Feeling More Confident, Choosing a Different Route to Drive Home

It’s a far cry from the feeling we had driving down to Mazatlan. Yes, those urinals we bought will be of utterly no use. As a matter of fact, we felt confident enough that we even took a different route. We followed the advice given to us by a couple we met in El Cid who had been driving the route for years. 

This route is so much better because it divides the trip more evenly to 6.5-6-5.5 hours. The previous one we took was 8-6-4. (Both include border times.) We also bypass Los Mochis, Sinaloa the city with Level 4, the highest crime level according to the US State Department Advisory (our trip down was uneventful, too, but we were so cautious).

Saying goodbye to all the friends we had made in the three months we were in Mazatlan was not easy. We hugged lots and reminded ourselves that we would be seeing each other again on January 4, 2020. I gave copies of my book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, and boxes of chocolates. 

Packing all the things we brought with us and all the things we bought in Mazatlan was not easy either. But, on the morning of April 1, 2019, we drove our car north on Mexico 15 D, the Cuota freeway. I delighted at the burst of yellows along the way on an early Spring Day. We also stopped at inexpensive Mexican pottery stores. 

Navojoa

The first stop of our three-day road trip was Navojoa. It is the fifth-largest city (population, over 150,000) in the state of Sonora just past the state of Sinaloa where Mazatlan is located.  The Mexican Revolutionary Álvaro Obregón was born in Hacienda Siquisiva in the small town near the city. After the 1910 revolt, he became the President of Mexico, introducing modern agricultural techniques.

Navojoa's Palacio Municipal

seen at the Main Plaza

He made the Valley one of the most prosperous agricultural regions in Mexico. Today, aside from agriculture, foreign as well as local investors have gone into many industries like shrimp farming, swine production, recycled containerboard and box making, and a Tecate brewery (recently acquired from Heineken). The Valley exports mainly to the US because of its close proximity to the border.

The colorful Navojoa signage stands out at the roundabout as you enter the city. Prosperity is evident and we had time to take pictures of the Main Plaza fronting the Palacio Municipal. Four monuments surround the Plaza and the City Clock Tower donated by the Rotary Club leads to it from the main thoroughfare, Mexico 15 D. The Cathedral is just a block away, its spires visible from the Plaza.

the Welcome Sign of Navojoa

Magdalena de Kino

The next stop should have been Santa Ana, about six hours from Navojoa and a little over 60 miles south of Nogales on the US border.  Santa Ana is a small city with a population of just over 10,000 known for raising cattle with over 20,000 head exported to the US annually. The movie The Fast and The Furious was filmed there throughout the months of June and July 2008, as well as the larger town of Magdalena de Kino (population, 25,000).

Padre Kino's Mausoleum

Temple to Santa Magdalena

Hotels.com did not have available hotels in Santa Ana so we booked at Magdalena de Kino which is even closer to the Mexico-U.S. border. When I researched the city, I found out that it is a Pueblo Mágico, one of 83 towns selected for scenic, cultural or historical qualities. 

We loved our stay at the 5-star Hotel Industria, one of six hotels in the city. It is just a half block away from the Main Plaza. The remains of Father Francisco Eusebio Kino, the pioneer Roman Catholic missionary who founded fifteen missions  in the area as well as Arizona was discovered in this town in 1966, 255 years after his death. A monument with a crypt housing his remains and a chapel with his effigy lying down are both in the Plaza. The city is named after him and the patron saint Santa Maria Magdalena. There is a pretty temple/church built in her honor also at the Plaza.

the Main Plaza of Magdalena de Kino

The border was only a little over an hour from our hotel. This time we went through the correct crossing called Mariposa. It is right after Km 21 where we surrendered our auto permit that refunded our US$400. However, we forgot to surrender our visitors’ permit. We will have to find out how to do that by mail. The wait at the US border was a whole hour and our car didn’t have to be inspected by the US Customs border agents.  

the Mariposa Border Crossing

After realizing that we had forgotten to surrender our permits we passed by the Mexican Consulate in Tucson. But we were told they didn’t have an immigration office there and we either had to go back to the border or forget about it. We wanted to make sure we would be given reentry to Mexico next year but we definitely didn’t want to go back to the border. We lost our appetite for lunch and continued on to Viewpoint. We simply said we will stop at the first McDonalds we spot. Would you believe we didn’t see any? We left Magdalena de Kino at 8 am and we arrived home at 2:15 pm.

We will find out if we can mail our visa permit to the Immigration Office. By next year, we will have all the border processes down pat. So, yes, we will drive down to Mazatlan again next year, if they’ll let us!