Bookmark and Share

Mexico Border Crossing - Change of Plan

Posted by Alex on 9 December 2009

 

Having arrived in Columbus and planned on crossing the border to Las Palomas, we were slightly thrown by the constant stream of warnings and advice from border patrol officers and anyone we crossed not to cross the border there. It appears that there ahas been a recent increase in violence in the area, and two "Gringos" on bicycles with plenty of easily sold gear would be like hanging the proverbial carrot in front of the "Bandito's" noses.

 

 After much consideration, we decided to play it safe and continue to Juarez to take a cross border bus to Chihuahua and thus avoid the risky part along the border. So off we set for another 2 days ride East to El Paso where, West an avid cyclist and Manging Director for a cross-border educational project kindly offered us a place to regroup and coordinate the next stage of our trip.

 

Fortunately a Westerly wind gave a much appreciated push and raised the temperature above freezing (during the day at least) and made for an easy ride into El Paso, Texas. West, who has been living and working on both sides of the border for 15 years gave us an objective overview of the current situation, and made the whole passage as stress free as possible.

 

The crossing, having gone so much more smoothly than either one of us expected, we arrived in Chihuahua early!!! (what happened to "Maniana maniana") and could finally truly celebrate arriving in Mexico with delicious street food and cheap Cervezas... and all of tis thanks to West from Project Puente (http://projectpuente.org) in El Paso. Truly, thank you for all your help.

 

 

 

 

5 comments. Tags: , , , . Location: Chihuahua, Mexico, USA

 

Post your own comment

Comments

  • Nice and cool site.

    Posted by online casino on 23/08/2010 4:01pm (17 days ago)

  • Hey Javier
    great to hear from you. I hope that you are both doing well down there. Do you know where you will be for Xmas?
    Thank you for your comment, it was indeed the lack of any previous experience in this area which made us err on this side of caution. The border patrol specifically told us not to cross at Columbus as the mayor had recently been murdered, all the police had sought asylum in the US and somebody had been kidnapped earlier that week. As we expected, things have been absolutely fine since arriving in Chihuahua and everybody has been overly friendly and helpful. (Fin and I will both be posting a blog tonight)
    Safe trip
    Alex and Fin

    Posted by Alex on 16/12/2009 1:47am (9 months ago)

  • Nice to hear everything is going well, and that you feel safe.

    Anyway I cannot prevent from making a personal comment , I feel Mexico quite close to my heart: for every incident there will be a million spokesmen. But how many bikers are passing safely the border???The vast majority if not almost all.
    I respect that you decided to take precautions, and I am happy you seem to enjoy the trip. But probably in a World where people tend to distrust strangers, to reduce everything to topics and simplistic ideas, it´d better not to assume that the border crossing is dangerous, or that there are "bandidos" and the people leave things for "mañana". Aside from being probably the most beautiful country in your trip, the safety situation for a biker in Mexico is good, things will worsen probably in some particular areas of Central America.

    Hope you understand my concern, I think a trip like yours is a good oportunity for stressing how kind the people tend to be everywhere, and how easy it is to find help and shelter. Bad things happen, but not so often. And they could also happen probably in your neighborhood.....Have a safe trip, all the best

    Posted by javier on 14/12/2009 1:52pm (9 months ago)

  • We really enjoyed meeting you at Casa Puente in El Paso. So glad you arrived safely in Mexico. We'll be following your adventures. Holding you in the light with all good wishes for health, safety and success.

    Posted by Billie on 10/12/2009 4:53am (9 months ago)

  • I'm so glad you took the long route to get into MX and are safe!
    Be cautious there!
    Enjoy~
    Jill E S

    Posted by Jill on 09/12/2009 9:12pm (9 months ago)

RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments