Another story to tell

My story begins this past Sunday, April 15TH at 8:00 AM as I attempted to enter Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing with all my furniture and personal belongings to begin my new life in Baja.
Having recently received my FM3 visa and having (3) copies of my approved "menaje de casa manifest" in hand- I was ready! So, here we go; myself pulling a small enclosed trailer behind my truck and my amigo pulling a 14' open trailer behind his truck. Our helpers are with us, we have the equipment- we're ready!
Pull into the "declare" lane and we both walk over to a Mexican Customs Officer. My friend is Mexican, so perhaps that's why the Customs Officer spoke only to him and only in Spanish. " "No, you cannot enter Mexico today! Only Monday to Friday!" Can we go to Otay Mesa and pass through there? "No"! "Come back tomorrow-Monday". YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING!
Crap! Now what? We gotta do this today, we can't go back and get everybody set up for Monday! No way. So my friend asks him if there is any way we could pay some additional $$ to make it happen now-today. With that question the Officer walks back and looks at the furniture we have wrapped on the open trailer, comes back and procedes to fill out a form titled "Pago de contribuciones al comerclo exterior". Gives us (my friend) a copy and says to walk over to the bank and pay there. We do. The additional cost was $54 dlls! Cool-we're in!! Walk back to our rigs, crank'em up and drive through. Ensenada here we come!!
Don't know exactly what this form is and at this point don't really care. $54 dlls is a cheap price to get us through and for that I am thankfull! By the way, when we came back from the bank we offered the same officer a $5 dll gratuity for helping us out-that he refused.
So, all the furniture and boxes are off loaded and my helpers have gone home and I am now getting settled in my new apartment here in Ensenada and loving it. Look out all you Yellowtail and Dorado here I come!!
Just another story to add to what can happen when you try to move to Baja......

Internet access

Well alright, I did use a friends computer to make the original post but look here.....
I moved here Sunday, bought a fridge and a stove on Monday; got 65 channels of basic cable hooked up on Wednesday, connected to the internet via DSL today (Thursday). Hot damn!! It just don't get any better than that my friends!

APT