being awake until 3... however we got on the road at about 8:30 after toast and tim horton's coffee (!!).

the highway to laredo, texas was a secondary highway (not an interstate), and it took us through some interesting small towns. we saw our first confederate flags (i'm genuinely surprised it took this long), and the requisite pro-creationism and anti-abortion billboards. i've *almost* stopped noticing them. almost. 

on the road from houston to laredo

in laredo, about to cross the border :)

it's also getting nice and warm out! don't get me wrong, i'm still wearing a hoodie, but the window is open! last i looked at the weather in oaxaca city, it was supposed to be about 25 degrees during the day, but we still have a ton of southward driving to do before we hit oaxaca.  

we are aiming for monterrey, nuevo leon tonight. it's a big city, but very americanized, and it's an hour and a half or so from the border. none of the information i have about camping covers this area, so our first night in mexico might be an interesting one. there is a tourist office there that is apparently very helpful, however we're on track to arrive right around the time they close, assuming the border crossing goes smoothly. anyway, we're going to pick up mexican sim cards for our cell phones, so we can always call ahead and get recommendations on places to camp :) 

although we have been travelling for 4 days already, today feels like the REAL start to our trip - i guess that's because we're really venturing into the unknown now! stepping over the threshold from familiar language/money/culture into a place that is fairly different. i'm slightly nervous about my spanish (we're going to take classes in oaxaca, but we need to get there first!), but i have 2 phrasebooks and a dictionary, so i'm sure i'll manage.  

crossing into mexico!!

update:

well, holy shit what a day! 

since we left houston late, we didn't get to the border until about 2 pm, and i gotta tell you, we should have left houston earlier. everything is fine, but we were not planning to spend the night in a walmart parking lot in a mexican border town, but here we are. 

crossing into mexico went fine - they opened up the back doors, and looked in the camper, but that was all. we proceeded to the vehicle import office (nowhere near the the border, really), where we got our tourist cards (about $48 american for both) and the vehicle permit ($300 deposit which we'll get back when we leave) as well as insurance ($112 for 2 months). i have to say that flying into central america previously had not prepared me for this experience. it was totally different than anything i'd ever dealt with before, and NOBODY spoke english. i know, i know, i shouldn't really be surprised, but it's been my experience that in a lot of those situations (customs, etc) that the customer service people speak reasonable english. anyway, me and my dictionary/phrasebook did our best, and i'm pretty sure we got all the information we need. 

totally overwhelmed at the customs office

next, we tried to find a tourist information office. it seems that the lonely planet guide to mexico that we have is a bit out of date - the streets appear to have mostly been renamed. oh joy. anyway, we didn't find the tourist office, but found a place to get sim cards for our cell phones (my number is 8671146720 if you want to call me. i can't send/receive texts, and for some reason i can't make outgoing calls right now. i think it's because i'm too close to the USA still, or at least that's what i gathered from the spanish auto-text it sent me when i tried.) the guy at the cell phone place was amazing, though he didn't seem to care for my spanglish. we had a huge conversation via google translate on his phone... but everything appears to be in order. it was $500 pesos for 2 sim cards, one that does text/calling/data for mike, and a straight up phone one for me - a bunch of minutes are also included. 

luckily gina (our GPS) has decided to be a good companion after all, and it was thanks to her that we found the walmart, where we bought veggies and wine and are going to make ourselves a classy dinner. 

further update: 

i never thought that a walmart parking lot would feel so much like home... we've been here for a couple of hours, went into walmart and bought onions and broccoli and mushrooms and wine. now dinner is finishing cooking - red lentils and quinoa and veggies and red curry.
the army was here earlier, a bunch of pickup trucks with guys all decked out in camo with huge guns mounted on the roof. mike got a little antsy when they circled us, but it turned out they were just turning around. they blazed off with lights flashing, and we recovered from our 17th heart attacks of the day. 

bloggin' in the walmart parking lot!

it's only 10:20, but we figure the "free camping at walmart" thing goes in mexico as well as canada and the USA, as nobody has harassed us thus far. that's a win, i guess - we weren't really planning on doing much walmart camping, however when the other option is nighttime driving away from a mexico border city on our first night here, i think we'll take the walmart. ps, there's a home depot next door, and a little caesears pizza place. how american! 

we changed a bunch of money today, and have hidden bits of it all over the place. i was disappointed to learn that they don't change canadian money - maybe they will in another country, but until then i have some useless monopoly money to tote around. i guess since nobody changes it, nobody will be interested in stealing it, so that's somewhat consoling, anyway.