TJ Crossing
It didn’t occurred to me that I’ve never driven across the border from Mexico into the U.S. until I started getting close. Tijuana was our first try.
We got lost. Driving around Tijuana wasn’t so bad, but following the signs to the border was a joke. I think we missed every on-ramp and circled 4 or 5 times. We even got in the wrong line and had to start over. Amateurs.
When we finally got in the correct line, it was backed up about 90 minutes. This gave the vendors plenty of time to come around and offer us blankets and sombreros and everything else under the sun. We blew our last few coins on tiny sodas and a hospital donation can.
When we made it to the border station, we handed over our tourist permits and passports. They handed back the permits and the American border agent asked if we had a good time. A guy holding a German Shepherd asked if we caught any good waves. They handed back the passports and that was that. Back in the USA.
Minor issue – we never technically checked out of Mexico. We still have our permits and we didn’t get stamped out. We didn’t even see how we were supposed to. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if that comes back to haunt us later. Amateurs.
Did you give the Mexican Aduana a credit card to get a Vehicle Import permit? If yes that could be a problem for you.
you can mail them in to the consulate, use a certified letter.
Bruce – no vehicle permit. Just the FMM (tourist card). This didn’t used to be an issue and you could probably just throw it in the trash. Recently, the government has taken steps to track tourists at the borders more closely (computers and bar codes!) to catch people over-staying. Maybe nothing to worry about, but maybe a problem later. It seems the system is all too new for anyone to have reliable info.