I was up at 5.15 am this morning...NO that was not a typo!!!
For the past several years I have been using a regular 180 day tourist visa to enter Mexico which means that every 180 days I have to leave the country and on my return obtain another 180 visa....
I decided this year when I left in February I would make an appointment at the Consulate in Laredo, Texas and obtain a Temporary Resident visa which enables to me and my car to stay in Mexico for four years without ever having to leave......this I did on 12 th February and the visa had a six month expiration date that I needed to be back in Mexico to activate the visa......
Well my six months on that visa application ended a week ago.
I knew I wanted to apply again and hence the early morning wake up call....
I made an appointment at the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver for an appointment to apply for another Temporary visa and my appointment was at 11 am today.
As it is expensive to take the car on the ferry so I took the 6.25 am ferry as a foot passenger and the beauty of being an old man is that during the week the ferry is free for seniors a saving of 17 dollars each way.
I had planned to drive my car down to the terminal and leave it there for the day but Heather insisted that she drive me, so nice of her.
The crossing was good all the car passengers have to remain in their vehicles so only foot passengers are allowed up stairs and all have to wear a mask and they have so many of the seats blocked off..I felt very safe in a row all to myself and no one even remotely close to me.
I was well prepared with food and drink and my book and the crossing was easy...these are called the five fingers...
On the mainland there is a bus stop right outside the ferry terminal and for a concession fare of 2 dollars I took the express bus into downtown Vancouver which took about 25 minutes....again safety measures were enforced on the bus including masks and social distancing as possible and it was not full and a seat all to myself with no one else close to me.
I had lots of time before my appointment so I got off the bus close to the famous Stanley Park ...
and walked the rest of the way along the sea wall.
My appointment went smoothly fortunately I had the right documents and copies and because they were so busy and did not want applicants hanging around in the waiting they took my phone number and suggested I go for lunch and they would call me to come back.
I was prepared for this and maybe 200 yards away is this lovely little park with benches where I sat and had the lunch I had brought watching the joggers, the sea planes and the mountains.
After two hours I received the call and went back to the consulate and collected my visa....
I walked around down town a little bit before taking the non express bus back to the ferry terminal as I had lots of time before the 4 pm sailing back to Nanaimo.
I called Heather and she was there waiting for me to take me home...
So happy to say everything went well with the day and now watching Vancouver play hockey!!
To update you on my possible plans the border to the USA remains closed to non essential traffic till 21 st September and I honestly cannot see it opening then either so what I am thinking is that I will find a covered storage space for my car for the winter and take a flight back to San Miguel at the end of September.
I have credit from my cancelled flights over the summer so the flight will be free, sort of I know I have already paid!!
If things open up next year I have a friend who will drive my car down to Tucson where I can pick up the car and hopefully travel to Indian Wells and work at the tennis tournament I was scheduled to work at this year.
So as I see it if I booked the flight late September and the border did happen to open up then I could drive down and because the flight is not costing me anything[I know I did pay this money out originally].....if I did not take it.
San Miguel has fared quite well over the summer and things have started to open up including the tennis courts.....I am still paying rent for my lovely casita and I have been here over six months and just feel the time is right to go back...obviously these plans are not cemented in stone so if things changed I could re evaluate the situation.
A good day!!
Stay safe and healthy!!
Yashi Kochi!!
No comments:
Post a Comment