January 10, 2016 – We crossed as planned on the morning of January 7th at Pharr, Texas into the state of Tamaulipas, one of Mike & Terri Church’s recommended crossings. The Mexican border officials put all our RVs thru an Xray and parked us for the results. We decided use this time to do all the paperwork required for Tourist Permits and Vehicle Import Permits. This is always a fascinating process of personal immersion in a Latin American bureaucracy. Lisa & I proceeded first as already had our 6 month Tourist Permits from Tecate, Baja California. Would these be acceptable? We know by law they are not multiple entry permits, we also know there are lots of laws at the Mexican border that are rarely enforced.
We were happy to see the Banjerito (Bank), Copy Center and Immigrado (Immigration Office) were all in one large office space. Our first encounter was the Banjerito to arrange for our Vehicle Permit. The teller looked at our copies, saw that we had a Tourist Permit from Tecate dated November 6th, 2015 and sent us to another person (at the copy center). There we were told we would need to see the immigrado officer, who would issue us a new tourist permit for the 4 months remaining on our current tourist permit. Moving to our 3rd line the immigrado officer looked at our tourist permit and determined we required nothing as our permits still had 4 months left on them so we got back into the original bank line, this only took 20 minutes. All none of the folks we spoke to ever actually talked to each other, the same teller we started with seemed satisfied we had met all the immigration issues and processed our Vehicle Import Permits, $59 each plus a $400 USD deposit. No pesos please, US Funds only, cash or credit card. We were all finished and back into the vehicles by 9:50 am (we left the campground at 7:30 am), had the green light from the X-ray, no further inspection required, yes we were on our way!
We had originally been scheduled to visit Ciudad Victoria as our first stop, given some security concerns we took a pass and drove directly towards Tampico, 535 km (330 miles). This was a long day for sure. We arrived at the Country Express Hotel parking lot at about 4:40 pm, lots of daylight left but tired. We encountered a lot of very good road and lots of new scenery. Dry camping behind the motel was only $100 pesos, dinner at the restaurant was $285 pesos and the Wifi worked well for those who went to the lobby. Some truckers came and went, all was good and I slept well.
The next ay we were off at 8:00 for Costa Esmeralda in the state of Veracruz, only 325 km (200 miles) but still a long drive. Great scenery, not so great roads. Early on in the day we thought we had successfully bypassed Tampico when a local Taxi driver flagged us down, convinced we needed to follow him and avoid any trouble. We agreed, had a great tour of urban Tampico, Jose Maria was paid well for his work and we were on our way. This was a long day, we gave up the lead to Bruce & Marian as we had to stop and put on a chain that fell off. We arrived at Costa Esmeralda late, Rafael, Eileen and I scoped out a campground and picked Sun Beach Camping. We are vey happy resting up, the weather up and down. We took a short drive around yesterday and are having dinner here tonight. Tomorrow we are off to the city of Veracruz.
As they say in Mexico, Todo Bien!
Did you know?
Ciudad Victoria, is the capital city of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located in the western-central region of the state. Ciudad Victoria is also the municipal seat of the surrounding Victoria Municipality, which covers an area of 1,638 km² (632.4 sq mi). According to the 2010 INEGI population count, the city had 305,155 inhabitants, and the Victoria Municipality had a population of 321,953. The city and the municipality both rank fourth in population size in the state, behind Reynosa, Matamoros, and Nuevo Laredo.
