Our first job of the morning was back at the welders. Hayden had noticed the shock absorbers had a few small cracks starting to appear, so after we witnessed their skills yesterday with the wheel rim we had confidence they would be able to help us out. That done we returned to the campsite to pack and head for the port.
Things started out well. The official at the gate told us to go through customs (even though we would be remaining in Mexico) and then we can buy a ticket from the office ‘over there’. We pulled up at the customs gate and were greeted by an extremely good looking, young Mexican lady with perfectly shaped eyebrows peeking over the top of her aviator sunglasses. Her first question was simple, do we speak Spanish or English? In near perfect English she asked for the paperwork for both us and the car. That being all good we then had to open the back. She was most impressed at our packing skills, asking us ‘do you just shove everything in?’, she even did this with actions that included pushing, shoulder-barging and even high kicking the back of the car! Hayden asked her if she needed us to unload the car but she smiled sweetly and said ‘hmmmm, first you play the lottery!’. She guided us over to a large button under a pair of lights explaining that Hayden has to press it and if the light goes red we have to unpack, but if it goes green we drive on. You can’t argue with their system of random selection! She did a drum roll, Hayden pressed the button and we were met with a green PASS and a cheer from our customs lady. She directed us over to the scales where our car would be weighed and measured, they would then give us a piece of paper that we take to the office to purchase our ticket. Easy peasy. We weighed in at 2500kgs and were clearly under the 6m mark, we parked and took our paper to the office to get our tickets. This is where the pain started. We spent the next three, yes three, hours being told ‘uno momento’ by the the ladies behind the desk. We saw people come and go and eventually, our patience wearing very thin, we got a little angry. They eventually sent us to the other office to pay. The other office needed our piece of paper, so we walk back to retrieve it only to be told we couldn’t have it yet – ‘uno momento’. We ran into the official that wrote our piece of paper and he told us not to worry because the ferry doesn’t leave until 5pm (it was around 4pm) and told us to just go and pay. We tried again, but of course they needed our piece of paper! Back we went, but the lady still would not give us that damn piece of paper! Getting really frustrated we found a small blessing in the form of an American couple who could speak fluent Spanish. They assisted with translating and it transpired that for the last three hours we were actually waiting to see if there was any room on the ferry and it turns out it is full. We were told we should have put our names on the list yesterday and we explained that the person yesterday didn’t give us this option and that we really weren’t too bothered about when we would sail, but it would have been nice to have been told this three hours ago and we simply would have come back tomorrow. It was at this point in the conversation that the lady behind the desk waved our piece of paper at us saying that there is now room. I have no bloody idea how their system works! We thanked our translators, paid for our ticket and drove on to the ferry noting two things; no one checked our tickets at all and there was a stack of room left! We were equally annoyed at the system and our poor Spanish skills, but nevertheless we were on the boat.
We had opted to take the TMC Ferry over the Baja Ferry for several reasons. It is significantly cheaper, it is faster and you are able to access your vehicle during sailing. It is traditionally the ‘truck’ ferry but they also allow regular passengers. There isn’t as much room in common areas as the Baja Ferry, but I guess this is because many truck drivers sleep in their trucks. Many of the passengers lay out blankets and pillows on seats in the two common rooms, so I did the same. We discovered showers, good ones too, and learnt that dinner and breakfast were included! We also ran into the three Americans we had met in the ticket waiting room. Katie, Damon and Kyle are driving an old Ambulance all the way to Panama and back on a bit of a surfing adventure. We ate our dinner with them and the other truck drivers and then headed up to the top deck to watch the sunset. Never before have I been on a boat where rules are just not enforced. Doors labelled ‘Restricted Access’ were left open and were clearly being used as short cuts, truck drivers lighting up cigarettes under ‘No Smoking’ signs, you could walk right on to the bow of the boat and marvel at the epic size of the anchor, and you could sleep anywhere. The evening breeze had died down so Hayden and I decided to retrieve our things from the common room (which was already filled with snoring Mexicans) and take them up to the top deck. We tucked ourselves into a little alcove just behind the bridge and fell asleep under the stars to the gentle rocking of the boat.
We awoke with the sun, waved good morning to a few truck drivers checking out the view to mainland Mexico, gathered our belongings and headed down to Maggie. We missed breakfast- the dining room wasn’t really large enough to cater for everyone, but it was no big deal. I was a bit nervous about setting up our little cooker, on a deck full of trucks, but then remembered I was in Mexico and the rules are more guidelines that you can choose not to follow. Sure enough, not long after I had fired it up and had the coffee brewing on top, the port master arrived on deck flanked by two guards and he simply gave a big wave along with a ‘it’s coffee time’ comment, clearly not bothered by what I was doing. Soon after engines were fired up and it was time to drive off. We had agreed to meet Katie, Damon and Kyle just out of the port and with that we were away. Take away our wasted three hour wait, it was a pleasant experience and one that made me realise that the world would get by just fine with a few less rules.
Time to set sail
