Don’t cross to Mexico at El Paso, Texas [April 11, 2009]
‘[nggallery id=16]’
Since we were traveling through El Paso anyways, we decided to cross over to Juárez, Mexico. When debating if we wanted to take our volvo across, we decided we loved it too much, so we paid the $3 dollars for parking and left it on the US side. While Juárez is considered a battle ground for drug cartels, El Paso is still considered among one of the safest cities in the United States according to the New York Times.
When you do cross over you want to make sure you first of all bring change, meaning coins, as there is plenty in the consul of your Volvo which has collected over the course of your trip. When you cross over to Mexico the fee is 0.35 cents and you don’t need the exact change as their will be a person who can break a dollar, but when you come back there is no person, just a coin slot and the cost is 0.30 cents. Also make sure you bring appropriate identification. And when I say appropriate identification I mean, A PASSPORT. Don’t even think twice about it. Because one person will tell you one thing on the US side (“You just need your driver’s liscense”) and then when you cross, the Boarder Control Police on the Mexico side will tell you another thing.
And if you think this is bad, I haven’t even mentioned the first impressions of actually crossing into Juárez. It is a completely different world and is just like in the movies. Armored police are at the boarders, coming and going. You walk two steps into Mexico and you are propositions by taxi driver after taxi driver to take you to the downtown market for $5 dollars which they say is several miles away. You also see many exchange places and food vendors selling off brand soft drinks, fruits and burritos. Thinking this is not a good idea to either exchange your money or eat the burritos you go ahead and decide to go back to the US side.
After successfully making it through the interrogation of the boarder control police, and remember they get sentitive when you declare you are an “American”, you go back to your Volvo and are thankful that it is still there along with all hub caps.