GuateDrive '08 - Border Chaos
Frontline Student Ministries Filed Under: Labels: drive, Guatemala, mexico, mission
We’re sitting here in the vans waiting for Marcelo to get here. It seems that the guys that showed us where to go are being less than honest with us. They’ve told us that we told the border agents to send our paperwork to the wrong town and it’ll be like $300 to get it here. Cody said no more talking about it till Marcelo gets here to set things straight. For now, we sit, being watched, and letting some people sign the vans.
Familiar faces!! Marcelo and Oswald have finally made it. Marcelo is not happy. After a few minutes of greetings and introductions, Marcelo and Cody went to talk to the Mireyna reps. It seems that now we are at the "wrong" border crossing and have to drive about 30 clicks south. I’m going to drive and for some reason, Marcelo and Cody are sharing the front seat of the van instead of one of them riding in the back.
(Marcelo seems to think they thought up a scheme to get a few bucks from the Americans. Thankfully Marcelo taught us better)
After going from the border to the Mireyna reps office and back to the border, it looked like we would be able to cross the border. We arrived around 230, which was when we’d hoped to arrive at the beginning of the trip. We should be able to reach Guate City by suppertime. Well, that depends on how this inspection goes. We’ve got to have the vans examined by the Mexican customs officials before we can cross.
We passed the inspection and now we just have to make it through this line of trucks and across the border. When Philip backed the other van out of the inspection place, he hit a covered walkway with it! Marcelo told him that he was going to have to go to prison, but nobody seemed to care, other than to laugh. It seems that the computer systems are down so we are just sitting here in line. Ah!! Movement at last!
We’ve gotten our passports stamped and are on the bridge that separates Guatemala and Mexico!! We’re almost there! Now all that we have to do is pull over into this parking lot to have our paperwork checked by the Guatemalan officials, “sell” the vans to Oswald, and pay all the taxes. Then we’ll be free to go.
It seems that we had to wait in the line to cross too long and that we are stuck here, in a parking lot, between the borders, for the night. This really stinks. We slept in the vans last night. It looks clear and we could sleep under the stars. We even have a grill and charcoal. We could cook out except for one minor detail- we never bought anything to put ON the grill. D-oh!! Good thing we have a bunch of snack stuff. It looks like we’ll need it. At least my Guatemala phone still has minutes on it from July and I got to call Alison.
Familiar faces!! Marcelo and Oswald have finally made it. Marcelo is not happy. After a few minutes of greetings and introductions, Marcelo and Cody went to talk to the Mireyna reps. It seems that now we are at the "wrong" border crossing and have to drive about 30 clicks south. I’m going to drive and for some reason, Marcelo and Cody are sharing the front seat of the van instead of one of them riding in the back.
(Marcelo seems to think they thought up a scheme to get a few bucks from the Americans. Thankfully Marcelo taught us better)
After going from the border to the Mireyna reps office and back to the border, it looked like we would be able to cross the border. We arrived around 230, which was when we’d hoped to arrive at the beginning of the trip. We should be able to reach Guate City by suppertime. Well, that depends on how this inspection goes. We’ve got to have the vans examined by the Mexican customs officials before we can cross.
We passed the inspection and now we just have to make it through this line of trucks and across the border. When Philip backed the other van out of the inspection place, he hit a covered walkway with it! Marcelo told him that he was going to have to go to prison, but nobody seemed to care, other than to laugh. It seems that the computer systems are down so we are just sitting here in line. Ah!! Movement at last!
We’ve gotten our passports stamped and are on the bridge that separates Guatemala and Mexico!! We’re almost there! Now all that we have to do is pull over into this parking lot to have our paperwork checked by the Guatemalan officials, “sell” the vans to Oswald, and pay all the taxes. Then we’ll be free to go.
It seems that we had to wait in the line to cross too long and that we are stuck here, in a parking lot, between the borders, for the night. This really stinks. We slept in the vans last night. It looks clear and we could sleep under the stars. We even have a grill and charcoal. We could cook out except for one minor detail- we never bought anything to put ON the grill. D-oh!! Good thing we have a bunch of snack stuff. It looks like we’ll need it. At least my Guatemala phone still has minutes on it from July and I got to call Alison.
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