Nationalization II

We now have a place to stay in Laredo while our car is being nationalized in Nuevo Laredo!  Rather than stay at our stand-by La Quinta Inn, we chose La Posada, just a few blocks north of the border.  Our facilitator wanted a 2-day window for the paperwork, but I told her that we were only going to book 2 nights at the hotel, total.  If something went slowly, we'd add a night.  Booking the 3rd night in advance would require us to cancel the entire stay a couple of days in advance to avoid a penalty (we'd be paying for that 3rd night whether we stayed there or not!).

We even suggested that since check-out wasn't until noon, if things ran long, we could stay another half day.  But that would mean we'd be driving back to San Miguel in the dark.  Driving in Mexico in the dark isn't recommended!

On our initial drive to San Miguel, we stayed in a dump in Zacateros.  We were so anxious to get out of there that we loaded up the van and began our trip early in the morning - before the sun came up.  Won't do that again!  There is no additional lighting on the roads and it was the first time we had driven that route.  Scary!

The only other hitch in the get-along is the paperwork that's required.  Aside from the question of whether they can list both of us as owners of the van  (so common in the U.S.; not in Mexico), there is a question about how we document our address in San Miguel.  For our Mexican driver's licenses we had the same situation: present a utility bill (only an owner can change the utilities to another name and must show that they now own the house) with our address on it and present a copy of the landlords IFE card (a government ID - proving voting rights, I think it is).  For the driver's licenses, there was an alternative: a letter from the Mayor's office that we were who we said we were (requiring a birth certificate, passport, visa, the utility bill, etc).  The Transito office kept the original of the letter, so if they decide to accept on for the car, we'd need a couple of days to procure another.  But it's still simpler than telling our landlord he needs to let us copy his IFE card - as he speaks only Spanish and we speak English.  Guess we'll have the answer to that once we get home from P.V. - where it's hot, steamy, and rainy for the next week!  Did I mention that we're heading to P.V. for a week tomorrow?

Til then....