We really didn't want to leave Guatemala. It's been a real highlight of our travels.
When you enter a country, you get permission to stay for a set period of time. This is usually obtained at the border and is granted by way of a document or dated stamp in your passport. Some countries work in conjunction with each other, so when you enter the first one, the time granted applies to all of their partners. These schemes can be found all over the world, most famously in Europe, where you are granted 90 days to remain in 29 countries in the Schengen area.
In Central America, the " Central American Border Control Agreement applies to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. These are known as the CA4 countries.
Our original plan back in December was to travel south through all 4 of these countries down to Costa Rica again, comfortably within our 90 day period.
However, we were now on day 89, and we hadn't got out of Guatemala.
We were also discouraged from heading south, as Brits now need to obtain a special visa for Honduras, which can take 2 weeks to get and involves attending the Honduran Embassy in Guatemala City on two occasions. We really couldn't be bothered if the truth is known.
Knowing that we were planning to return to the UK in a few months, we had no choice but to head north and re enter Mexico at the Talisman border crossing near Tapachula.
In addition to getting personal permission to enter a country, you also need permission to bring vehicles in. This is usually granted at the border and you are issued a Temporary Import Permit , Also known as a TIP. This usually allows you to bring the vehicle in for the same amount of time that you were granted .
We have two vehicles, the Camper and the Motorcycle. By some strange ruling, the camper had previously been granted a TIP for 10 years. This was still active, so no additional permission was required. However, the motorcycle only gets a TIP for 180 days.
Knowing that we intended to fly back to the UK in a few months, 180 days was insufficient as it would have expired before our return. This would cause major issues with any future use of the motorcycle in Mexico.
There are, however, several areas within Mexico that don't require a TIP, such as the Baja and the state of Quintana Roo. We also discovered that there was a 20km strip along Mexico's southern border that was TIP free. I think this is to make it easier for migrant workers who cross from Guatemala every day for work.
Our only option to keep the motorcycle legal was to store it within this 20km zone.
After weeks of reaching out to Mexican folks and organisations, Pat came across a wonderful couple who kindly offered to store the Motorcycle in Tapachula, which is just within the Zone. This was going to be our first destination after the border crossing.
The border at El Carmen / Talisman is quite small and not too busy. We exited Guatemala easily, the Border control were very pleasant and helpful. We crossed the bridge over the river Suchiate and entered Mexico with the motorcycle mounted in its usual place on the back of the camper. Once out of the vehicle, they insisted that Pat should remain in a nearby office and they would only require me at the barrier,which we felt was unusual as the motorcycle documents were all in Pat's name.
The 10 year TIP for Cloud9 was acknowleged and deemed OK. They also agreed that as I was leaving the motorcycle in Tapachula, I didn't need to obtain a TIP for it. It all looked good until they said, "We have a Problem" They claimed that it was not allowed for me to bring the motorcycle in on the back of the truck and that it needed to be driven in separately. After a bit of light objection from me, it was clear that they weren't budging on this nonsense. It was hot, sweaty, and the thought of taking the motorcycle off, which takes about 15 minutes, was daunting. I had no choice, so I started the unloading procedure. Instantly, they stopped me and claimed that I wasn't allowed to unload it in Mexico and that I had to reverse back over the river into Guatemala to unload it there and bring them in separately.
I suspected what you are all thinking, but I have never given in to these sorts of demands, so I duly reversed it back into Guatemala, unloaded it and bought them in separately. No bonus for these guys today. All this time, Pat had been kept in the immigration office and was unaware of what was happening.
The irony was that because of all the in and out activity, they checked my passport 4 times and searched the truck with the same dog three times.
Eventually, I got through, was reunited with Pat and headed for the nearby town of Tapachula.
