…but all’s well that ends well.
We left Corozol within an hour of our planned 8:00 departure time, despite the fact that we had a 10PM knock on our door telling us we could stay at the cute little park, but we had to park on the road, not in the park. No biggie, Tom put on his pants and moved the truck 10 feet to the right. We were still asleep with plenty of time to get up early, have a nice walk through a section of Corozol we’ve never seen, and get packed up and on the road. We got fuel in Corozol to burn some of our Belize cash that we won’t need for a while, and got to the Mexico border around 10AM Belize time, which was 11AM Mexico time…but no worries, our Apple watches keep track of that crap.
We stamped out of Belize and headed into Mexico. Our first stop was the agricultural station, where pets are processed and they make sure you don’t have anything in your fridge that’s isn’t allowed to cross borders. The officer was super nice, and said she would process our paperwork for the cat while we checked in to Mexico. She even let us bring our open packages of Belize cheese into Mexico! It would have been such a shame to have to throw that away.
We then went in and got in the very long line of people checking into Mexico. We can see why Mexico is so happy to have the covid restrictions gone, since 90% of the line was Belizeans coming into Chetumal to shop and weekend. We saw a few tourists, mostly Europeans, but at any given point in time, the line was mostly if not all Belizeans. We got 90 day visas so we can take our time through Mexico, and moved on to get our truck and the two motos checked into Mexico…and there we met our first obstacle.
We left Corozol within an hour of our planned 8:00 departure time, despite the fact that we had a 10PM knock on our door telling us we could stay at the cute little park, but we had to park on the road, not in the park. No biggie, Tom put on his pants and moved the truck 10 feet to the right. We were still asleep with plenty of time to get up early, have a nice walk through a section of Corozol we’ve never seen, and get packed up and on the road. We got fuel in Corozol to burn some of our Belize cash that we won’t need for a while, and got to the Mexico border around 10AM Belize time, which was 11AM Mexico time…but no worries, our Apple watches keep track of that crap.
We stamped out of Belize and headed into Mexico. Our first stop was the agricultural station, where pets are processed and they make sure you don’t have anything in your fridge that’s isn’t allowed to cross borders. The officer was super nice, and said she would process our paperwork for the cat while we checked in to Mexico. She even let us bring our open packages of Belize cheese into Mexico! It would have been such a shame to have to throw that away.
We then went in and got in the very long line of people checking into Mexico. We can see why Mexico is so happy to have the covid restrictions gone, since 90% of the line was Belizeans coming into Chetumal to shop and weekend. We saw a few tourists, mostly Europeans, but at any given point in time, the line was mostly if not all Belizeans. We got 90 day visas so we can take our time through Mexico, and moved on to get our truck and the two motos checked into Mexico…and there we met our first obstacle.
The sign is a little overgrown ( probably due to covid, since that’s the source of all problems), but it says “Welcome to Mexico.” This was on our FIRST entry to Mexico.
We took all of the paperwork for the vehicles to the window where vehicles are registered and paid for to enter the country. We had already had to have Tom’s moto registration fixed in Belize, because Transport had messed up his title and put the year he bought the bike rather than the year the bike was made, which is fine for Belize, but which would cause a problem in Mexico if they ran the VIN against the registration and found that the years didn’t match. We weren’t anticipating any problems, but when the officer came out to the camper to inspect the truck and the two motos, she informed us that Tom would not be able to get a permit for two vehicles - the truck and his moto - because unless one vehicle is registered as a motor home, each person can only get a permit for one vehicle. And our truck was still registered as a pickup truck, because when we renewed the registration after getting the camper built on the back, Belize Transport told us not to worry about it and it wasn’t worth changing the title, especially since Belize doesn’t register vehicles as RVs or motor homes.
We tried to explain this to the Mexican officer, but she said the rules were the rules, and unless we could produce a title for a motor home, we were going to have to leave one of the motos. We didn’t really see how we could quickly sell one of the motos at the border, so we made sure Mexico would let us back in on the 90 day visas we had just obtained, and hightailed it back to the Transport Department in Corozol.
Fortunately, the Transport Officer in Corozol was sympathetic, and he went to the Chief Transport Officer, who gave him permission to redo our title as a Motor Home, even though that is not a vehicle classification in Belize. This also gave us the chance to get our vehicle weight updated, which was still from the original truck title which was not only pre-camper, but also pre-flatbed, and was inaccurate to the tune of slightly under 10,000 pounds. We had just had the truck weighed as we exited Belize, so we had the title changed not only from pick up to Motor Home, but also from a weight of 6,500 pounds to the 16,000 pounds that it is. The whole process of running back to Belize to get this done was really stressful, but we think it will pay off when we get to the US and won’t have any issues with insurance companies there who might wonder how our old title matched up with the actual vehicle.
Anyway, we re-exited Belize with no problems, and re-entered Mexico with no problems and a “buen viaje” from the super nice agricultural officer, and managed to get permits for the MOTOR HOME and the two motos…in about another hour and a half, by the time we had satisfactory photos of VINs and all the details, like whose credit card was needed for what, sorted.
We tried to explain this to the Mexican officer, but she said the rules were the rules, and unless we could produce a title for a motor home, we were going to have to leave one of the motos. We didn’t really see how we could quickly sell one of the motos at the border, so we made sure Mexico would let us back in on the 90 day visas we had just obtained, and hightailed it back to the Transport Department in Corozol.
Fortunately, the Transport Officer in Corozol was sympathetic, and he went to the Chief Transport Officer, who gave him permission to redo our title as a Motor Home, even though that is not a vehicle classification in Belize. This also gave us the chance to get our vehicle weight updated, which was still from the original truck title which was not only pre-camper, but also pre-flatbed, and was inaccurate to the tune of slightly under 10,000 pounds. We had just had the truck weighed as we exited Belize, so we had the title changed not only from pick up to Motor Home, but also from a weight of 6,500 pounds to the 16,000 pounds that it is. The whole process of running back to Belize to get this done was really stressful, but we think it will pay off when we get to the US and won’t have any issues with insurance companies there who might wonder how our old title matched up with the actual vehicle.
Anyway, we re-exited Belize with no problems, and re-entered Mexico with no problems and a “buen viaje” from the super nice agricultural officer, and managed to get permits for the MOTOR HOME and the two motos…in about another hour and a half, by the time we had satisfactory photos of VINs and all the details, like whose credit card was needed for what, sorted.
Across the border and heading for Chetumal!
Our original plan had been to get into Chetumal and go to the Liverpool Mall for a bunch of stuff we need for Mexico…phone cards, pet stuff, groceries, etc. We did that. The original plan had also been to decide if we were going to spend the night on the sea in Chetumal, or head up to Bacalar and find a nice camping spot. After our Very Long Day, we tossed those plans and talked to security at the Liverpool Mall, and asked if it was okay if we just parked in their lot for the night. They said yes, so here we are. It’s not the great view we had last night, nor our ideal boondocking site, but it’s secure and stress free and we think we’ll sleep pretty well and we will head north tomorrow.
The view from my kitchen window tonight…a little different from last night!