Mexican border crossing at Nogales
 

Hey folks. I crossed the border yesterday into the wonderful land of Mexico. I crossed over at Nogales as I was at the overland expo meeting in Arizona which was right by the border. My experience was very pleasent and I think it had to do with timing.

I woke up at 4am on Sunday morning and prepared the last of my paperwork (which involved faking a driving licence as mine expired). Watched my last sunrise in the states, said my goodbyes and was at the border around 8am.

The border was basically empty. I chatted with the american border guards for a while about my trip and they asked about the bike. Had absolutly no trouble as expected.

On the mexican side the biggest hassle was the stupid metal speed balls they use. A line of half balls bolted to the ground with not enough space for a bike tire. the wheel does funky stuff going over them. Immigration was simple. Park on the right just after you enter and there is a sign for it. Head inside and fill in the usual forms. You have to goto the bank to pay for the visa but it is cheap and easy ($23) and back into immigration for final stamps. It took about 10 minutes.

Once that was done I needed to get the temporary import for the motorbike. To do this just drive down the road for about 20km. You'll notice obvious signs for temporary vehicle import just pull over and go through a very similar process as before. I think the import cost $40.

Paperwork checking seemed cursory at best and even my bad faked driving licence got through. All in it was a simple process and very quick. For the whole thing including immigration it took less than an hour.

My advice is to travel on Sundays, there is no commercial traffic and even the civillian traffic was very light. I did get told that you do not want to go from Mexico to the US on Sunday as everyone thinks that is the best time to return for work and the wait can take hours.

ps. For insurance I used Mexican Auto Insurance Online - Mexadventure.com simple web form and printout your insurance details. Cheaper than doing it near the border.

Now the fun begins!

That it does.

Who knew that Mexico was such a beautiful country? I keep finding myself staring around and wondering why America let the Mexicans have it.

So glad to hear that your fake drivers license did the trick. Nice to meet you at the Expo and I hope you have a great adventure amigo! :thumbup1:

Further to Hornet´s post

At Nogales there is NO NEED at all to do any of the paperwork at the actual border crossing. Just ride in through the lane marked ¨Nothing to declare¨ and ride out of town down the highway to the mentioned Customs terminal on Highway Mex 15 .EVERYTHING can be completed there tourist card, TVIP ,payments by credit card and insurance if you were forgetful and did not already buy it on the US side.
As for the domes in the road, called bollos or ¨boyos¨, just aim your front wheel at the diagonal vally between them if there are several lines acrosss the streeet.This will minimize the steering deflection.
Thes domes are also used in a line to demark certain traffic lanes and you do NOT want to cross them by wandering out of your lane .Wild ride in store!

Welcome to Mexico / Central-America.

What did you say in the "Where registered" field? The fields only allow for US states / Canadian provinces...