Nappo
Nomad
Posts: 102
Registered: 1-25-2009
Member Is Offline
|
|
Ensenada to Tecate
Just returned from a trip to San Quintin. The road work below Ensenada is nearing completion and at present no dirt road detours. Looks like some
additional paving, water diversion on the sides and the final painting of lanes is all that is needed. On the return we took the road from Ensenada
to Tecate. Only about 5 or 6 minor dirt detours a few miles approaching Tecate, some no longer than a 100 yards, longest about .5 mile. All the work
is being done on the paving so shouldn't be any more major back ups. Total time, including military stop was one hour 15 minutes.
|
|
|
larry
Nomad
Posts: 233
Registered: 8-22-2005
Location: Orinda, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Is there an office to get a tourist card and a bank to pay for it at the Tecate border crossing?
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64852
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
(all border crossings have the INM office... the Tecate bank is a long downhill walk from the border... hope it is open when you cross or use Tijuana
24/7 bank teller and INM)
|
|
|
redhilltown
Super Nomad
Posts: 1130
Registered: 1-24-2009
Location: Long Beach, CA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thanks Nappo! All the construction has made me back off a bit from Baja as I only can get away for a few days at a time. By any chance did you fish
at San Quintin? After the brutal summer I hope they are at least having good luck with the bottom fishing now.
|
|
|
monoloco
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6667
Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
(all border crossings have the INM office... the Tecate bank is a long downhill walk from the border... hope it is open when you cross or use Tijuana
24/7 bank teller and INM) |
I'm confused, when I passed through Tecate in the summer and before there was a
bank right next to the office where they calculated the amount I owed in duty for the things I imported. It was like the first thing south of the
border on the left side going south, can you not pay for a tourist visa there?
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64852
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
(all border crossings have the INM office... the Tecate bank is a long downhill walk from the border... hope it is open when you cross or use Tijuana
24/7 bank teller and INM) |
I'm confused, when I passed through Tecate in the summer and before there was a
bank right next to the office where they calculated the amount I owed in duty for the things I imported. It was like the first thing south of the
border on the left side going south, can you not pay for a tourist visa there? |
You got me?, everyone passing through Tecate getting tourist cards have been posting for the past year or two that the bank across the street from the
border office was closed down and they had to walk down the hill to the main drag.
|
|
|
Pacifico
Super Nomad
Posts: 1299
Registered: 5-26-2008
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
(all border crossings have the INM office... the Tecate bank is a long downhill walk from the border... hope it is open when you cross or use Tijuana
24/7 bank teller and INM) |
I'm confused, when I passed through Tecate in the summer and before there was a
bank right next to the office where they calculated the amount I owed in duty for the things I imported. It was like the first thing south of the
border on the left side going south, can you not pay for a tourist visa there? |
Monoloco,
My experiences at Tecate are that when I import stuff and pay the duty, I can pay right there at the customs office on the left side of the
street going in. It is not a bank where you can pay for your tourist card. As with everything in Mexico, this is subject to change at anytime. I think
they used to have a bank in that strip of offices - but, the last few times through there, it was closed (I have never seen it open). For the tourist
card, we had to go across the street (right side of the street going in) and get the tourist card and then walk down to the bank down the big hill and
back. This is not as easy as the San Ysidro crossing for tourist cards....
|
|
|
Bajahowodd
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9274
Registered: 12-15-2008
Location: Disneyland Adjacent and anywhere in Baja
Member Is Offline
|
|
That's one reason I almost always use San Ysidro heading South. Northbound, I tend to flip a coin between Tecate and Otay. However, with the road work
nearing completion, Tecate is looking more attractive, assuming not everyone decides the same thing.
|
|
|
monoloco
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6667
Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Pacifico
| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
(all border crossings have the INM office... the Tecate bank is a long downhill walk from the border... hope it is open when you cross or use Tijuana
24/7 bank teller and INM) |
I'm confused, when I passed through Tecate in the summer and before there was a
bank right next to the office where they calculated the amount I owed in duty for the things I imported. It was like the first thing south of the
border on the left side going south, can you not pay for a tourist visa there? |
Monoloco,
My experiences at Tecate are that when I import stuff and pay the duty, I can pay right there at the customs office on the left side of the
street going in. It is not a bank where you can pay for your tourist card. As with everything in Mexico, this is subject to change at anytime. I think
they used to have a bank in that strip of offices - but, the last few times through there, it was closed (I have never seen it open). For the tourist
card, we had to go across the street (right side of the street going in) and get the tourist card and then walk down to the bank down the big hill and
back. This is not as easy as the San Ysidro crossing for tourist cards.... |
When I went through in July,
they calculated my duty, gave me an invoice, and said,"just go next door and pay at the bank" I didn't have any pesos, and the bank didn't exchange
dollars so they told me to go across to the casa de cambio on the corner and exchange them. I don't need a tourist visa so I haven't tried to pay for
one there, but I can't see what the difference would be. The year before, my wife went in the same bank to pay for our declared items while I was
talking to the aduana guy, and while she was in there the alarm went off, I said to the guy,"there goes my wife, robbing another bank", he got a
chuckle out of that.
|
|
|
Spearo
Nomad
Posts: 153
Registered: 11-30-2010
Location: Moscow, Idaho and Pescadero, BCS
Member Is Offline
|
|
Hit Tecate at 0600 and on the off chance that you get the red light, everyone is too sleepy to give you any grief. Also there is no traffic, you can
blast through town. No "WTF?" moment at that crazy lawless roundabout at the top of the hill.
|
|
|
DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
We were pleased with how much of the work south of Ensenada was complete-----so much better.
Glad to here the Tecate Road is also now much better. Wonder if they are going to start widening more of it.
Don't know where they were headed, but we kept seeing the extra wide loads, the heavy highway equipment being moved south. In one quite narrow
section south of Guerrero Negro, the wide truck moved way over to the right to let the on coming traffic pass and on the right, he was knocking down
those concrete posts like crazy----
[Edited on 2-4-2011 by DianaT]
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
