Hola Mexico

We had left home knowing we'd make a trip to Mexico during our stay because I needed more prescription eye drops and one of my camp mates had a slight mixup on a prescription that left not enough medicines for our entire trip. 

I think you can just go down there and get whatever you want without a prescription as long as you know what it is exactly. Name, dosage, size and quantity is needed at least. The prescription helps a lot because of the language barrier and ease of communication so you get what you really need or want. However, there are some limitations which are different whether you're a Canadian or a U.S. Citizen. Canadians can pretty much bring in anything they want as it's not considered as staying in the USA. I've been hearing conflicting stories about if US citizens have limitations or not. There's probably a website for that if you google it, I bet.

So, we left home a little later than we wanted, but still early enough. It takes an hour and a half to get there and get parked. 

There's a huge parking lot just at the border crossing where everyone parks and walks across. Oh, the place we went was Los Algadones. A lot of people go there to get dental work done as the skills are good and the cost is significantly lower than in the US. One of our group has had eye surgery there a couple of times last year and is now able to see much better than he could before. Most go down to the Purple Pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled. Medicine is much cheaper for the exact same thing we can get here. 

So, here's a few pictures:

The massive parking lot and the border crossing. You can see both flags on their respective sides of the border.

The actual border crossing where we walk across:

The Purple Pharmacy is right there when you cross the border. The roof structure can be seen from the parking lot. 

Here's a couple of pictures of the inside. It's pretty small. They also have a liquor store attached too but we didn't go in that part other than to pay. The card payment machine in the pharmacy was down so we needed to go to the liquor store next door to run it through. 

When we were done in the pharmacy, we walked around for a bit outside where the residents have their wares all set up and try to sell you watches, jewelry, purses, wallets and all sorts of other things. Most that I've talked to have made the articles personally (or their immediate family) and that's what I look for. Something I cannot buy anywhere else and is not made anywhere else. It's like bringing a little bit of a different world back with me and rewarding the people who work hard to make a living. 

I tried to capture some of the essense of what they have set up, but it was pretty busy and crowded and I was getting bombarded with offers of wares I didn't need or want. Here's a couple to give a bit of an idea. 

After we walked the block up and back, we said goodbye to Mexico and got in line to come back across the border.  The line was long, but it moved relatively fast and the people were friendly and talkative so the time passed quickly. We got to one point where the line broke into two and we went in the left line and another lady and her husband split up. She took the right; he took the left with us. We'll see who gets through faster she said. So, the race was on. However, the speed is not controlled by any one of us, so we were just idle participants at the hands of the immigration folks inside. It turned out our line was faster and she bailed hers and came to rejoin her husband and us in our line. It was really very quick. No fuss, no muss. Show the passport and the goods and we're through and on our way again. I wish all border crossings were like that, but I know this is a pretty unique one and so many people come and go often. One lady was going back and forth weekly for physical therapy for severe pain. She was feeling really good after this appointment and breezed by us saying now's the time to go for a walk while she's feeling well! 

So, we got back to the car and proceeded over to Yuma, Arizona for gas and a bite to eat.  Vanessa wasn't doing too bad, but it's cheaper to fill up in Arizona than California. 

So, Hello Arizona! I saw this unique welcome sign which I walked back to take a photo of:

It's a little old and was obviously there last year when we came down but didn't get a pic of then. Otherwise, this is the traditional state sign. 

We stopped for a bite to eat, a tank of gas for Vanessa and a bit of futile shopping. We stopped in at Target for a couple of cheap grocery items, but they didn't have anything real appealing and their prices weren't as good as in California. 

I did find some neat cacti in the parking lot.  You can see them here:

We came back to a quiet campsite and just relaxed for a bit before our other camp mate came home and a campfire was started.