Well, after hearing that the Sunday after New Years is normally the busiest border crossing day of the year here, we stuck with our original plan, to cross the border on Monday. We took a very leisurely ride on Sunday through the mountains in Central Mexico, it was a mountain range just south of Monterrey, mountain hwy 58 (hwy 31 or 60) that connects two good highways, hwy 57 and hwy 85. (One map called it Hwy31, Streets and Trips called called it Hwy60, it’s actually labeled Hwy58 when you’re on it!) However, if you have the time, it’s well worth the drive, it starts off with fields of Joshaw Cactus es on Hwy 57, then raises to majestic mountains on Hwy 58 (aka 31 or 60), then the other side, Hwy85 it’s full of Orange Trees, Palm trees again! See our pictures on our links, we’ve added some of all three views. Magnificent! Then taking Hwy85 north is an excellent idea, as you can drive clear around Monterry on it, excellent roads.
Hwy 85 also runs into Monterrey, if you stay on the East part Hwy 85, you can end up just south of Monterray in Santiago, if you have time, I highly recommend that too, it’s got a few kms of markets on each side of the road, full of oranges, marmalade, jams, pottery, and so much more, it’s one of the largest markets we’ve seen; it was packed with locals on Sunday afternoon. East part of Hwy85 also hugs a very large mountains National Park which contains a Waterfalls (we never did make it to the Waterfalls). We finally camped at Bahia Escondido Resort and Camp Ground, a large resort which includes a KOA camp site. We actually had the whole place to our selves, we were the only campers, heated facilities. Duke enjoyed being off lead for the first time since the Pacific coast too.
Today, we got back on the road, headed around back to the main Hwy85, and around Monterry on 40D, 100D, then back on 85D, North to Nuevo Laredo. We by passed Nuevo Laredo to the Columbia Crossing, as we wanted to avoid the traffic in Nuevo Laredo. The driving is straight, flat, visual just a lot of yellowed grass, tumble weed and smaller cactus, good roads, Toll Road Hwy 85D north, to a new express road Hwy 2 (not on any maps or Streets and Trips), across to the International Boarder Crossing called Columbia Crossing, very very well marked, all the way there.
The actual Border crossing at Columbia International Border Crossing was perfect, it took 40mins in total. Thank you to Ernst for telling us about the little booth, which looks like a Garden Shed with video cameras and lights..that’s where you return you’re vehicle sticker and papers, then you process to border crossing guards. The wait at the Garden Shed to return the vehicle permit was around 5 mins, the wait at the Border Crossing was around 30mins, when we got to our turn, the fellow was very friendly, very interested in the Wedding details, and the van, he took a quick look at our passports and in our trailer and sent us on our way. It was very simple…
We’re in Laredo. Camping here for the night, and ready to head north..( met another van from Ontario just heading south) the weather here was 91F degrees today! GOOD BYE WARM WEATHER!

Posted on January 8th, 2008 by jerry & Sofie
Filed under: Jerry & Sofie