We have had dealings with Mexican Customs before but yesterday brought to light that we are in a foreign country and that this country although much more lenient than our own in many ways still has it’s rules, some of which they will not bend. Our current tourist visa’s are about due. Previously we were close enough to the United States to just take a bus ride over the boarder and then return to Mexico for an automatic upgrade or extension. This time we are not so lucky.

When we look at a map we are over 1,000 miles from any national borders. We discussed our predicament with an agent yesterday and told them that we need about 30 additional days to transit the rest of Mexico in safety (weather issues down the coast and across the Teuantipec). We would actually hope to get an additional 60 days since we really don’t want to miss parts of Mexico that we have not seen before. When Bill finished with the agent we were still at square one, but fairly resigned to buy plane fare, bus fare or donkey cart fare back to the States.

Lisa has gone to work using her network of friends to locate the cheapest air fare available. Things don’t look so bad this morning but the thought of dropping $600 to get 180 more days in Mexico still is not a happy thought. We do have one last bullet to use and that will be on Monday when we go to the Port Captain in Manzanillo. We will explain that we were delayed in Puerto Vallarta for rigging issues for nearly a month. That month if recovered could give us just about enough time to make it to El Salvador and save us $600 worth of beer funds.