RVing into Bahia LA

navigator: By law no foreign company can sell liability insurance in Mexico When they extend coverage into Mexico it covers comprehensive, etc. American policies also do not cover legal fees. If you read Turtle Toads excellent sticky I think it covers this info. Anyone who travels into Mexico without liability insurance is looking for trouble.


Moisheh

Vehicle insurance in Baja and Baja Sur is optional. What could happen if you would get into accident without insurance, is another story.

I doubt that any US insurance will cover as far as Bay of LA. Not to mention dealing with accident and claim. When you buy Mexican insurance through those providers mentioned above - Lewis, Bajabound etc - you are dealing with Mexican insurance company. Phone reps speak English, though with heavy accent, and agent arrives at the scene of accident promptly, to avoid any complications with police.

Some insurance companies in the U.S. insure vehicles in Mexico up to a certain number of miles South of the border, others do not.

Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur require that all vehicles have insurance, that is the law in the books, that includes vehicles registered in the U.S., Canada, and of course 80% of drivers ignore the law.

Should you happen to get in an accident and you do not have insurance, you will be thrown in jail, even if it was not your fault, and guess who will be at fault.

Check with your U.S. insurance company to see if you are covered and how far into Mexico. Get Mexican insurance that covers third parties and also covers you from uninsured, if your insurance does not cover you at all then get the Mexican insurance, some insurance companies will tailor the insurance for the miles into Mexico.

navegator

JohannaPhillip wrote:
Hi all, our family is planning to ride to Bahia, Mexico by next month and it would be our first ride into Mexico. I believe we need to insure the RV and what else we have to take care of? My family consists of two adults and 2 teens. We've planned to take our Mexican RV insurance through online site and I guess we would be needing our passports? What else should we be caring? Can anyone help me list out things we should be taking care of?

Besides passports, driver license and vehicle ownership/registration papers, there are no other requirements at the border. You will need to buy tourist visas at the border, it's simple.

RV and vehicle insurance in Baja is optional, you can but you don't have to. Most people chose to carry some insurance though. I just buy liability insurance, since both my truck and trailer are not new. The cheaper, the better. Check Discover Baja and bajabound.com. I don't remember now, but one of them (or both) will add $20 application fee at the very end.

List of things to take care of? After 10 years of going there I honestly don't know, other than things I take care of when camping in Ca or Az.

With your particular destination in mind I suggest bringing most of the food with you. Bay of LA is an obscure place with poorly stocked grocery stores, and prices are higher than elsewhere. You will get rice, eggs, sugar and milk though. Deconsa and Isla Market might have a beef or chicken parts, but I have doubts about their fridge. Chicken parts didn't look frozen to me.

There is no OTA TV, no FM radio and hardly any AM radio reception. Internet is through satellite, painstakingly slow, in a few kiosks for 20-30 pesos an hour. Good enough to check email, but not much else. Some camps have a free WiFi near the office, also slow.
There is no cell phone coverage, but those internet kiosks have a phone booth as well, about 30 cents per minute.
Most camps have no electricity.
There is no running water, though on "most" camps they deliver it to showers so you can get it there. That water is actually good, from the town well, the only dirt is coming from dirty tank and pipes. Filtered through counter-top Brita jug, it's perfectly safe. Or bring a couple of 5-gal water bottles, you can refill it at a few places in town but not always will find a spare empty bottle.

After Tequila shots and Tecate chasers...

Feels like the top half of your head is separated from the bottom half by six-inches and there's a cold wind blowing in-between.

Gerald Ford was president and for six-hours in the morning, I prayed for merciful death. That learned me...

stanbnv wrote:
Did you see the news story about the seven college kids that got shot in Panama City Florida? You couldn't pay me to go there.

I go there because my sister lives there. But I can see your point. She works in one of the local hospitals there, she told me this year has been one of the worst. Inmates running the asylum..

Point is there are dangerous places everywhere. I've lived in places where Americans were tempting targets for people wanting to make a political statement. Be aware of your surroundings, don't act like an ugly American and you will be fine just about anywhere.

Just got back from a two week trip to Baja. We took our 31' Class C and pulled a small trailer with our Polaris RZR. We used the RZR everyday from taking a 100 mile trip to the Mission of Santa Gertrudis, driving on the city streets in Ensenada to the Mercado, to driving on the beaches and trails. We went as far south as Guerrero Negro (the whales are probably gone by now from Scammons Lagoon). We had some serious problems with the farm laborors in San Quintin - they surrounded us and pounded on the motorhome. Scary at the time but they didn't break anything. Highway 1 still has some rough spots and washouts at Catavina. Spent some time at Bahia de los Angeles. We were unhappy with the conditions at Daggets(?) but we drove the RZR up to Gringa Beach and had the place to ourselves; one of the highlights was watching the whales across the bay.

We made the mistake of exiting at Mexicali late at night. Crowded and slow even at 10pm, poor signs and directions.

Church's book on Baja was invaluable.

I know that that incident is several years old, but I just couldn't resist with the latest from Florida. No, I'm not sorry. The farthest I've been on the Baja was Ensenada and I remember the dangers of mixing cervasa and tequila and what it does to your head in the morning. Glad that those days are behind me.

Ladies & Gentlemen of this forum, it is best to leave the ignoramus alone and not respond to posts generated by persons that have not, do not, will not, travel outside a very small minded area, believing everything the talking heads throw at them.

Let us ignore the small minded and fact less trolls and concentrate on the good things, I have traveled, lived and worked in Mexico for the last 60 years.

navegator

whistlebritches wrote:
Did you ever see the Dateline NBC show about the family who went into the Baha to ride their four wheelers? On their way back with their toyhauler, they were stopped by the Policea and ordered out of their truck and taken up to a ditch and made to lie down (they thought they were going to get shot). After waiting about two hours, they finally walked to a house in thed distance and they helped them get back to the border. They were only about 3 miles from the border when this happened. They never did get their truck, toyhauler or four wheelers back. Scared the bejesus out of them. You couldn't pay me to go over there.

Well that post was pretty thoughtless - adds nothing, answers nothing and casts the writer in the crowd of xenophobes and bigots.