Christmas, New Years, Friends, Family And Our First Drive Back To The States!

Well, we finally drove back to the USA after 7 months of living in Mexico.  It was a long 3 Day - 30 hour trip, but beautiful.  We got to visit with my folks for 2 weeks, my brother, hang with good friends, eat yummy food and best of all spend time in Santa Barbara.  Now it was a big culture shock going back to the USA for the first time by car in over 6 months.  The first thing I noticed was that I could actually read and understand every sign posted on the roads.  The second big things was that I felt much safer at night driving due to the lack of cows, horses, dogs and people on the side of the highways.  We spent a good 3 days and around 30 hours driving from Ajijic back to Santa Barbara.  The drive is super easy and actually very beautiful, just long.  We arrived back in SB on Saturday the week before Christmas and the weather was fantastic.  We walked the beaches a few times and spent a ton of time with my family.  The boys loved hanging out with the Cousins (Morgan and Shane).  We got to stay for 2 whole weeks and that is the first time in over 15 years that we have taken longer then 2 weeks vacation.  One of the beautiful things about living in Mexico is that you can afford to stop working for 3 weeks and not go bankrupt when you own your own business.  Well here are a ton of photos from the trip.  I won’t bore you with painful details about the trip.  Happy New Year to all of you and I hope this year is the best ever!

Love these signs.  No hassle Zone Driving

Back in California

Wind farms outside of Palm Springs

The Beach in Santa Barbara

Ready to hit the sand

The famous Pirates Zach and Morgan

 

Tracy walking Goleta beach

What a place!

Kaitlyn's Horse.  Zach, Andrew and Kaitlyn.   Kaitlyn was Andrew's very first friend ever.

Mom and Son, so happy.

Ready, set...

Jump!

Ventura beach, outside of Lisa and Kaitlyn's house

Our old home in SB.  Looks like a young family might still live there/

Pismo Beach with Grandma and Frank

My new Skateboard.  Check out the Mexcio Flag and Poncho Via.  Made in the USA.

Pismo Beach and Zach

Our New South Dakota Plates

Tracy and Juliet

Sean and Kendra

Trevor, Tracy and Juliet

Santa Came to Santa Barbara

Oh Christmas tree.

My favorite view in the world.

Nana, Pop-Pop and the boys.

Organ Cactus National Park just north of the Mexican border

Back in Mexico

Boys are so glad to be home and London was so happy we were back.

My crazy wonderful family!

Trip back to the USA from Ajijic, Mexcio

Trip from Ajijic back to California via Sonoyta, Mexico /Lukeville, Arizona and our Return Trip.

Ajijic to Navojoa = 12 hours of driving

2,735 Kilometers        30 Hours of Driving

Tolls Cost $1,417 pesos

Wow, now this was by far the easiest trip across the border we have ever had.  No traffic, the Cuotas (Toll Roads) were really nice and the scenery was just beautiful.  We left Ajijic around 6:00am and arrived in Navajoa that evening around 6:30.  We stopped for gas in Tepic and then for lunch in Mazatlan.  This was by far the longest day of driving.  We stayed at the Best Western Hotel on the north side of the city.  It is located on the left (west) side of the highway, just after you cross over the bridge at the end of town.  The rooms are nice and the restaurant is pretty good food.  A room with two double beds cost about $750 pesos. 

The next morning we bugged out around 8:00am after having breakfast at the hotel.  Our room came with one free breakfast and the kids really liked he buffet style selection.  With our bellies full, we headed north.  We passed through Ciudad Obregon, near to Guaymas and Hermosillo (this is the only city that it gets a bit confusing as they were doing some major construction through the city).  Still heading north on MX15 we made it to Santa Ana and this is where you will turn off of MX15 and head west towards Alta and Caborca.  Just before Santa Ana is a huge Inspection Station.  When we went through there were hundreds of Buses and Semi-Trucks in the right hand lane lined up for miles waiting to go through inspection.  So do yourself a huge favor and make sure to stay in the left lane as to avoid the Semi line.  It took a good 20-30 minutes to finally get to the inspection point and be waived through. 

