Crossing the border from California to Mexico at Calexico-Mexicali was rediculously easy. It summed up to nothing more than a stop light and a guy looking in one of Shane's saddlebags for all of 3 seconds. my experiances at the San Ysidro-Tijuana border have been about the same.
I had heard storries and seen pictures of Central American border crossings, but that didn't begin to prepare me for what I was about to experiance. At the gas station 15 a man showed us his (probably fake) ID card and offered to help us through the border crossing, we told him we were ok. Five miles before the border, young men on small motorcycles raced through trafic to catch us and offer us thier services. ¨No Gracias.¨
Once we got to the border, we were literally swarmed with money changers and helpers. The helpers were yelling at us so consistantly, I could barely get a sentance back and forth to Shane.
We did need to change some of our Mexan Pesos for Guatemalan Quetzals, the official excange rate at the time was 1 Peso to .533 Quetzal. I easily got 1:.50 good enough for me.
I had read on ADVrider.com that if you simply do not cancel your Mexican tourist visa andtemporary vehicle import on the southern trip; then on the return trip you don't need to do anything to enter mexico, as you already have the right paperwork.
I was pretty sure my Mexican tourist visa was a multiple entry visa, so I was willing to give it a try.
The helper guys chasing us around kept telling us we need to go check out of Mexico. Around five different times people tried to get us to stop, the didn't look too official, so I ignored them. I decided that if I had to stop there would be a gate or a man with a gun. Eventually we made our way to where there was a gate and some offices. I took my passport and motorcycle title to the window, and quickly denied. The lade looked in my passport and motioned that I needed a stamp of some sort.
At this point I was so sick of the helpers bothering me, I decided to hire one. Five US dollars was probably worth it, if nothin else, he fended off all the other helpers for me.
We went all the way back to the Mexico custims office, about 500 meters. They wouldn't stamp me out because I never paid the 292 peso departure tax at the bank, and the nearest bank was 10 miles back. This was entirely our fault, the lade who issued us our tourist visas in La Paz told us we needed to pasy this at any bank before we left Mexico. Shane's would be even more difficult because he had lost his tourist visa.
My helper guy said he knew someone and for 500 pesos he could get our passports stamped. I reluctantly handed him the money and our passports, and hoped for the best. He returned in a couple minutes with our stamped passports.
Again we headed back towards Guatemala, and stop at the Guatemalan imigration office. Here I take Shane and my passports to the window and it only costs 10 quetzals (around $1.25) each to be stamped into Guatemala.
Our next stop was the office where we were originally turned around. Shane and I were legally in Guatemala, but our bikes weren't yet.
After I handed the lady at the window my passport and motorcycle title, she spent a few minutes entering my info in the computer, then gave me some paperswork that I needed to show to pay my import fees at the bank. Luckly the bank was next door and the import fee was only 40 quetzals (around $5). Once I returned with my recipt, an officer inspected my VIN number and put a sticker in my sindshield. I was good to go.
Shane had been watching the bikes while I imported my bike. We traded places and I watched the bikes while Shane dealt with importing his bike.
Soon enough, Shane also had a sticker on his windshield and we were off, riding into Guatemala.
In retrospect, I think the stamp I was missing from my passport wasn't the stamp out of Mexico, but the stamp into Guatemala, and I probably could have gotten that without checking out of Mexico. Possibly someone who has done this before can chime in and clarify that.
I was pretty sure my Mexican tourist visa was a multiple entry visa, so I was willing to give it a try.
The helper guys chasing us around kept telling us we need to go check out of Mexico. Around five different times people tried to get us to stop, the didn't look too official, so I ignored them. I decided that if I had to stop there would be a gate or a man with a gun. Eventually we made our way to where there was a gate and some offices. I took my passport and motorcycle title to the window, and quickly denied. The lade looked in my passport and motioned that I needed a stamp of some sort.
At this point I was so sick of the helpers bothering me, I decided to hire one. Five US dollars was probably worth it, if nothin else, he fended off all the other helpers for me.
We went all the way back to the Mexico custims office, about 500 meters. They wouldn't stamp me out because I never paid the 292 peso departure tax at the bank, and the nearest bank was 10 miles back. This was entirely our fault, the lade who issued us our tourist visas in La Paz told us we needed to pasy this at any bank before we left Mexico. Shane's would be even more difficult because he had lost his tourist visa.
My helper guy said he knew someone and for 500 pesos he could get our passports stamped. I reluctantly handed him the money and our passports, and hoped for the best. He returned in a couple minutes with our stamped passports.
Again we headed back towards Guatemala, and stop at the Guatemalan imigration office. Here I take Shane and my passports to the window and it only costs 10 quetzals (around $1.25) each to be stamped into Guatemala.
Our next stop was the office where we were originally turned around. Shane and I were legally in Guatemala, but our bikes weren't yet.
After I handed the lady at the window my passport and motorcycle title, she spent a few minutes entering my info in the computer, then gave me some paperswork that I needed to show to pay my import fees at the bank. Luckly the bank was next door and the import fee was only 40 quetzals (around $5). Once I returned with my recipt, an officer inspected my VIN number and put a sticker in my sindshield. I was good to go.
Shane had been watching the bikes while I imported my bike. We traded places and I watched the bikes while Shane dealt with importing his bike.
Soon enough, Shane also had a sticker on his windshield and we were off, riding into Guatemala.
In retrospect, I think the stamp I was missing from my passport wasn't the stamp out of Mexico, but the stamp into Guatemala, and I probably could have gotten that without checking out of Mexico. Possibly someone who has done this before can chime in and clarify that.
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