February 1st
About 5 miles west of Yuma
on I-8 is the Algodones Road.
This leads you to a massive parking lot on the US side of the US/Mexico border.
Park and walk across to a crazy little town filled with dental and ophthalmologist
practices, restaurants, liquor stores and swarms of sidewalk vendors.
In this next picture we’re about to go back into the selling
tunnel of hell (for me) or shopping nirvana for herself. Covered sidewalks for
blocks with all the things I can’t do without – rings, bracelets, necklaces, trinkets,
leather goods bowls, figurines and way too much more. Norene has her best “it’s
OK Honey” smile on here:
Norene got right into the bargaining mode – it’s expected
and you (or is that me) would be nuts to pay full price just to get the heck
out of here. She did not. Even got into the “walk away” tactic (it worked).
I was rewarded for hardly crying during the shopping part
with sidewalk food (tacos) and a margarita (just like hers except mine was
mostly empty at this point).
If you squint through the archway you can see more sidewalk
sellers here:
Had to include this one – Norene is obviously enjoying the
experience:
Nice open air restaurant in an interior plaza. Couldn’t stay
– more SHOPPING to do.
All good things must come to an end and just like our breeze
walk into Los Algodones we breezed out through US customs.
Well not exactly.
We were told by experienced visitors that we had hit a light
day – it only took about an hour to clear customs from this point. It can take
up to 3-4 hours on heavy days. And if you are too late and customs closes you stay in Mexico for the night.
And the selling never stops. Even while you are in line.
This is a different place. Everyone should come here once. That’s ONCE if you
missed it the first time.
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