Author: Scott
We have now experienced the bureaucracy of the checking in process when you arrive in Mexico from a foreign port by boat. John and Joanne came by the boat at 0830 to head into town to take care of the paperwork and fees required. We set out in our dinghy only to have the motor die a few hundred feet from the boat. Oh no, not another engine issue. John towed us to the dinghy dock and we set off for the Port Capitain’s office. Upon arriving Scott filled out five copies of the crew list which was presented to the Port Capitain. We paid an entry fee based on the tonnage (Tournesol is 8 gross tons) of Tournesol and then we were off down the road to Immigration. After waiting three hours it was our turn. The first agent asked if we came by boat, if yes, you have to talk to him. Back in line. The other guy sent us back to the first guy where we filled out another crew list and tourist cards. Back in line again. He then asked us to bring him three copies of the crew list. Of course there is no way to make a copy at Immigration, so out the door and down the street we go to the have copies made. Back to Immigration and back in line again. As it was our turn another man approached the counter, shook hands with the agent and proceeded to pull our at least ten folders. He was a “paper man” that had been hired by people who didn’t want to run all over town and stand in line. Another side note, John and Joanne were completing the same process, hmmmm they didn’t need to submit three copies of their crew list. They had the other guy. Ah, we are not done yet. Now it is off to the bank to pay the fee for the tourist visa. There are so many people waiting in line at the bank, again for the third time we took a number and sat down in the rows of chairs and waited for our turn. The transaction seemed to go fine we converted some money and paid our fee, we thought. At closer inspection, Scott realized she had only given him the equivalent of $40.00 in pesos, instead of two hundred and ten and our visas were not stamped. It appeared we just made a deposit in the Banamex. The manager tried to convince us we needed to go back to Immigration, this took a bit of sorting out, but her boo boo was resolved. It is now 1300 and we are not done yet. Now it is off to API to pay the fee for anchoring for free, this one really doesn’t make sense, but you need this receipt when you check out. So, it will be back to the Port Capitain and Immigration when we are ready to leave Cabo to pay more fees. Most ports have a check in and out process, but apparently it varies as much as our experience versus John’s and Joanne’s. It is now 1400 and we all need a cerveza, so off we went for beer and tacos.
After our experience checking in to Cabo we returned to the boat and John agreed to come over to have a look at our engine. In the process of examining the water pump, two parts fell below the engine and seemed to disappear; we were also halted because the starter battery had died again. Enough for today, we decided to give it another go in the morning and John took our heavy starter battery back to Western Grace.
With nothing to do without lights and power, we decide to make the most out of our environment and take a dip in the warm Cabo water. The sounds of the three beachfront cantinas mixed with the night air and soothing water. We felt like we were in Mexico. Sleep came quickly in the warm climate.
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