Arizona & arriving in Mexico.
We allowed ourselves a lie after our mega day at the Grand Canyon, and as we’d pretty well been getting up early every morning for a while. The Travel Lodge was below average and so we moved to a Comfort Inn, a satisfactory chain of hotels we'd already used. In the evening the plan was to see Mike’s Aunt who lived in Phoenix. All was arranged, we'd found her Drive on the GPS on the laptop, and so we set off (remembering that the actual 2610 unit was away being repaired/replaced !). Two hours later, and after finding a drive with the same name as hers, but not with her number, we had to abandon the plan, and this despite looking at a few maps in various service stations. I was really dissapointed as I knew that she would have made an effort, and that other relatives of mine would be there, but we couldn't just go on any longer. The following day I was able to get in touch with her and establish where she did live. It was in fact, less than a mile away from where we had been. We had the road name right but she hadn't been aware that another road existed with the same drive name!!
Time was running very short, our USA visa's expired on 20th December, and it was now the morning of the 19th !! and we both had huge lists we’d created to do be done in Phoenix and so we set off in our own directions to start off meeting these needs.
I'd decided to go to the optician for an eye-test, and new glasses, as I'd broken one pair and wanted to know my eyes were ok before leaving first world countries. I also needed to collect my repaired Autocom unit from a DHL office. John was off to another DHL office to collect our repaired/replaced GPS unit.
Phoenix is a big city with about 7 million inhabitants, which is only about 2 million less than London. On the local A-Z, everything looks close together, and in a number of cases, the city uses just one road name to link two areas together-in reality, these two areas could be over 20 miles apart, hence, when John and I tried to get all our things done, a combination of DHL sending the GPS to the wrong depot, on the other side of town, …where I'd just left, combined with a printing company (where we were getting our pannier designs printed) on completely the other side of town, quickly dispersed of the morning and lunch-time, leaving us with enough time for a quickish burger lunch and about 90 mins shopping.
We had planned to meet up with Johnny this evening from the Grand Canyon, but after the fiasco with my Aunt, we split up in the evening, me to visit my Aunt, and John to go out with Johnny. Before setting off, we managed to get our Exploringrtw logo stickers applied to my bike which was a nice touch at the end of a rushed day. Our room looked, as has become usual, like a Chinese laundry, and had the added mess created by a re-pack of our luggage. We both had good evenings out and enjoyed a change of scene.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127978272.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Me with me Auntie.....Auntie Frances.
It was now the morning of 20th and we were up early as we have to collect a number of BMW spare parts and have new tyres fitted in Tuscon, about 120 miles away….but before we could do that, there were the bikes to finish being re-packed and Johns exploringrtw stickers to be applied. We finally managed to leave at about 10:15, an hour and a quarter later than we’d hoped…but we’d been optimistic about the whole re-pack-breakfast-leaving room again
and so 10:15 it was.
One of the additional problems of roads with such long names is the distance between land marks. As we drove down Scottsdale (local road in Phoenix) this morning, we rode for over 10 miles before we reached our turning with me regularly checking and double checking the instructions I’d written down. Fortunately, both the BMW dealer, and the tyre company were on the same road in Tuscon, and only separated by about 3-4 miles. We hit Tuscon at about 13:00(ish)- I left John to take his wheels off for his tyres to be fitted whilst I went to collect the spares and lunch.
The BMW dealer, Ironhorse, were excellent, and certainly a lot better than a number of BMW dealers we have used recently. Nearly all the spares were in that we’d ordered, with only 2 missing, and this was a big order. Not only that, but we were given 10% discount, 2 free personalised t-shirts and baseball caps. At BMW/Ducati Colordao we were offered sale items a day before the sale. BMW/DUCATI COLORADO take note !!
I returned with Burger King perched between me and tank bag, with a large box of spares bungied to the top of one of my panniers….an interesting ride. Anyway, John was done and I swiftly managed to remove my wheels and have the new tyres fitted. I had been encouraged by the BMW dealer to take a spare set of tyres with us-SWMoto, fitting our new tyres were not too sure what was best to do as there may be import duties to pay in Mexico. After a 5 min discussion, we opted for not as the bikes were starting to look well overloaded again-plus we didn’t want any added complications at the Mexican border.
The last thing we had to do was get to a cash point and get some petrol. After a few failed attempts we managed to get some cash and set off for Mexico !, stopping only for some petrol and then just short of the border, for some Mc’Donalds. Mc’D’s was like a mad house, with Spanish being the primary spoken language even though we were still in the States. The noise was unreal but we found it entertaining as it spelt the beginning of our forthcoming change in culture and new adventure. After 'dinner', we did a quick division of the new spares to reduce import complications at the border and we were “all-set” to go. We got to the border 5 mins later and it was chaos-nobody seemed to want to check anything. I realised that if we didn’t stop soon, we wouldn’t be able to surrender our USA Visas which would give us trouble in the future…so we stopped and found the USA border officials to surrender our VISAs, very nice guys who would have renewed them for the asking, which puts the grilling we went through when returning from Canada, in perspective! Nobody stopped us or checked anything as we sailed through the borders into Nogales, which if you see it, can perhaps quite understand, It was 20:00 and we had had four hours left to run on our Visas !!
