Lukeville Crossing

We shipped house hold goods from San Diego to Mexico City via Tijuana, this through a customs broker and the Mexican Consulate inventoried, stamped paperwork.

Shipment was inspected at the Tijuana borddr where Mexican customs placed seals on the rear doors of the traildr box, rig was stoped at the Sonoyta check point and we had to pay a $130.00 dollar bribe to the aduaneros so that the trailer would not be opened or unloaded.

My recomendation is to avoid Lukeville and specially Sonoyta, worst customs agents in all of Mexico, nothing but thiefs!

navegator

Nogales is a piece of cake. They even have a sort of Ombudsman that will help you if something is amiss with your papers. I have never seen an Ag inspector. If they have one he or she is asleep somewhere. Back in October I was in the line to pay the Magdalena toll when a Gringo lady( actually she was Canadian) knocked on my window. She wanted to know where she goes to get her FMM!!! I told them to turn around!! I have run into others in Kino that came all this way with no papers. They could have had a pet Gorilla with no problem!

Moisheh

I agree with your observations about the attitude of the people at the border. We finally decided that someone was targeting pets and refrigerators for their PhD project research. Some of their comments were so ridiculous that it was all we could do to remain polite and calm.
Our cat is very personable, and in the US, cats don't need rabies shots. When the vet at the border said we couldn't enter because we didn't have a rabies certificate for him, we verified with her that she was a vet, and offered to pay her to give him his shot. It went downhill from there, and I ended up getting a "warning." A business card size piece of paper that she made no copies of, that listed my name and the cat's name and said we couldn't enter Mexico again without a rabies certificate for him. It holds a place of honor in our Mexico treasures.
Yes, it's important to obey the laws, but when it's not the law, but for the "good of Mexico," it can be trying.
We find Sonoyta/Lukeville a great place to enter the US because of the lack of lines, and no automatic secondary for RVs, but we no longer enter there.

Too many snotty people at Aduana in Sonoyta, for me. Even the Banjercito staff east of town got short and uncomfortable. I'd choose Nogales, and Mariposa Road. I may even go the Eagle Pass Piedras Negras route to avoid getting scalped going down Mex 15-D.

But after the snow storms :)

The older stop about 20 km south of Sonoyta was a real problem for us one year, and the reason we never used it going south, again. That year we were loosely traveling with three other units, and the other three needed to return to the border for one reason or another. That cannot happen at Caborca, it simply too far away. From that year on, we used Nogales, although we did exit from Sonoyta again, with a stop at that place to go through the exit routine. It was a real trap for those in a motor home, getting out right into traffic coming down a long hill at speed.

Yes, with the road through the Altar desert from Gulfo de Santa Clara, passing through Rocky Point, if visitors wanted to carry onward to the south, no need to back track towards Sonoyta to get more documents to do so, or needing to search for the aduana somewhere near Guaymas, if their planning had changed.

daveB110 wrote:
Believe the TIP location from Lukeville was changed, to be near Caborca. But we haven't been that way in a long while. FMM at the border (Sonoyta) yes. Someone else chime in here.

It is true that there is a new Garita in Caborca but it covers traffic coming in from Puerto Peñasco. Highway 2 does not access this Garita, the one mentioned in my earlier post is still there. As mentioned earlier if you have all of your documents ready before entering Mexico TIP especially, it will make things easier and potentially faster. There is also a Garita at Guaymas on the bypass highway.

Thanks.
Be sure to read all about taking your truck camper across. From what I'm reading, you can get away with getting your TIP online, and just waltz through Nogales with no issues.
We came through Nogales this year with a Class A so filled with our stuff for our new house that we couldn't even use the shower! They didn't even want to talk to us.
Oaxaca is one of our favorite places, but there are many. Mole is fabulous, you'll be blown away by the availability of it in Oaxaca and the variety. We haven't been there recently, but Oaxaca Trailer Park sounds as if it is still perfectly functional and is in a great location.

Talleyhoe, many thanks for your advice. You know, I feel like a fish out of water using my little car instead of my truck camper. Jane wants to conquer Oaxaca style mole, so we had reserved a spot in a cooking class. I want to learn Mexican cooking too, so I reserved a class...then we learned you can't take your truck camper over the border. Still we'll be driving from Brownsville to Tampico to Puebla then to Oaxaca. Anything we learn we'll appreciate. So, thanks again. You are a sensational moderator.

Get your papers on line in advance, get your insurance on line in advance, too. I recommend Lewis and Lewis. Good coverage, very fair prices. Oh yeah-have a great time!

Jane and I stumbled into the Lukeville crossing by mistake last Spring.

We had been camping at Organ Pipe during the desert bloom in March. We went sauntering out of Organ Pipe, following our GPS, to see more of the bloom at Anza Borrega, Calif. Suddenly, we were at the border crossing at Lukeville. We literally had no idea the GPS would take us there.

We parked and I talked to US Border Patrol agents who were busy going over some guy's late model Cadillac. They said I'd have no problem crossing in my truck camper. So, we drove up and passed into the Mexican border: Me, Jane and Hula the mini Australian Shepherd. We were rolling in our 1967 Avion camper on a Ford F350 diesel. A nice Mexican border control lady looked us over and asked for the medical documentation on our dog Hula. We said we didn't have it, but Hula had a rabies tag around her neck. She said, OK, but next time you need your dog's papers. She said that it would be nice if we had passports, too. But, we didn't. She waved us through.

We got stopped on the highway to Nogales by Mexican officials, and they did go through the fridge. But, there was no problem with anything including the dog.

Later, we pulled over to eat at a truck stop and left Hula in the pickup. When we came back we discovered that she had eaten the GPS. There were tooth marks all over the thing and it wouldn't work. Luckily we found our way to the border crossing where the Border Agent had gone to college in our town - and after exchanging pleasantries he waved us through. Reminded me of crossing the border when I was young. Back in the 60s.

I have now learned that you need a whole lot of papers to cross the border into Mexico. In fact we are going to Oaxaca next month and I'm in the process of getting a TIP for our Honda Element, Mexican auto insurance, the Tourist Card for me and Jane, and the papers for Hula. We have passports.

I had planned to visit Mexico in our truck camper, but it appears that you can't get across the border with my pick-up truck. So, we've had a big change in plans while using Airbnb for places to stay for a month or so.

I think that the border from Lukeville to the West is part of a free travel zone that has different rules than the other crossings further East.

I doubt our experience is helpful, except that border crossings are never predictable.

Now to me and Jane and Hula. If anyone can give us advice about crossing at Brownsville we'd be very appreciative. Should I try to get my paperwork online, auto insurance in advance etc.???? Or anything else I should know.

Thanks and happy trails.

On edit>>>> I don't mean to hijack this string with my note about Brownsville. Maybe I'll post it later.