Baja California - Tijuana, La Bufadora, Ensenada, Tecate

[agentsteel53]

photos to be found here 

https://www.aaroads.com/blog/?p=218

[Chris]

How "exotic" is Mexico for an American? Is it normal to go to Mexico by car, or is it seen as a challenge? Cross-border trips in Europe are like going to another state, but Mexico might be another story.

Are people also going further into Mexico by car than the border regions?

[Brandon]

How "exotic" is Mexico for an American? Is it normal to go to Mexico by car, or is it seen as a challenge? Cross-border trips in Europe are like going to another state, but Mexico might be another story.

Are people also going further into Mexico by car than the border regions?

One needs to buy Mexican auto insurance to drive in Mexico, as opposed to Canada where one's US auto insurance is sufficient.  Also, one needs a tourist card to go further into Mexico than just the border regions or a few port cities.  Canada does not require that.

[agentsteel53]

How "exotic" is Mexico for an American? Is it normal to go to Mexico by car, or is it seen as a challenge? Cross-border trips in Europe are like going to another state, but Mexico might be another story.

Are people also going further into Mexico by car than the border regions?

as Brandon said, various papers are needed ... I have not ever gone past the border regions, so I have not gotten the tourist card.  There also appears to be some paperwork to do with the importation of vehicles - essentially, you have to promise that you will take your US car back to the US!  Apparently there is a black market for beater US vehicles, because what qualifies as a beater here is several orders of magnitude better than what qualifies as a beater down there.

as for how "exotic" - a lot of Americans tend to be irrationally afraid of Mexico (oh no! bloodbaths everywhere! drugs! people that speak only Mexican! welfare queens! terrorists!) but every time I've gone there, I've found the place to be filled with friendly people.  A bit of broken Spanish goes a long way, as does generally not acting like a dumbass.

[Chris]

I see. Insurancewise, Mexico is similar to Russia. It's the only country in Europe that I need to buy an auto insurance for at the border. I can even drive into Iran and Israel with my insurance, but not Russia.

IMO, a huge amount of bureaucratic paperwork can kill tourism, like those tourist cards or even visa. People don't want to go through the hassle of that.

[agentsteel53]

I see. Insurancewise, Mexico is similar to Russia. It's the only country in Europe that I need to buy an auto insurance for at the border. I can even drive into Iran and Israel with my insurance, but not Russia.

IMO, a huge amount of bureaucratic paperwork can kill tourism, like those tourist cards or even visa. People don't want to go through the hassle of that.

Europe had a brilliant idea with the Schengen agreement.  If they can do it, and goodness knows the French didn't much like the Germans as recently as 1945, then the rest of the world can too.

[J N Winkler]

I'd certainly agree that Mexico tends to inspire irrational dread in people who have little familiarity with actual conditions south of the border.  Even in the US border regions, where it is not at all unusual to meet people who routinely travel into the Mexican interior, there are plenty of people who have never travelled further into Mexico than the border zone and have no interest in doing so.  People also tend to judge all of Mexico by the border region, which is violent, chaotic, shabby, dilapidated and full of people who are trying to evade the laws on either side to move drugs, guns, ammunition, and illegal immigrants, or (particularly in the case of redneck Americans) seeking to engage in behavior which would attract either prosecution or strong social disapproval in the US.  "Would you like to sleep with my sister?  She's really clean"--you get the idea.

Americans tend to think Mexican policemen ache for opportunities to stomp on gringo tourists, but the one time I was stopped by a tránsito, I was let go without penalty.  He had me bang to rights because I had turned right on a red traffic signal after stopping, which is legal in all US states and in most of Canada but not in Mexico or western Europe.

In my experience, it is well worth it to go into the Mexican interior.  The people are pleasant and the local cuisine (at least in northern Mexico) is quite good, though not at all what you would expect from the standard Tex-Mex clichés.  (I suspect that Tex-Mex cuisine in general is based rather narrowly on Mexican street food, while Mexican table food is actually quite similar to classic American cuisine except that refried beans are consistently served as a side dish.)  The topography is quite interesting, even in northern Mexico, and you see it up close and at a leisurely pace because the untolled roads tend to follow twisty alignments, with surfaces which are rough or pitted by First World standards.

Getting into the Mexican interior does not take that long as long as you have your paperwork in order.  If you are an American, essentially what you need are a passport, a registration receipt which shows you are a legal owner of your car (it gets complicated if it's a rental or a lien is involved), and your driver's license.  Mexican insurance can be bought on either side of the border (both times I visited, I bought a policy at Presidio, immediately before I crossed the border).  At immigration control you use the passport to get a FMT-3, and then you take your passport, FMT-3, driver's license, and registration receipt to a Banjercito module to get your car temporarily imported into Mexico.  You get a windshield sticker (silvered on one side) to indicate that your car is road-legal for the Mexican interior while it still has your home-state plates, and also a temporary vehicle importation certificate.  Both the sticker and importation certificate need to be returned when you leave Mexico for the last time on your FMT-3 in order to show that your car has left Mexico, as opposed to becoming a chocolate on the Mexican side of the border.  You then receive a certificate which indicates your car has been "checked out" of Mexico.  I always save this in case of future problems.

After you clear the border, there is a further check of papers (FMT-3, silver sticker, temporary vehicle importation certificate, and passport) at an internal frontier checkpoint, usually located between 25 and 40 km south of the border.  Thereafter you are not troubled except for the odd puesto de revision militar (typically to check for drugs--you will often be asked to open your trunk) and judicial police checkpoints at state borders.

The FMT-3 used to be free but there is now a charge for it (it was about $24 in American currency last I visited).  Payment for it is made at a bank chosen from a list of those the government has approved to receive payments for immigration services--the immigration officers don't handle money.  I actually didn't pay this fee on my first visit in 2002, thinking payment had been taken at the Banjercito module where I had had my car processed.  So, the second time I entered, in 2003, it was made very clear to me that I needed to take the FMT-3 I was issued then to a bank in the interior and pay the fee there.  I am not sure why the Banjercito module at the border didn't take payment since Banjercito is on the list of approved banks, but it didn't take long to stop at a bank branch near Chihuahua cathedral and take care of it.

Getting back to the US is actually the hard part, because the waits at the border are typically quite long.  It is almost as if Americans who visit Mexico must be punished for their disloyalty to the US.  The approach I personally prefer, but have not actually succeeded in implementing, is to exit Mexico at a border crossing which handles a minimal amount of traffic.  Near major border cities (like Nogales or El Paso-Ciudad Juárez) this is not straightforward because you must first stop at a place which can stamp your vehicle out of the country.  Typically this is at or near the internal frontier crossing (called "Km. 30" in the Juárez area because it is located about 30 km south of the border itself) since small border crossings near large cities (e.g., the one opposite Santa Teresa, NM, just west of El Paso) don't have vehicle clearance facilities.  Once your car is stamped out, you can't go back into the interior to "shop" for an easier crossing.  Mex. 2 does not afford full mobility through the border zone for fronterizos because some internal frontier checkpoints are north of it (as at Nogales) while others are south of it (as at Juárez).