The first thing that hits you in Nogales is the unburnt petrol fumes, and they are plenty, the next is the grubby run down town which is about 4-5 miles across, full of very very poor looking people scratching to make a living. I cannot convey in words what it was like, and it wasn't appropriate to take any photos. The roads are in poor condition and so are the signs. We managed to get through town to find the same road “quality” continuing for another 10 miles or so. Finally we hit what looked like a country lane, but it was unlit, so we can’t be sure. The road marking was not that good but it enabled us to settle down to feeling safe at about 50 mph.
We finally found a motel which offered us the normal facilities plus an in-room pc & internet access free !! We couldn’t believe our eyes !! Nowhere todate had we had this as part of a package. Our entry into Mexico was not to be seen purley through the eyes of Nogales. We fired off a few e-mails, established what the £/Peso exchange rate was and climbed into bed with a cold Sol to watch the end of a Bond Movie….aahhhhh, what a day !!!
The following morning we were aware that we had no official paperwork for us or the bikes being in Mexico and started to conclude that the huge queue of lorries we'd seen 25 miles or so into Mexico was where we should have gone the previous evening!!, but we're British and don't like covering the same ground twice so we decided we could sort it out somewhere else!! We did however try to secure some insurance at a place that said Insurance ! but no, they didn't cover bikes, and our Spanish did nothing to encouarge us in looking further !
That evening we stayed at a motel called the Pink Flamingo, which would have been more appropriately named the nice exterior with cold shower, small beds and awful TV reception ! We were in Mexico !!, or so we wrongly concluded from our suroundings. i.e. Not all of Mexico is like this.
We'd decided to make our Christmas base Mazatlan, which is on the west coast. John had found it in one of our guides, and it was apparently the first decent resort on this side of Mexico coast, and so we decided this was our goal.
On the 23rd we arrived in Mazatlan, and, shortly after arriving, found the Hotel Siesta, which we managed to secure for 4 nights. Enough to get us to the 27th, so no risk of roughing it !! Our next concern was if we would be able to get anything to eat over Christmas, apparently that would be no problem 'either' as a number of Restaurants would be open. With that, we sighed with relief, and settled into our new room.
Mike
We allowed ourselves a lie after our mega day at the Grand Canyon, and as we’d pretty well been getting up early every morning for a while. The Travel Lodge was below average and so we moved to a Comfort Inn, a satisfactory chain of hotels we'd already used. In the evening the plan was to see Mike’s Aunt who lived in Phoenix. All was arranged, we'd found her Drive on the GPS on the laptop, and so we set off (remembering that the actual 2610 unit was away being repaired/replaced !). Two hours later, and after finding a drive with the same name as hers, but not with her number, we had to abandon the plan, and this despite looking at a few maps in various service stations. I was really dissapointed as I knew that she would have made an effort, and that other relatives of mine would be there, but we couldn't just go on any longer. The following day I was able to get in touch with her and establish where she did live. It was in fact, less than a mile away from where we had been. We had the road name right but she hadn't been aware that another road existed with the same drive name!!
Time was running very short, our USA visa's expired on 20th December, and it was now the morning of the 19th !! and we both had huge lists we’d created to do be done in Phoenix and so we set off in our own directions to start off meeting these needs.
I'd decided to go to the optician for an eye-test, and new glasses, as I'd broken one pair and wanted to know my eyes were ok before leaving first world countries. I also needed to collect my repaired Autocom unit from a DHL office. John was off to another DHL office to collect our repaired/replaced GPS unit.
Phoenix is a big city with about 7 million inhabitants, which is only about 2 million less than London. On the local A-Z, everything looks close together, and in a number of cases, the city uses just one road name to link two areas together-in reality, these two areas could be over 20 miles apart, hence, when John and I tried to get all our things done, a combination of DHL sending the GPS to the wrong depot, on the other side of town, …where I'd just left, combined with a printing company (where we were getting our pannier designs printed) on completely the other side of town, quickly dispersed of the morning and lunch-time, leaving us with enough time for a quickish burger lunch and about 90 mins shopping.
We had planned to meet up with Johnny this evening from the Grand Canyon, but after the fiasco with my Aunt, we split up in the evening, me to visit my Aunt, and John to go out with Johnny. Before setting off, we managed to get our Exploringrtw logo stickers applied to my bike which was a nice touch at the end of a rushed day. Our room looked, as has become usual, like a Chinese laundry, and had the added mess created by a re-pack of our luggage. We both had good evenings out and enjoyed a change of scene.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127978272.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Me with me Auntie.....Auntie Frances.