Once you are in Santa Ana, look for MX2 Road; this will put you back on another beautiful toll road.  You will pas through the town of Altar and then Caborca.  Continue tow Sonoyta/Lukeville.  Your next stop will be the INM and Automobile Sticker removal kiosk just south of Sonoyta about 20 minutes on your left side of the highway.  I wish I had a mile marker for you, but you just need to keep you eyes open for a group of building on the left side of the road.  You will see the INM office and the Declaration lanes for cars, buses an trucks coming into Mexico.  We passed it and had to turn around to get back to it.  Don’t stress if you miss it, as turning around is a piece of cake.  Once we were heading back to the group of buildings, we saw a small kiosk on the left hand side of all the building that you can drive right up to it.  This is where they took our Automobile sticker.  They handed us a razor and asked us to take it off and hand it to them.  They would not take our Tourist Visas and told us to turn them in at the actual border crossing.   So, get back on the road and head towards Lukeville, AZ.  We pulled up to the border and there was nowhere that we could see to turn in our Tourist Visas, so we just kept going.  We pulled up to the US Border Crossing.  There was one vehicle in front of us and it was actually pulling away and crossing, so we just pulled right up to the kiosk.  The Border Guard was very polite, asked for our Passports, the usual questions and within 5 minutes we were back in the USA. 

Santa Barbara back to Ajijic via Lukeville/Sonoyta

We drove the first day from SB to Ajo, AZ and staid at the Marine Motel for the night.  The rooms were decent and the price was right http://www.marinemotel.com/

Go to the website and print off the coupon, it will save you a few bucks.  We paid $49US for the night and had 2 Double beds.  Not much going on in Ajo, but easy access to the border that opens at 6:00am.  We had breakfast at Marcela’s Restaurant and again it was simple food but did the trick.  We pulled out a bit later then we wanted (8:00am).  It’s about a 40-minute drive to the border from Ajo.  We did go through 2 US Border Crossing sites on the way to the border but we were not stopped.  Once at the border, we pulled up to the Mexican crossing, got the green light and we were in Mexico.  We did see 3 pick-up trucks from the US with men dressed in camouflage and all of their gun cases being inspected, it looked like a hunting party.  I don’t know the regulations for taking hunting equipment in to Mexico, but there were at least 10 of these men dressed for hunting.  Then we drove about 20 minutes into Mexico and stopped at the same place as mentioned before on our trip into the USA.  We pulled in and parked, walked over t o the INM office.  There we filled out our Tourist Visa info cards.  Walked next-door to the left and paid for the Visas at the bank window inside the big open warehouse building.  The bathrooms will be all the way to your left if your looking at the INM office door.  The sign is just over the door and not hard to miss on the first pass by.  Once you pay for the Visas, take the receipts back to the INM officer.  They give you your INM Visas and you can then go to toe office to the right and pay for your Automobile Sticker.  The rules have changed with Vehicles now and you need to pay a deposit for taking your car into Mexico.  They will ask for your Credit Card or Cash and charge off the dollar amount your car is worth.  We have a 2004 ad it was about $4000+ Pesos or $380US.  While in line we did meet a couple from Canada that was having big trouble with trying to get their RV with ATV across the border.  Their situation was such that the RV was registered under his name and the ATV/Trailer was under her name.  The problem with this was that they could not prove that they were married.  BE SURE TO BRING A COPY OF YOUR MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE WITH YOU TO MEXICO.  We have needed it for other things, so it’s good to have.  Not sure how that all worked out, but were hoping for the best.  Once we got our Automobile Sticker, we were on the road again.  We pulled up to the Red Light/Green Light and got the green, we were on our way.   There were 2 more checkpoints on the way to Santa Ana.  One of them we got waived through again and the next one we actually got a RED light, but we were waived through again.  So, all in all the trip up and back was sooooo easy compared to Nogales.  It’s a bit off the beaten path, but super easy and quick.  The roads are incredibly safe and there is NO traffic in comparison toe Nogales. 