Crossing borders with vehicles is always unnecessarily tedious and sometimes stressful. Biting your lip and continually smiling is the only way. In our eyes, none of their rules or procedures make sense, but complaining never works. They are their rules
We made contact with the delightful couple who took us to their storage area. It was perfect, totally safe and secure. This was a real lucky connection Pat had made.
We hadn't seen the ocean for quite some time, so the next destination was a small familiar camp area in Bahia de San Agustin on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca. We knew that it was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the sea and the beach.
It wasn't long before our favourite stalkers showed up. We love these guys.
What's not to like about the Mexican coast
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| Sandie, Karsten and Shelagh |
The garage owner looked at the exhaust and said he could have one in the morning, so we parked up for the night outside his workshop.
Health and safety is alive and well in Mexico...Not. Having set his pants on fire, the solution was to protect himself with a jacket made of flammable material, which also immediately caught fire.
All done, we headed for one of our favourite relaxing campgrounds called El Rancho in the nearby town of Tule.
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| Juliana, Tomaz and Jordan. We had arranged to leave the vehicle in secure storage nearby. Our flight home was actually from Cancun so a 2 hour transfer flight was also booked, giving us one night in a hotel in Cancun before the flight home. It all felt very relaxed as we cleaned and prepared the truck for storage. Our dear Swiss friends Doris and Herbert had arrived and we had several days to relax with them, eating out and playing games etc. The day came to drive over to the storage place. We waited until mid afternoon as we weren't in any rush. We said our goodbyes and went to move off. BANG, the clutch pedal went straight to the floor. there was no hydraulic pressure at all. I had no clutch. We quickly tipped the cab and found that the slave cylinder, which is at the lowest point, was leaking. Over the last 2 weeks, it had completely emptied all the hydraulic fluid out of the system and replaced it with fresh air. We couldn't move the truck. These things never happen when you have all the time in the world. They only ever happen when you have a plane to catch at 8 am the next day. No problem, we thought, I carry a spare Slave Cylinder. How long could it take ? The first problem we encountered was trying to undo the union between the pipe and the cylinder without damaging the pipe. It hadn't been opened for some 37 years since the vehicle was made. The more we tried to undo it, the worse it got. We tried heat, freeing agents and brute force, it wasn't budging. All we were doing was chewing up the union and making it harder.    All the time, the clock was ticking, our flight times were getting closer. Eventually, we got it open and quickly got the new cylinder fitted. By this time, it was late in the evening and our torches were running out. All we had to do now was get some fluid in it, bleed it through and get moving. Still convinced we would make our flights, Herbert and I started to add the fluid. We soon found that no amount of fluid, pumping or bleeding was going to create the pressure needed to activate the clutch. The pedal still went to the floor. We even changed the upper Master Cylinder in case there was an issue with it, but it didnt help at all. There was obviously an unusual technique to this that we didn't know about. By 11pm, Pat made the decision to call it a day and concentrate on trying to change all our flights and hotel bookings. Tomorrow's flight was clearly not going to happen. Exhausted and defeated, we went to bed. During the night, we managed to change all our flights back a week. This took the pressure off. We did discover that our fully transferable flight from Oaxaca to Cancun wasn't transferable as we had completed the online checkin. From now on we will do the checkin whilst stood in the queue at the airport. However, whilst we were sleeping, Herbert had been up reading all the German Mercedes truck owners sites and forums, looking for a solution. 8am the next morning, an excited Herbert tells us that he thinks he has the solution. He has read about a specific technique to bleed the system that might work. Anything was worth a try. 20 minutes later we had full pressure and ready to go. However, our flights had been lost. I cannot thank Doris and Herbert enough for their support and help. Real friends with a true overlanding spirit. We love you guys. We would also like to thanka local friend called Alvaro, who had arranged for a Mechanic to attend the next day. Luckily we had fixed it by then and managed to cancel him .jpg) During the next few days, I only checked that we had pressure in the clutch every 10 minutes. We are now back in the UK, and Cloud 9 has been put to bed for a few months. |
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