During yesterday’s trip the boys discovered that their DELORME INREACH tracker stopped working all together despite attempts to charge the battery overnight so the first stop today was a battery shop on the way to the Mexican Border. The extremely helpful owner tried everything possible but after some research advised that the special Lithium Batteryshould be purchased from the Delorme manufacturing company as there is no alternative in the market and any genetic could lead to the total melt down of the unit.
Team Lipstick is currently investigating getting such a battery couriered to the forward agent in Columbia so that at least the South American route will become trackable again.
So off to the Border and with no control of passport and vehicle papers Team Lipstick all of a sudden found themselves in Mexico with nobody seemingly to understand English.
With sign language and a broken English speaking official on the Mexican side they were guided to a building on the left side of the border where the passports and vehicle papers had to be shown and after having had to pay some Dollars they had to go back to the first official on the right-hand side as you cross the border.
There the boys received their permit to enter Mexico and were told to report to some custom office 30km down from the border in the direction of Chihuahua. Firstly, however the boys made use of one of many money exchangers around the border to obtain some Mexican Pesos.
Frome there now it was plain sailing until the customs office was reached and the procedures of importing a car temporarily into Mexico had to be completed. Being used to much harsher border crossings in the Congo and along the silk road one can say that the process was relatively free of pain and after 45 minutes and many photocopies later Team Lipstick had the insurance papers for the Car and permission to drive the vehicle in Mexico for a period not exceeding 6 Months. A deposit of 300 USD had to be paid which would be refunded once exciting Mexico with all papers still in place.
Voila, so team Lipstick is now fully legal in Mexico and the boys hit the road down South which was in fact a double highway and with only a few farmhouses for hundreds of km the place to the left and the right of the road looked exactly like driving through the Northern Karoo in Winter. The road presented itself in various stages of pot hole densities but decent speeds could be obtained and whilst originally planning to stay over in Chihuahua the boys overshot this town and found a great place to rest there – The Santa Fe Hotel.
It was freezing cold with temperatures hovering around freezing points so Team Lipstick decided to eat at the Hotel and have an early night’s rest after doctoring themselves with some Coronza C and Med Lemon.