Tolls from Lukeville to Ajijic (Dates December 15, 2011 – January 3, 2012)

All in Pesos of course

$64

$63

$27

$63

$63

$63

$57

$20

$55

$55

$108 not a misprint

$93

$84

$178 not a misprint

$78

$47

$96

$112 not a misprint

$91

$1,417 TOTAL in TOLLS

Mezcala, Mazatlan(beach), Thanksgiving and Brian's 47th Birthday

Time flies when your having fun.  I truly had planned on being much more prolific this past 6 months and try and update the Blog every week, but it’s just not happening.   It’s actually time to celebrate our 6 Month Anniversary of being in Mexico.  I can’t believe that we arrived here back on June 5^th and it is now December 5^th.   The time has just flown by and we are still really enjoying ourselves here.   To be honest though, the honeymoon phase appears to be complete and we are now really trying to settle in and establish our lives here.    We feel a lot more grounded and have a much better sense of how things work down here and sometimes don’t work for that matter.  Mexico is a land of mystery, enchantment, passion, fun and frustration.   Since October, we have been to Mezcala Island to visit the old fort and prison, Mazatlan to enjoy the beach and back to Central California for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Mezcala was really cool.  The fort is where the Mexican Army held off the Spanish Invasion for almost 3 years.  Then after they surrendered, the Spanish turned it into a prison and locked up all the Mexicans that resisted. 

We had a wonderful time in Mazatlan.  We stayed for the hotel was fantastic and we just laid around and sunned ourselves all day.  The boys splashed in the pools and their favorite part was the swim up bar at 3:00pm for “Happy Hour”.  The special was Smoothies were 2 x 1 and yes they both drank two each per day.  Chocolate was Andrew and Tracy’s favorite and Zach and I liked the Mango/Strawberry flavor best.  We drove from Mazatlan, back to Guadalajara (6.5 hours) on the Tuesday before Turkey Day and flew out on the 9:30pm flight, arriving at Fresno/Yosemite National Airport at the wee hours of the morning (midnight).

Then it was off to Coarsegold, California located just outside Yosemite National Park.  We went to Tracy’s Dad’s house for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Tracy and I had a really great time, hanging out, sleeping in, watching TV (s0mething we never get to do at home), eating a ton of food and just relaxing.  The boys on the other hand were go, go, go, up at the crack of dawn and asleep around 11:00pm.  They had such a great time hanging out with Grandpa Phil and Nana Elaine.  It was also an incredibly nice trip in that I got to celebrate my 47th Birthday in style and was taken out to a wonderful dinner to celebrate.  Thank you so much Phil and Elaine for everything.  It was a wonderful time for all of us.

We left there on the red eye on Sunday morning (1:00am) and the flight takes around 3.5 hours.  We arrived in Guad at 6:00am Sunday morning and were all exhausted.  The best part of the entire trip was the freaking 3 hours it took to get through customs, it was unbelievable!  I think every plane that was arriving into Guadalajara that day came in between 5:55am and 6:30am.  The baggage claim area had 4 carousels with at least 3 flights on each marquee.  I am guessing that there were at least 2,000 people coming in at the same time.  I guess lots of people do leave Mexico for Thanksgiving, who knew??  Exhausted and grumpy as hell, we all finally got to our car at long term parking and started home.  On the way, we were all so hungry that we stopped at a 24Hour Burrito place that tons of people stop at on the way back to Lakeside.  We went in ordered some food and then after a few minutes we were told that they were all out of chicken, beans and flour tortillas.  Still hungry and now really grumpy, we got back in the car and drove another 30 minutes.  Things all started to get a bit better once we started down the hill and could see the lake in front of us.  We stopped at a local breakfast joint and had the most amazing meal.  Tracy had eggs Benedict, I had an omelet and the boys split cottage cheese pancakes.  We were all much happier.  We arrived to our home only to find out that there had been a massive windstorm that tore through the village that night before into the morning.  The power was out in the house and the air was full of dust.  We crawled into the house and straight for the bed and napped for a few wonderful hours until the boys woke us up fighting about something.  The rest of the day, Andrew was in tears at the slightest mention of his grandpa, California or any family.  He was feeling incredibly homesick for family and just wanted to go back to the States.  Now it’s been a week and things have progressively settled back to normal.  The tears have stopped and life has begun to settle back into our nice relaxed routine.

Oh, one more exciting thing.  We think we will be moving Andrew to a new school in January.  We finally found the Waldorf School and toured it this past Thursday.  It was wonderful and Andrew was in heaven.  He actually got to stay on Thursday and Friday for the entire day and couldn’t stop talking about it all weekend.  It’s super inexpensive and the director (Veronica) is just the coolest.

So, that’s the latest from Mexico.  I hope you are all well and enjoying life and had a great holiday.  Hope to hear from many of you soon.

Adios for now!