atop Cerro El Zamorano. (BP)
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Bob at the middle boulder atop Cerro El Zamorano. (BP) |
"My credit card has been charged 4,215 Pesos as deposit for taking my vehicle into Mexico. Clearly I want that charge removed. Therefore as I approach the border at Reynosa (the crossing near McAllen, Texas) I keep vigil for a place to accomplish this.
I see no sign indicating where to do this, and find myself driving past huge Mexican immigration buildings on my left. Now I am fast approaching the toll booth for the international bridge over the Rio Grande. Between me and the buildings there is a little booth with classic outhouse shape, no sign front or back or toward me. I actually think it's an outhouse.
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Bob's camper at the base of Cerro Ajusco. (GS) |
Also, there is a barrier between me and this booth, and I had seen no way earlier to reach either the customs buildings or this booth. At this point I have no reason to believe that it is this booth that I need to get to. The booth doesn't even register in my brain as a necessary destination. If it had, I'd have noticed a break in the barrier well after passing the booth and JUST before the bridge toll booth allowing one to get to the booth, but not to the customs buildings where I was expecting to go.
In panic mode I get to the bridge toll booth. I pay the fee (a mistake) and show the booth keeper my documents concerning the credit card charge. He knows what it's about, then makes me and the cars behind me back up so that I can get to the break (no sign there whatsoever) in the barrier.
I drive in there and drive back parallel to where I had been driving earlier and approach this booth. Lo and behold it has a sign on the side opposite from the side facing the road approaching the bridge toll booth indicating vehicle return.
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Bob at viewer's left atop Cerro Ajusco - the only climb that everybody did together. (DG) |
Two girls in the booth take my documents. After telephone calls and computer typing I'm told that my deposit has been credited to my credit card with papers supposedly indicating such. The girls can tell that I am under some stress and they apologize for how difficult the whole process is.
Now I must return to the road leading to the international bridge. This maneuver is not at all obvious. I see a pickup truck in front of me with Texas plates and get its driver to stop. I ask if he knows how to get back, and he says "follow me" which I do.
After a few twists and turns (no signs ANYWHERE) I find myself back at the bridge toll booth. A new toll booth keeper requires me to pay the bridge fee again. I can see the prior keeper crouched back in the toll booth and I yell at them that I'd already paid, but they won't give-in, so, well disgusted, I provide a second $1.80 - a minor amount compared to the $49 I lost at that Pemex station."