Crossing the border

What a day! Hopped on a bus headed from San Antonio to Brownsville this morning. It made several stops at various gas stations along the way before finally arriving a nice station in Brownsville. At least, I imagine the Brownsville Station is nice. Turns out McAllen, Texas also has a nice station. This is where I got off. So, thinking I was in Brownsville I headed off toward the International Bridge with no map and only a brief description in my guidebook of how to get there. After walking several blocks I decided this wasn't going to work and found my way back to the Station. Still thinking this was Brownsville, I hopped in a cab and asked to be taken to the bridge to Mexico where I would walk across to Matamoros. The cab driver spoke less English than I did Spanish, but before long I realized what had happened and that I wasn't even close to where I should be. McAllen is also a border town with a bridge over the Rio Grande to the city of Reynosa. This was the bridge I was being driven too. Hoy!

So, being a bit flustered, when the cab driver offered to drive me to the Reynosa bus station I agreed. I was expecting to get the required tourist card from immigration as we passed through to Mexico, then hop a bus to Matamoros (which I had been looking forward too). Matamoros was only an hour or so away, so this was going to work out fine. Nope. We managed to get through immigration without stopping at all. Oh well, I had read that I could pick up a tourist card at bus stations in border towns. Well that wasn't true. At least neither I, the cab driver, or several bus ticket agents could locate the place to obtain the card. I wasn't going anywhere outside town without this card. On a previous trip, I'd been asked to present it by soldiers with automatic weapons. So, back in the cab. I asked to be taken back to the immigration office. Did I mention that I spoke better Spanish the the cab driver did English? Yeah, well, he took be to the immigration office. Before I knew it we were stuck in line to get back over the bridge to the US Immigration office. I wasn't sure how it would look on security camera if a gringo got out of a cab and walked down the line of cars back to Mexico. So I stuck it out until we were back on the US side. I had the cab driver drop me off, and I crossed back into Mexico on foot. Past the same US border guards that had rummaged through my bag on the first crossing. They found this bizarre and I'm sure must have thought I had a few screws loose upstairs. But they let me past, and I walked across the river to Mexico. Now it was just a matter of getting that card and then hopping a bus. No luck, after a 15 minute discussion with colleagues the Mexican immigration officer decided that I could indeed buy such a card. 262 pesos. Well I didn't have any pesos yet. No credit cards accepted, no dollars, no ATM... so still no tourist card. They did let me through anyway. Though I think they expected me to return once I had found an ATM and had pesos. I did finally find an ATM but it was getting late and I was in a Mexican border town. So I just found a some quick food and a hotel and crashed. We'll see how thing go in the morning...

Went back to the bus station this morning to look again for the immigration office there. I found it this time, but. But they were out, of course. So, this time with pesos, I went back to the immigration office at the bridge. Different people this time. After another long discussion amongst themselves this group decided that I couldn't get a card there after all. What? They sent me to the car permit office. Different office several blocks away. Finally! 262 pesos later and I got it!

Back to the bus station, ticket to Tampico and I'm out of this city. Seven and a half hours later. Tampico seems like a nice city.

The only photos I took in Reynosa were of this camion.

Of all the places to cut costs, lug nuts would not have been my

first choice.

(note: I crossed on the 1st not the 4th, that is the publish date)