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Monday 3rd September - Guaymas, Mexico - Los Mochis Mexico

(Nick) Having arrived late last night in Guaymas, where we expected to find an immigration and customs office, we resolved to obtain our visas and temporary import permit for the wolf. As Oliver's flight from Mexico city leaves tomorrow, we had booked him a flight leaving this afternoon from a local airport a few miles down the road. With Oliver likely to be the first to go through any formal immigration, it was most important for him to have a valid visa for Mexico by midday!

Illegal immigrants...

As we went into town, we tracked down the office of migration, which happened to be just outside town. As we joked that we were somehow in the unusual situation of being illegal immigrants in Mexico, it became obvious that our situation was pretty serious.

 

As we were filling in the forms for visas, the official explained that as we had driven straight past the immigration office, which was when we crossed from North to South Baja, we each needed to pay a $50US fine. Absolute extortion for a visa which should have been $5US each! The official obviously took pity on us in the only way she could, other than not charging us, by giving us all one year multi entry visas, the most expensive kind. Unfortunately, I cannot see us being able to put these to use in the near future.

Soldiers, we would be very worried of this if we were still illegal!

The next step was to find the customs for our vehicle, and get the temporary import permit for Mexico. The office was a few miles down the road in a place called Only Sonora.

The office was in the middle of nowhere, with an enormous car park, which could accomodate over 200 cars, we were however, the only car in sight! There was also a blown over gazebo outside, with a couple of drinks vending machines about 40 metres from the buildings, we were extremely surprised to find these machines were stocked and refrigerating in the extreme heat!

Inside, the office was immaculate, with 12 very smart looking kiosks for processing paperwork. There was also lots of room for people to wait, along with another drinks machine. In an office behind the kiosk, were a few staff, who clearly had nothing to do, and had probably not seen anyone else all day. We couldn't work out why this office was so extremely over equipped for dealing with very large numbers!

Once the paperwork was processed and the vehicle had been inspected, we were issued with our temporary importation permit certificate, and a sticker for the windscreen. We were now completely legal in Mexico! So we headed on towards the airport for Oliver.

In Obregon City, we had a lunch with Oliver, where Dan found a chilli sauce with "made from the hottest chillis in the world" printed on the label. Sadly, we were disappointed by how mild the sauce actually was!

Hmmm... wonder how hot this sauce really is!?

Made from the hottest chillis in the world... NOT

Dropping Oliver off at the airport, which surprisingly, no locals knew the location of, we posed for some photos in our Lone Wolf Transglobal t-shirts, before saying our good byes, and heading on to a place to camp for the night.

The Lone Wolf Transglobal team in Ciduidad Obregon

 

We decided that Los Mochis, looked to be a good spot, and if we headed towards the coast, there should be some beach camping nearby. As we drove South, the desert disappeared, and the landscape turned into a lush green savannah. With the green landscape, the sky changed from blue, to grey, and for the first time in Mexico, it rained, heavily.

Suddenly its all green

As we arrived in Los Mochis, the sun was just setting, so we headed to the coast, only to find that a working dock was the only access. Turning around, and going back into town, we saw a few motels, and decided that if we didn't find anything, we should try to camp in the car park of one. As it was beginning to get dark, and we were all getting stressed, I spotted a beer stall, and hopped out to get some beers. The bars across the window and shotgun at the back told me that this was not the nicest part of town.

Los Mochis

Nick buying beers at a stall in Los Mochis

The Wolf in Los Mochis

Opting for a Motel before it got too dark, we pulled up outside the Motel Popeye. On the wall outside, it stated that rooms were only 160 pesos for the night, about £7, if it was absolutely no good, we would only waste the price of a couple of pints.

Daniel went in, to ask about camping in their car park, or look at their rooms. When he returned, he explained to Amy and I that it was a brothel, as there were prostitutes standing by the entrance, but in reality, this is the same in most places around the world. The room he looked at was basic, but it was OK, in addition to this, there was a garage we could park the wolf in. We agreed that this was probably the place to stay, and it seemed safe enough.

As we drove up to the garage/ room that Dan looked at, the manager came over and explained that this was the 'delux' room, and we had only booked the 'economy' room. He then showed us the correct place, and walked off. As it was a brothel, we got Amy out subtly, as it was against the rules to 'bring your own'. Inside the room, at the back of the garage, was a pole, for pole dancing, and on the celing was a mirror. It was a very bespoke brothel!

A pole in the centre of the room

At first this was quite amusing, as we all looked at each other in astonishment. Then stepping inside the room, there was a revolting stench, which can only be described as the smell of sex, and lots of it. Absorbing the features of the room, there was a towel dispenser by the side of the bed, a television with a list of the pornography channels, the mirror had hand prints from the last occupant, and a list of girls. services and prices in a booklet by the side of the bed.

Hand prints on the mirror and a paper towel dispenser by the bed

The sex room, we can't stay here!

We couldn't bring ourselves to touch anything, let alone sleep here for the night! Down the road, we had spotted a Burger King restaurant, so we decided we would bribe the guard and camp in their carpark for the night.

As we were leaving the motel, the manager came over asking if everything was OK, too embarrassed to explain properly, we said we were going to get some dinner, but he said it could be ordered for us. After a little insistance, we left to the Burger King.

The security guards were very friendly, and told us that we had nothing to worry about for the night, we would get no trouble, and no-one would bother us, just to be gone before 9am (when then manager arrived). Sitting in the rooftent, Amy, Daniel and I discussed the events of the last few hours, over a few beers before going to sleep.

 

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Copyright © 2007 Daniel Moylan