Mexico

[Auzzee]

As my plans to head for San Carlos, Sonora, to launch the new boat take shape I confess to a real excitement fed by those people who have already written about the wonders of Mexico.

I need to buy a few bits for the new craft from a new dinghy and outboard, right down to flares and even glassware and cutlery. Is there a good chandlery in the San Carlos vicinity?

I know there is a West Marine in Phoenix and I have recently aquired a cattledog from Defender Marine. How does Defender compare to West? As the boat is currently under a Temporary Import Permit, can I send gear from the US to 'yacht in transit' in San Carlos to legally avoid sales taxes? Do I need to pay import tax if I ship boat gear from the US to Mexico?

Mexico receives bad press internationally. What is the reality? Is it the drug ridden, lawless, criminal free-for-all I read about, or is the bad publicity similar in substance to piracy and shark attacks where the reality is infrequent occurrence, but a publicity magnet when it does happen?

Do they have nice beer?
Do they have preeety gorls?
Do The Cisco Kid and Pancho still ride the ranges?
Can you trust the cab drivers?
Are the police like Thai police, or can they be trusted?

Any and all information is welcome and will be appreciated, especially as it relates to the boat; and also anchorages and costs of such.

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by Auzzee

Do they have nice beer?

Cerveza is lighter than Aussie beer but drinkable.

Do they have preeety gorls?

All the preeety gorls in love with Speedy Gonzales, what's left are chihuahuas.

Do The Cisco Kid and Pancho still ride the ranges?

Aieeeeeeee!!

Can you trust the cab drivers?

Can you ever trust a cab driver?

Are the police like Thai police, or can they be trusted?

Always do what they ask. If a Mexican policeman tells you to run, run. He may shoot you for trying to escape, but he can also shoot you for failing to follow directions ...

Rob

[Auzzee]

Haha! Thanks Haiqu..more than 14 syllables, but poetry nonetheless.

[redbopeep]

You've got choices about where to get/buy all your stuff.

Ken can give you the scoop on tax/import. I've heard from several folks that somehow the stuff ends up being taxed. Because of that many people do drive stuff across the border. If you've got enough lead time, you could get in touch with Downwind Marine in San Diego, CA. They not only ship things all over the world, they also "send" things down into Mexico with cruisers who are headed south. It works if you're in PV or Mazatlan or on Baja. Not so sure about San Carlos. That major migration of cruisers will happen in the fall, not now. If you're in the mood for laid back adventure, you could buy some stuff in the USA (California) and crew for one of the Baja Haha boats that might have room for your stuff aboard. There will be many, many boats going South with the Haha and some of them will be very inexperienced skippers who would love to have an experienced sailor along. Food for thought.

San Carlos--lots of folks have worked on boats there. CL member Sea Venture has done that (however they're on the east coast now). CL member Dobrodaddy's boat is on the hard there right now at Guaymas while he's visiting the USA.

People rent cars in Guaymas and take the rental up to the USA to buy stuff and bring the stuff back down to their boat. We have a cruiser we've run into here in San Francisco that did that--I'll track them down in the next week and try to figure out how it worked out for them. We've personally driven through Nogales but that is one of the few places where there are drugs and violence so you won't tarry there for sure. When you take stuff across the border, as long as it looks like something you might use on vacation in Mexico and it doesn't look brand spanking new they don't ask you questions about it. Always in our own car we've taken huge quantities of stuff across at Nogales, Mexicali, and Tijuana.

Police--they've always been nice to us. So, ?? I guess so.

You're going to enjoy yourself