Mexico Day Trip

Corn rows while you wait

Los Algodones, Mexico, is a short trip from Yuma, Arizona, and only about 55 miles from where we are staying. Most folks park on the US side and walk in. Given its easy access and the number of snowbirds in Yuma, it has become a haven for selling trinkets and certain items that tend to be expensive in the US and Canada, such as medicines, eyeglasses, and dental work.

A lot if the good sold is typical tourist stuff, cut sheet metal birds and butterflies, Mexican hats, and wool rugs, blankets, and serapes.

The new spectacles

On Friday, 1/25, we tripped over there with Rusty and Mary Ann Stuckey. Consuelo had a new eye prescription and wanted to get glasses there. She called ahead and made an appointment for 10:30, for which we would have been late if our friends had not reminded us that they were on Arizona time, one hour ahead of us. As it was, she didn't need an appointment, since we had a prescription with us. She picked progressive lenses in a medium priced frame, with Transitions solar coating for $139, most likely a bargain from prices in the states.

While the lenses were being made, which took 2-1/2 hours, we walked the streets looking at the goods and finding a few things for the grandkids. I picked up a Patriots cap for $10, and Consuelo found a large, colorful bowl to brighten up our kitchen in Maine when we get back there.

A lunch visitor

After that, we found a place to have some mediocre Mexican food in an open air restaurant, where we were swarmed with vendors selling anything they could carry to the table. At one point, Consuelo told me that a young Mexican boy had come up behind me while we were sitting at the table, probably looking for something to slip out of my pocket. I took out the cell phone and got a snapshot of him, which he found amusing.

After lunch, we picked up the glasses, and looked for a particular tequila drink that everybody seems to like, without success. Consuelo found a pretty blue bottle in the liquor store, which we bought, then discovered back home was much like the drink we couldn't find. We should have bought more!

Standing in line to return

The most annoying part of visiting Algodones is the wait to cross back over into the US. Customs had 4 guards on duty checking passports and documents with reasonable rapidity, but Rusty and I still waited in line for an hour and 20 minutes, the ladies waiting on a bench near the gate for us to saunter through the line.