Back to Mexico after a 5 month hiatus

The last time I went to Mexico to take Caroline to the orthodontist was March 29.  There were some problems and I didn't go back.  Then Bill and I had to send our passports away to get some travel visas, so we couldn't go to Mexico.

Our passports are now in hand, so I made Caroline an appointment for today at 4 pm so she wouldn't miss much school and also so we could see the orthodontist vs. a technician.  It's the first time we've gone so late in the day and I was surprised at how much was going on in the outdoors.

I picked up some old wax transfers last night from the sharing table at homemaking meeting.  Now I see I could have just bought some preprinted ones from this stand.  Just kidding.  I don't know what to do with "table scarves" anyway.  Or are those napkins?

 

It doesn't cost much to open a restaurant in this city.  Block out a parking space with your motorcycle, set up three chairs, roll your food stand out and you're in business!  His food handler's permit and business license are probably tucked under that basket.

So here is the follow-up on the linked post above.  When I made the appointment I told the receptionist I wanted to talk to the office manager and why. She said the manager would be in when we came for Caroline's appointment.  Part of what ticked me off was that I sent a letter to the office telling them why I was unhappy and what I wanted them to do about it. Crickets.  I sat down with the manager and in my skilled and practiced Spanish I told her what happened that day in March, showed her the original appointment card and my parking ticket, and had her read a new copy of the letter I'd written in early April.  Haha, just checking to see if you're really paying attention.  I'm not sure I could negotiate for a baby's lollipop in Spanish if my life depended on it.  Luckily the manager's English was very adequate and in the end she credited Caroline's account with the $100 I had asked for, along with offering a sincere apology.

I had suspected the line at the border would be challenging, and in fact Caroline and I each brought along a book to read in line.  This is what we were met with when we got there:

Those people you can see were talking to the Mexican guard, not standing in line.  The people in line were waaaaay up past where the line angles to the left.  Our total wait was about 7 minutes.

Such a good trip to the orthodontist.

Highly annoyed with the orthodontist

See this picture outside our new favorite Mexican bakery?

Guess how long after we passed through the border it was taken?  It was about 15 minutes later, and it takes about 10-12 to walk to the orthodontist's office.  Yes, we arrived for our appointment and found the office closed.  A man selling juice came over and told me they were closed all week for the Easter holiday.

Reconcile that with this, if you can:

And here is the line at the border after we'd waited about 15 minutes.  It goes about another 40 feet farther than you can see after the line turns left.

It took 45 minutes to pass through the border.

The good part was we did go to the bakery and buy some delicious Mexican pastries in the orthdontist town and on the way back into our city we stopped at a grocery store that caters to Mexican-Americans.  The produce prices are very cheap and they have some Mexican products I like to buy.  It's totally on the other side of town near the freeway though, so I usually go there only when I'm coming back from the orthodontist and am not in a hurry.

I'm preparing a letter for the orthodontic office requesting remuneration for their missed visit.

Another successful trip to Mexico

I always get a little nervous before I take Caroline to her orthodontist in Mexico.  I worry about having all our papers in order (birth certificate, passport), I worry about not getting the information I need from the doctor's office, I worry about Mexican border violence, although this particular city doesn't seem to be affected by the violence we hear about, I worry there will be a really long line at the border or at the freeway checkpoint, I worry I won't get her back to school on time, and of course I always worry about our general safety as we drive there and back.

 

As you can see, the freeway checkpoint was not a problem for us today. As we rolled up to the Border Patrol agent I got the bright idea to roll down all my car windows so he could easily see inside my car. The windows are quite dark against the Arizona sun and it can be a bit hard to see in. The drug/money/illegal alien-sniffing dog ignored my car I actually didn't even have to stop.

 

It was another flawless trip.!

Another quick trip to Mexico

Today's visit was for a monthly check for Caroline, as well as putting a bracket back on a tooth. I was informed the price to put a bracket back on is $10. No one ever told me about this charge, so I talked them out of it this time. :-) This one was the result of biting off a chunk of uncooked ramen. Ho hum. No more of that. This picture was by a Chinese restaurant that offers your choice of 5 items for about $4. I always wonder if 1) the food is safe and 2) if Mexican Chinese food is different than American Chinese food.

As soon as I shot this picture from across the street, the man stood up and beckoned me over to his store to look at his things. You have to have strong nerves to walk around this town as the purveyors are constantly standing near the front and calling you to come in and look around.

Pretty picture, I think.

The exciting day has arrived!

Yes, Caroline got her braces on today! She was so excited she could barely contain herself. :-) Here is the sweet girl before:

They put a special device in her mouth to keep the teeth isolated. Interesting how you can see the "skull and crossbones" effect when you can see the mouth's structure so clearly.

After--doesn't she look pleased?

The line leaving Mexico was really long and took us most of an hour.

We struck up a conversation with the teenaged boy in line behind us who loves to talk to Americans in order to improve his English. I attract English language learners (happily!). He took this picture of us.

A quick trip to Mexico

Today dh had a follow up visit to his dentist in Mexico and Caroline had a consultation for orthodontia. Here are a few pictures of interesting things we saw.

Pretty painted houses just over the border.

A sign with "International Border" on it always excites me.

If you look at the gray band on the mountain in the distance you are looking at the actual border.

Caroline waiting sort of patiently for the orthodontist. He was pretty late, but this is Mexico and I don't think schedules run the same as they do in the United States.

We are so accustomed to every.single.thing in the US being made idiot-proof that the sight of dozens of holes like right in the middle of the sidewalk was kind of surprising and definitely made me pay attention to where I was walking.

And I'm thinking this wiring might not pass code either.

We walked across the border, so while we were waiting in line to come back into the USA dh noticed this sign. We are pretty sure they have no idea there is a problem.

The close cars are going into Mexico and the far ones are going into the United States.

Heading into Mexico if you drive instead of walk.

Look closely and you can see a tail in this picture. About 20 miles north of the border there is a Border Patrol checkpoint where everyone has to slow down or stop and get a nod from the agent before continuing northward. One of the agents had a very energetic shepherd/retriever/?? on a leash who was obviously trained to sniff for drugs. They zipped back and forth between cars with the dog sniffing the left front wheel well of most of the cars and nearly all of them while the car was still rolling forward! It was very entertaining while we waited the 3 or 4 minutes to get our nod.

It was a pleasant trip and Caroline REALLY enjoyed having dh and me all to herself for the day.