It was now the morning of 20th and we were up early as we have to collect a number of BMW spare parts and have new tyres fitted in Tuscon, about 120 miles away….but before we could do that, there were the bikes to finish being re-packed and Johns exploringrtw stickers to be applied. We finally managed to leave at about 10:15, an hour and a quarter later than we’d hoped…but we’d been optimistic about the whole re-pack-breakfast-leaving room again
and so 10:15 it was. One of the additional problems of roads with such long names is the distance between land marks. As we drove down Scottsdale (local road in Phoenix) this morning, we rode for over 10 miles before we reached our turning with me regularly checking and double checking the instructions I’d written down. Fortunately, both the BMW dealer, and the tyre company were on the same road in Tuscon, and only separated by about 3-4 miles. We hit Tuscon at about 13:00(ish)- I left John to take his wheels off for his tyres to be fitted whilst I went to collect the spares and lunch.
The BMW dealer, Ironhorse, were excellent, and certainly a lot better than a number of BMW dealers we have used recently. Nearly all the spares were in that we’d ordered, with only 2 missing, and this was a big order. Not only that, but we were given 10% discount, 2 free personalised t-shirts and baseball caps. At BMW/Ducati Colordao we were offered sale items a day before the sale. BMW/DUCATI COLORADO take note !!
I returned with Burger King perched between me and tank bag, with a large box of spares bungied to the top of one of my panniers….an interesting ride. Anyway, John was done and I swiftly managed to remove my wheels and have the new tyres fitted. I had been encouraged by the BMW dealer to take a spare set of tyres with us-SWMoto, fitting our new tyres were not too sure what was best to do as there may be import duties to pay in Mexico. After a 5 min discussion, we opted for not as the bikes were starting to look well overloaded again-plus we didn’t want any added complications at the Mexican border.
The last thing we had to do was get to a cash point and get some petrol. After a few failed attempts we managed to get some cash and set off for Mexico !, stopping only for some petrol and then just short of the border, for some Mc’Donalds. Mc’D’s was like a mad house, with Spanish being the primary spoken language even though we were still in the States. The noise was unreal but we found it entertaining as it spelt the beginning of our forthcoming change in culture and new adventure. After 'dinner', we did a quick division of the new spares to reduce import complications at the border and we were “all-set” to go. We got to the border 5 mins later and it was chaos-nobody seemed to want to check anything. I realised that if we didn’t stop soon, we wouldn’t be able to surrender our USA Visas which would give us trouble in the future…so we stopped and found the USA border officials to surrender our VISAs, very nice guys who would have renewed them for the asking, which puts the grilling we went through when returning from Canada, in perspective! Nobody stopped us or checked anything as we sailed through the borders into Nogales, which if you see it, can perhaps quite understand, It was 20:00 and we had had four hours left to run on our Visas !!
The first thing that hits you in Nogales is the unburnt petrol fumes, and they are plenty, the next is the grubby run down town which is about 4-5 miles across, full of very very poor looking people scratching to make a living. I cannot convey in words what it was like, and it wasn't appropriate to take any photos. The roads are in poor condition and so are the signs. We managed to get through town to find the same road “quality” continuing for another 10 miles or so. Finally we hit what looked like a country lane, but it was unlit, so we can’t be sure. The road marking was not that good but it enabled us to settle down to feeling safe at about 50 mph.
We finally found a motel which offered us the normal facilities plus an in-room pc & internet access free !! We couldn’t believe our eyes !! Nowhere todate had we had this as part of a package. Our entry into Mexico was not to be seen purley through the eyes of Nogales. We fired off a few e-mails, established what the £/Peso exchange rate was and climbed into bed with a cold Sol to watch the end of a Bond Movie….aahhhhh, what a day !!!
The following morning we were aware that we had no official paperwork for us or the bikes being in Mexico and started to conclude that the huge queue of lorries we'd seen 25 miles or so into Mexico was where we should have gone the previous evening!!, but we're British and don't like covering the same ground twice so we decided we could sort it out somewhere else!! We did however try to secure some insurance at a place that said Insurance ! but no, they didn't cover bikes, and our Spanish did nothing to encouarge us in looking further !
That evening we stayed at a motel called the Pink Flamingo, which would have been more appropriately named the nice exterior with cold shower, small beds and awful TV reception ! We were in Mexico !!, or so we wrongly concluded from our suroundings. i.e. Not all of Mexico is like this.
We'd decided to make our Christmas base Mazatlan, which is on the west coast. John had found it in one of our guides, and it was apparently the first decent resort on this side of Mexico coast, and so we decided this was our goal.
On the 23rd we arrived in Mazatlan, and, shortly after arriving, found the Hotel Siesta, which we managed to secure for 4 nights. Enough to get us to the 27th, so no risk of roughing it !! Our next concern was if we would be able to get anything to eat over Christmas, apparently that would be no problem 'either' as a number of Restaurants would be open. With that, we sighed with relief, and settled into our new room.
Mike
