I know I went to bed too late last night, but that’s not the reason I didn’t get nearly enough sleep. When I come back down in November, I’m going to look for another overnighting option because this motel just doesn’t do it for me. There are bright lights shining into the rooms, which only have nearly useless vertical blinds over the windows. Moreover, with the rooms being backed up against a swamp, there are loads of loud biting insects. I’m rather itchy this morning!
I gave up on sleep around 6:30. Since there’s now an Oxxo practically next door, mustering up the energy to trek there for a coffee was easy. I got in as a gaggle of tourists came out with coffees and found none left for me. I asked them to put on a fresh pot for me and was told it would be about five minutes. I spent the time wandering the store look at the food options (nice looking sandwiches, 35 peso avocados (!!!), sugary ‘health’ bars, and cookies with real fruit filling caught my attention). The coffee making was very quick and I didn’t have time to wish that they’d just hurry up already. 🙂
I came in and started on the coffee with my croissant from yesterday. The tips were a bit stale, but the rest was still nice and soft and felt like a treat. No more bread for me till I get back to Mexico. Except for the odd hamburger, of course, without fries. 🙂
After much hemming and hawing, I decided to get a motel tonight, but almost feels like a waste of money since the only option even remotely within my budget in Nogales is the Motel 6. Now, this is would be a decent option in a quiet location: nice clean rooms and decent coffee in the morning. But it’s at a really busy intersection and loud. The next city kind of on my route that has motels (remember, I did this route in reverse in November and looked for non-online options, too) is the Benson area and the motels are more expensive. I didn’t have any more luck with Priceline than I did in November, when I got the best deal for the Motel 6 by showing up in person. But our dollars were almost at par then and now, well, they’re not, and $60 for a room is going to hurt. But I have a job to do tonight and tomorrow morning, so at least I’ll recoup that money within the first few days of May.
I wasn’t going to rush out of here this morning, but I just realised that I have to stop at MXN customs to get my deposit back for the truck, so the border stuff may end up taking hours and hours and it might therefore be a good idea to get going. It’s 7:45 now and I’m aiming to pull out by nineish. I’m not too stressed about the border in this direction. I have a feeling US Customs will see the decrepit pickup truck and assume it’s full of Mexicans, then be pleasantly surprised to encounter a Canadian gal heading home. 🙂
After Nogales, who knows. I was thinking of going to Las Cruces for a week, but I don’t know yet if I will. Reader Ed put together some possible itineraries for me (thank you again!) and I want to go over them again tonight.
I was wondering why you were stopping in Nogales but you have a job to do! The truck refund should take less than 30 minutes and even less if there are few people in front of you. Last I heard it was only 5 hours into the US from Totonaka.
As I said in my most recent post, there really isn’t any other option past Nogales and I didn’t want to go any further. The truck refund less than 10 minutes.
Coming down, I did Nogales to Totonaka in about six hours, with the only stop being the border. I took about the same amount of time today since I stopped several times. It was a much more pleasant drive.
I agree with Contessa,the crossing will be faster. There is a little booth where they take your paperwork and scrape off your sticker. I have never seen a lineup there.
Thanks for telling me about the booth!
There is probably suitable accommodation in Guaymas. I have a reader who lives there, Brenda and Roy from Saskatchewan. Lets talk when you get home, I will give you her contact info.
Croft, I’d like to find something in San Carlos. I was thinking about this on the drive in last night, that San Carlos is a detour, and then I realised that it’s a detour I really enjoy, a great bookend to my Mexican trip.