Iron Roamer, Brian Thiessen, looking at the Mexico flag from his hotel room at the Travelodge in San Ysidro, California.

Preparing to Cross the Border into Mexico

Today was a day to prepare to cross the border into Mexico tomorrow.

Travelodge San Ysidro

The Travelodge in San Ysidro is a perfect spot to launch into Mexico. I can even seen into Tijuna Mexico from my hotel room!

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The hotel itself is cheap at $50 CDN. And with that you get a pretty good breakfast and free WiFi. The management here is awesome. very professional. Probably the best value hotel I have had to-date.

Preparations

I put all my original documents in one pouch for Mexico Immigration at the border. I didn’t want to be fumbling around. This included my Drivers License, Passport, Mexican Insurance and Vehicle Registration.

I can’t remember if I said this before, but I purchased just liability insurance through Mex Adventure. In Mexico you are only required to have liability insurance. I could have purchased collision etc but decided not to. I will just have to self finance any damage or theft. We’ll see if that was the right decision.

I also had $500 USD for my Tourist Permit, Temporary Vehicle Import Permit, and the $400 USD deposit that I would get back when I check my motorcycle out of the country.

From World Wide Ride I heard that official from other countries get confused with how British Columbia combines the vehicle registration and vehicle insurance on one document. Especially when you had in our insurance decals on our license plates.

I made colour copies of just the registration part of our document and took off the decals from the back of my motorcycle.

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I am taking in $9,000 Mexican Pesos ($500 USD) across to last a little while.

Of course there was the hiding of emergency money. I am hoping I remember where I hid it all! After my last long trip I was finding hidden money months after I got back ha ha.

And there was the usual doing laundry.

After the preparation was done I had time to wander around the town.

San Ysidro

Just down from the Travelodge is a really nice outlet mall.

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This time I was able to actually enjoy my frap at Starbucks.

The other parts of the town appear to cater to people crossing the border. There are lots of Mexican Insurance companies and currency exchange stores.

I guess I am as ready as I ever will be. For me this is the real start of my adventure.

My Location for September 29, 2016

travelodge-san-ysidro-map

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