Holiday weekened. Yun and I traveled south to the beaches of miramar with Jeff and Beth and our pack of dogs. It was a really long trip.
We took our boat with us this weekend. It esentially doubled the amount of time it took to get here. It was a lot of little things.
As we attempted to depart Tucson, we were pulled over by the police due to the driving lights on the trailer not working. Just a warning, but we couldn’t continue until the lights were working. It was around 8pm at this time. Fortunately, it was just the bulbs that needed replacement, so within 30 minutes we were on our way.
We made it across the border into Mexico and were off to the customs building south of the city. As it was nearly 11pm, we had assumed the lines for importation would be minimal. Sadly, that was not the case.
The last time we waited in this line, we left with a permit for the boat that lasted a week. We were told we couldn’t get a lengthy permit due to the length of the boat (just under 15 feet).
This time we had a different approach. Rather than have Yunuen try to obtain the permit with me by her side, Yunuen suggested I obtain the permit myself. This proved to be a wise approach. Without any problem, we fairly promptly were on our way with a 10-year permit for less money that we had previously paid for a week. I’m convinced these people simply make it up.
Roughly four hours later, around 4pm, we were making our way through Hermosillo when we found ourselved being pulled over by the police. The allegation was that my trailer lights were flickering (they’re weren’t) and that I was speeding (I wasn’t). We were told how inconvenient our citations were for our vacation and then were given an expectant look. Yun wasn’t about to offer them a bribe (which is what they wanted) and asked that they take us to the station to resolve the citations. Moments later we were told we were told we could go due to their graciousness – apparently they didn’t want to go to the station to resolve our ‘citations’. Calling the bluff seems to be the way to resolve these situations.
A little over an hour later, we rolled into Guaymas. It was 5am and the sun was just starting to come up. We have never arrived this late, nor has it ever taken this long to get here. Even so, it is so worth it.
