DOOD IT!
Everything went beautifully today. Left right after breakfast and zoomed straight to San Ysidro (two hours). When I got to the border, I splurged $1.25 and took a bus to downtown instead of walking, thinking I'd save a few minutes. Didn't save much time, because she took a circuitous route, but at least I saw some different scenery. As soon as I got off the bus, I walked over to where all the local buses stop. Almost immediately, I saw the bus I was looking for and got on it. (The fares here are higher than in other parts of Mexico: 1100 old pesos, or about 35 cents U.S.) There are buses that would have taken me closer, but this one took me within walking distance. Got off at the right stop and walked in exactly the right direction. Didn't make a single wrong turn! Considering that most of the streets don't have names on them and they twist in every direction, this is pretty remarkable. Just about the time I began thinking I must be headed in the wrong direction, I saw the tower that's next to the building and headed right to it.
Sr. Rivero met me at the door. He was very pleasant and courteous. Unfortunately, his secretary had just left for lunch (it was 12 o'clock), and the poor man was hopelessly lost without her, so I offered to return in an hour. He accepted the offer gratefully.
I spent the hour wandering around the neighborhood and eating my trail bars. At one, I returned to the office (which, incidentally, doesn't have any kind of sign or even a number on the door, so if yesterday's cab driver hadn't shown me where it was, I might never have found it). There were a lot of other people there this time, but the secretary hadn't returned. She arrived about 1:20. (Nothing like working 9 to 2:30 with an hour and a half for lunch!) She took care of another client and then got to me. She had an electric typewriter, but the correcting ribbon didn't work, so she had to erase! She didn't even have White-Out or that paper stuff. When she had too many erasures, she tore up the paper and started over, so it took her the better part of an hour to type the one-page letter. A nice new computer and printer were sitting nearby, but she didn't know how to use the word-processing program. The whole thing would have been so simple with a word processor. She could have had the whole letter on file and just plugged in the name, address, call sign, and date. It wouldn't have taken three minutes. But maybe that would make it harder to justify the outrageous fee of 221 new pesos ($73.67). She did mention, however, that someone would be coming down in a few days to teach her how to use the word-processor.
(The Mexican government has dropped the last 3 zeroes from their money. The 50,000 peso note is now 50 pesos. However, during the transition period, they are continuing to accept money already in circulation, distinguishing the two by referring to them as "old pesos" and "new pesos".)
Anyway, I finally got my XE2 (Mexican license). That is, I got a letter saying I could use my U.S. call sign (KC6ZNU) plus XE2 to transmit while in Mexico.
Strolled back to the bus stop, caught a bus to El Centro (downtown), walked across the border, ate lunch at McDonald's, and took the trolley back to San Diego.
In the meantime, Roy had mounted the wind-speed-and-direction indicator. He's really making progress.
We have permission from the Port Captain to stay here at Silver Gate until Saturday. Then we'll probably head down to Chula Vista. We hope to leave for Mexico on Tuesday.
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