First of all a BIG MUCHAS GRACIAS to The Strathcona Sunrise Rotary, The Cumberland Rotary, Comox Valley Dodge and all the wonderful people of the Comox Valley B.C. who made this possible (you know who you are). This started with an idea to help support a sewing cooperative (The Bag Ladies) who are in the very poor area near the dump in Pt. Vallarta. Before this idea was barely conceived a van was donated along with enough sewing machines fabric, etc to fill a small warehouse. Terry Nielsen from the Strathcona Rotary, who had visited me in Mexico last year was kind enough to not only help organize this adventure, but also took take time off work and help drive the van .
Two days later we are in Santa Cruz Ca. with a loaded van. We were just in time to attend a fundraiser for my good friend Ken Kimes who had recently lost his hand in a farming accident. After a great visit we were out the door to San Diego where we camped before crossing the border at Tijuana . From there we planned to drive through Baja and take the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan.
To say the least there was some confusion when we got to the border at Tijuana. We were waved through by a frantic border guard and motioned not to stop. We thought that down the road we were going to be stopped to get our tourist visa and car permit, but no such luck and next the thing we knew we were stuck in the middle of the desert for the night. Things did not look good so we phoned the ferry in La Paz to see what we needed (and hadn’t gotten in Tijuana). We were soon told we were going no where until we got our visas and van permits and we better get down to La Paz and get this straightened out as the ferry left in two days. Speedy Gonzales could not have done better 1000 kms in 12 hours and all we had to give up was a bolt of blue cloth at an army check point so they could put it on the windows of their hut to try and keep the wind and dust out (I was little leary about taking a photo as they were carrying machine guns).
The next day (ferry leaving day ) we went to immigration where after a FUN half day we were fined $100 each for being in Mexico illegally. Ferry time was getting close and we still had the permit people and customs people to deal with but lady luck was on our side as a very nice woman who would have liked to come to PV with us gave us our car permit. No Problema. Our last hurdle was Customs where it was the old press the button and see if it is green (you go ahead) or red (you get searched); about a 1 in 20 chance. I said to the lady as I walked up to the button “Siempre Rojo para mi” ( It is always red for me), she laughed and sure enough we were looking at RED. She could not believe it and gave us a BIG Smile and waved us thru.
After landing we only had 7 hours of slow windy roads into Pt. Vallarta.