I left Tempe, Arizona at 1 am, dropped my dog off at a friend's house in Chandler, and had made it south along Arizona Avenue to the Hunt Highway when I realized I'd forgotten my memory card for my Nikon. I made the tough decision of turning towards Interstate 10 and heading back to Tempe, where I found the card in my laptop.
I arrived at the border town of Nogales, Arizona at 7am. I spoke to an old woman working at IHOP who lived on the Sonoran side. "The violence may be picking up today," she said. "Only use pesos, don't let them see you have a lot of money," she added. I proceeded to the border.
The two Federales who greeted me were polite and spoke perfect English, "Buenvenidos." they said. "What is the purpose of your visit to Mexico?"
"I really don't have a purpose, I'm here on a whim," I said. They nodded and simply waved me to proceed.
I carefully navigated the bustling streets of Nogales, Sonora. There were old buses everywhere, pedestrians a'plenty, and about two farmacia's a block. I guess pharmacies are big business down there. I had two goals: to find a Casa de Cambria, and a filling station. I stopped in at a OXXO convenient store. They said they could exchange my money, but I'd need to buy something. I decided against this as I was only needing 40 USD exchanged as I was on a very tight budget. I walked outside. "Donde de Casa de Cambira?" I asked a customer as he walked out. He pointed down the road on the northbound s;ide and counted "uno, dos, tres, quatro," until he had his finger pointed at a square building with a wall around it.
"gracias," I said, and got back in my car and drove over.
I exchanged 40 USD for about 490 Pesos. I'd calculated the exact exchange rate to me for 512, but that's about $2.20 difference, so I wasn't too worried about it. I went over and got fuel, and was able to fill my tank for 350 pesos. Then I proceeded south down Mexico Route 15.
The first place I stopped was a gas station, I used the rest room and talked to some Canadians from British Columbia in an RV. Afterwards I hit the immigration station, picked up an old lady who was hitchhiking, and eventually made it down to Magdalena de Kino. I'll cut the story a bit short here and just show you the pictures with some captions.
The immigration office 21km south of Nogales.
My alien registration card and passport stamp.
In Taciuri, I had a burrito.
Beatrice the hitchhiker who is a retired seamstress with 8 ninos.
A statue of father kino in Magdalena de Kino
beggars come in all shapes and sizes down here.
A one eyed dog has a hard life in Magdalena de Kino
but at least he has friends.
Foto Artistica in Magdalena de KIno
In the mercado in Magdalena de Kino
The temple of Santa Maria de Magdalena
A Police checkpoint.. there were several of these.
Not one tail light...
cobblestone streets in Magdalena de Kino
Victor Hernandez from Durango.. I love his camera.
There are actually two Mexican Army soldiers guarding this portion of a tollway into the frontier. They didn't want their pictures taken
Shrines of all sorts.. must have been 200 of them..
Trash behind them was ubiquitous.
I felt bad for this man and his colostomy bag.
