Crossing the Border at Tecate

It’s a little nerve racking crossing the border in a car. We’re transporting a bunch of stuff in the back of the Jeep and all I can picture is having to unload the whole shebang at some kind of inspection. We proceed with caution. Nobody stops us, nobody looks at us, Mike doesn’t even put on the breaks. A few moments later we’re in Tecate, Mexico.

Aren’t we supposed to get a tourist visa? OK, yes. We park the Jeep on a side street and try to figure out how the tourist visa thing works. We end up walking back thru a one-way gate and follow the yellow brick road which is actually giant yellow arrows. We’re not in Kansas anymore and we’re defiantly not the first gringo’s wandering around trying to get a visa. We end up in the emigration office, no line, no one else there. The officer looks at our passport and has us fill out the usual form. It presently costs $ 23 USD for the visa. If you are traveling by plane this is included in your ticket. For those of us in a car (or on foot), we are directed to “the bank” next door to leave the money and get a receipt. The bank looks like a place to buy carnival tickets and does not look open. But sure enough here comes a pretty girl with pretty red lipstick. She takes our money and disappears. She eventually comes back with an official looking receipt, we go back to the emigration office, stamp, stamp, stamp and we are on our way. I’m pretty sure Tecate beer is named after the town and the town is not named after the beer.