Mexican Road Trip

Tomorrow morning Ibis and I are leaving on a road trip to Ciudad Juarez. Remember that immigration interview we've been waiting for and figured would be sometime next summer or early fall? It's next week! We received an email from our lawyer while my parents were in town telling us that the interview is scheduled for March 5th.

We've been busy the past two weeks getting things in order with our lawyer and getting ourselves mentally prepared. At first we thought we'd find out whether or not Ibis will be granted his visa while we're there, but he'll have to go back in mid-April for a second appointment. Then we will know. I was really disappointed when I found out we couldn't do it all at once but this is still much sooner than we ever expected.

We figure it'll take about three days to get to Juarez but are allowing for car troubles by leaving on Thursday. We do have to make a detour in Lazaro Cardenes to update our license plates. Figures they're expiring while we'll be driving all over the country. We'll be in Juarez Sunday night through Thursday morning then plan to take a longer time driving home. Since arriving last year we've wanted to explore the country but haven't found the time. If we're allowed to return to the States this might be the only chance we'll have for many years, so we're taking the long way back.

The three main places we'd like to visit are Mazatlan, Guadalajara and Manzanillo. There are other smaller towns along the way that we plan to check out as well (Duragno and Colima stand out). We'll probably stay one night in Chihuahua and Aguascalientes, two cities whose names have always cracked me up. I'm looking forward to adding those to my list of places I've been.

I'd love to do some kind of tracker thing to let you know where we are, a la Santa Claus, but I'm not that high-tech. We'll have an internet connection in Juarez but the other times will be hit or miss. I don't plan to update here until Monday.

Here's a map showing our approximate route. The yellow is on our way there and the green is our scenic route home.

Wish us luck!