Since we are traveling with people in cars, a nearby hotel is kinda important. At the turnoff for the Colombia bridge above Laredo, there doesn't appear to be anything within great distances(looking at Google maps).
We were thinking about going in further towards Laredo. The next bridge seems to be off the Bob Bullock Loop(20). Has anyone used this bridge? good/bad idea?
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McDuff wrote: Since we are traveling with people in cars, a nearby hotel is kinda important. At the turnoff for the Colombia bridge above Laredo, there doesn't appear to be anything within great distances(looking at Google maps).
We were thinking about going in further towards Laredo. The next bridge seems to be off the Bob Bullock Loop(20). Has anyone used this bridge? good/bad idea?
That may be the "World Trade Bridge" which is only open to big rig traffic and there is no immigration offices for vehicle permits and visas. Check the Border Wait Times.They list Bridge I, Bridge II and the Solidarity Bridge (Columbia) which are used for regular vehicle traffic including rvs.
We arrived at our destination about 6pm last(sunday) night. We overnighted in Laredo, and then Saltillo.
We made a BIG "newbie" mistake costing us hours. My buddy thought he remembered that we got all our paperwork a little ways into Mexico, and I being a dummy and forgetting what I read here, went along. We both got "green lighted" at the bridge and went merrily on our way.
We took Hwy 2 to Hwy 85, and this section was very nice new 2 lane concrete. Nice yellow centerline and white sidelines with a big concrete shoulder. Wellll, not to far along we found out those lines are only "recommendations". Coming at us, an 18 wheeler pulled over onto his shoulder, and a 2nd one pulled out to pass him. Coming RIGHT at us, straddling the yellow centerline. We moved over fast! Turns out everyone rides straddling the white lines making it a "3" lane road.
We got to a big immigration checkpoint about 30 miles in, my buddy got greenlight, I got red. This is where we found out we screwed up. The first question they asked was where my vehicle permit was. Huh? don't I get that here? The birthday girl, the spanish speaker, spent about 30 minutes with 6 people, but the answer was the same. We had to drive back to the border to get our papers. What a screwup.
Back at the border we got our tourist card, then went for our vehicle permits. Now surely this can't be the norm, but I want to warn everyone of what I went thru. When the lady found out that I was bringing in 2 vehicles, both titled in my name, trouble arose, to the tune of 2 1/2 hours. If I had brought along our marriage certificate, we could have "entered" one in her name but w/o that she was not going to let me in.
Sure glad one of us is fluent in spanish, because she was put to the test. We had to go to another "window" and talk to some Head honcho and at first he was not inclined to help. I got so flustered, I had to go outside for a smoke, I was ready to turn around and go home. Well, she got him to look in his books and find some way to help. He had to make calls, all kinds of stuff. Even had to go outside and verify that one of the vehicles was an rv and not a car. To make matters worse, one of my titles uses my given first name and the other uses my shortened name, he did not like that at all. But finally it was determined that I could buy a 10 year permit for the rv and a 180 day one for the minivan. We were legal! When we got back to the checkpoint, we both got greenlighted and we were in.
I'll post more later. Oh yeah, do not drive into "old" Saltillo in an rv pulling a toad.
A common mistake which we should have pointed out. Some of the entry points have the immigration/customs stops right at the border, others are some distance away from the actual border crossing. It all depends on the geography of the area, whether there is "choke point" where they can cover multiple entry points, and other things (probably political).
In the future, your best course of action is to ask about paperwork for a specific port of entry. I don't think anyone here has used all the crossings, but I'll bet that someone here has used the one you're interested in.
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Believe it or not, I did the same thing in 1983 when I crossed for the first time. The people I was traveling with thought it was at the 26km. No big deal. We learn by doing and believe me, you will learn a lot more .
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