Made it to Mexico!!

 Wow!  Well, everything actually worked amazing well!  We had a nice breakfast this morning at the Homewood Suites, and then Debby and I took a nice walk over the creek.  We packed up about 9 am and while I know that was WAY early for our 2:30 pm flight, having never navigated the CBX (= Cross-Border Crossing) bridge/border crossing, etc. I had no idea how long anything was going to take, and I didn't want to take any chances.

Made it to the CBX parking lot in just over half an hour.  Very light traffic considering the time of day, and great signage along the way to help us "first-timers."  I had pre-reserved a parking space in Lot A, which was right next to the transit entrance (thanks to the great parking lot map that was provided on the website) and we dropped Debby and the luggage there.  Found a parking space easily enough -- A7 -- and in a few moments, we were all walking inside a huge incredibly clean and well organized building.  First you scan your border crossing ticket.  Then you scan your boarding pass, and the gate opens and voila! you're through that first step!  Walk a bit further and you are, quite literally, on a bridge and walking your way across the border and into Mexico.  It was a very interesting way to enter a country!  The bridge is about 390 feet long, and when you spring out, you're now in Mexico and getting ready to go through customs and immigration.  This part wasn't automatic, and there was a bit of a line -- about 10 minutes.  There we presented our FMM paperwork (both entrada and salida) and passports, as well as airplane boarding passes for inspection.  Once we cleared that, we walked, quite literally, into the Tijuana Airport!  Again, it took just a few minutes to find Volaris, print out the baggage sticker and drop off the suitcase, and now we were heading to the gate, stopping first to clear our carry-on luggage and ourselves.  Here it got a bit complicated, as I had put our back-up tripod in my carry-on, not ever thinking that it could, of course, be used as a weapon!  So, as it was R's old tripod and not worth much at all, we left it with the Mexican version of TSA, as it really wasn't worth going all the way back to the desks to try and somehow check it through.  

All told, from leaving the hotel next to the airport to getting to the departure gates, it was an hour and 40 minutes!  Incredible!  We did have time to wait, so we spent a bit of it in the airport's Luxury Lounge, and then decided to get some lunch -- Panda Express, actually -- but didn't get any photos; sorry!  Eventually, our flight was called and we were the second group on board.  Plane was definitely full -- lots of people eclipse chasing, that's for sure!  Two hour flight; very pleasant, no problems.

At the Tijuana Airport

R's checked suitcase (with binoculars, telescope, filter, etc.) arrived quickly, and we went out to find our Budget rental car.  Not far down the street, although it did take a while to process the paperwork.  We have a 4-door Kia that drives nicely; out of the airport about 5:30 pm.

Pretty heavy traffic into town (rush hour!) but we were able to find our place thanks to our GPS and get everything inside.  Our apartment is on the second floor of the building.  By the time we got settled in, it was really getting dark, and I for one was definitely getting hungry!  Decided that as Walmart was only a kilometer away, we would head there for supplies.  

HUGE store, but so hard to find things!  We did manage to get bread, cheese, serrano ham, tangerines, apples, water and a few other basics, and head back to the apartment.  Definitely in for the night, as we are all rather tired from our long day! 

More later!

m

xxx