Bienvenido a México

January 29, 2009 – 11:49pm (there are alot of pictures in this blog entry, please allow a few extra seconds for them to appear)

Hello and Welcome to Mexico! Have you ever seen snowbird season in Mexico?? Well, you are about to find out how crazy this place can be! We got to Mexico this morning and crossed that border at around 9am. Beautiful day out, perfect weather. There was five of us today visiting Mexico (we have friends in Yuma, we all went together) and we parked the car on the United States side of the border and walked thru the entrance of Mexico. No border patrol stops and you don’t need to show any identification coming into Mexico……

500 feet later, we are free to roam Mexico…..let’s find some good deals…..

We stopped here to sit outside and enjoy Margaritas and Nachos. Yummy!

From where I’m sitting you can see alot of vendors selling stuff. And there are sales people walking around the tables wanting to know if you want to buy something they have. They walk around with necklaces, hats, and other junk. Hey, I’m not insulting the stuff they are selling, they will tell you themselves, they go around saying, “Welcome to Walmart of Mexico, do you want to buy our junk”. They do have a great sense of humor and they sure will make you laugh!! Too funny……

I knew I would never remember the restuarant name, so I snapped a picture of the menu……

After our Margaritas, we are off to do some shopping…….

Oh, this guy was too funny. He actually wanted me to take his picture. After I took his picture, I walked over to him to see what he was selling. Oh, before I forget, everything, and I do mean, everything is negotiable…..if it has a price tag on it, it’s negotiable. He was selling jewelry and I saw a Kokopelli bracelet that I liked. His starting price $65 dollars. It took about 4 or 5 minute to get him down to $20 bucks. You want to hear a Mexican talk fast – just walk away. Their talking gets faster and all of a sudden they can speak great English. I told ya, they made me laugh…….

There is alot of jewelry sold around here. I’m not saying that they are good quality jewelry, but there is alot of it. I also bought a jacket while I was there. Starting price $35.00. I started to walk away from the sales girl (she was in her early 20’s in age, maybe a little younger) I said to her, “Noooo, too much.” She lightly grabbed my sleeve on my shirt and said, “You tell me how much” with that neat accent. I said, repeating myself, “Noooooo, that’s too much.” She said, “You give me price.” Oh, this one went back and forth for a minute more, I said, “$15″, she said, “$30″, I said, “$15″, she said, “20″, I said, “$15″, she said “$18″, I said, “$15″, she said “$16″. Oh boy……I took the jacket for $16. Oh, and I have to say that the back of the jacket has a picture of a Kokopelli on it…..matches my bracelet………I’ll get a picture of the bracelet and jacket tomorrow……

Alot of people come to Mexico for prescription drugs. No prescription note necessary. If you want medicine, they got what you are looking for…….

Want booze? They got it for ya……..

My dad stopped to buy some cigarettes. A carton of Marlboro in Walmart in Arizona is $44.00. Same carton of the same stuff in Mexico $19.00.

Now it’s time to leave. See the line going into the states….yikes……

We found the end of the line up around the corner. We got to the end of the line at 2:10pm……

Even while you are standing in line to cross the border, they are still trying to sell you more junk……

We have a long wait……

We are moving up in the line. This is behind us……

We are getting closer. We stood in line for 2 hours at this point……..

Well, that’s it for pictures. When we entered that tunnel ahead of us, there was three desks set up with border patrolmen checking passports and visas. It was quick for us. I really didn’t have anything on me except for minor purchases. There is a sign before you enter that tunnel saying that both passport and driver’s license is required to enter back into the states.

After we left the border, we went to Paradise Casino in Yuma, Arizona. This is the casino that sits right on the Arizona/California line. We ate dinner there and played bingo. We didn’t win anything, but the pot roast we all had at the casino restaurant was excellent. We got home tonight around 9pm. Long day!

Tomorrow we are off to the Old Yuma to check out some historic sites and eat at Lute’s. Heard that John Wayne made some movies there. I’ll bring my camera! Good night for now.