By Dave & Brenda Mitchell
Editor’s
Note: Alumni Dave & Brenda (2009 Dec 5 to Dec 12) were a little nervous about driving through Mexico because of all the negative media
attention on Mexico.
They had a great, uneventful trip and shared a little of their experience with
us.
When we made our decision to move to Ajijic, we decided to drive
from Alberta, Canada
to the Lake Chapala area. This was not only a long,
tedious drive, but anxiety mounted as we neared the US/Mexican Border due to
recent news reports of violence and criminal activities in these border towns. Living so far from the border, you have to
rely on the information provided by the news – nothing sounded good. So, we
arrived at the Laredo Border and proceeded to the “Declare Lane” because of a plastic 5-gallon
gas can in the back of our truck. Surprisingly, this must be declared. The
Mexican Customs officer looked into the back of our truck and noticed several
boxes there, so he had me pull into the Inspection area and I thought “Oh no,
he’s going to pull everything out onto the tables and rip everything apart.”
Well, I pulled out a list we prepared that was supplied by Strom-White. This
list had everything listed in English (for us) and in Spanish (for him). One
look at the list and he said, “Pase.” We were out of there.
After that, we got our vehicle permit and we were on our
way. We used the mile-by-mile route map provided by Strom-White. It included
every checkpoint and even toll costs all the way to Ajijic. There was never a
time that we actually had to worry. The experience was very uneventful – what a
relief.