First Visit To Mexico

Monday: (03/01) Cereal with bananas for breakfast. We prepared for a great adventure today, for us at least. We had a vist from a couple of coyotes just before breakfast.

We drove down to Los Algodones just over the border and West of Yuma. This is one of the dental, optical and pharmacy meccas of Mexico. Known for the extremely good service at very low costs. We decided to try it even before Lou came up with an urgent need. She has a tooth bothering her, a lot. We crossed the border with no problem found the office of a dentist recommended to us with no problem. With no appointment Lou was seen within an hour and had a free estimate for services. Unfortunately we didn't know that everything was cash only and we aren't cash people. I tried to get money from a couple of ATMs but the first was out of dollars and the second didn't work so even though Lou had an appointment for the work for an hour after her initial exam, we decided to reschedule for tomorrow and get the cash in more familiar grounds. The cost of the services is estimated to be about 1/3 or less of the cost at home.


The streets are quite narrow in Los Algodones and little shops are everywhere.

While we were waiting for the dentist Lou also got some new frames for a pair of glasses that had a broken frame and an odd sized lens. No problem for them just grind them to fit a slightly smaller frame. Why couldn't any optician in the US do that?

The wait to get back in the US was about 1/2 hour at noon. Tomorrow we'll have to plan on a longer wait since Lou's appointment isn't until noon so we wont get back until later in the afternoon. Now we are world travelers of a minor sort. we have now both been only to Canada and Mexico with this addition of Mexico to our list of countries visited. I wasn't sure that would ever happen.

On the way home, we stopped at the Quechan Casino not far from the border crossing just off Interstate 8. We then went by Brownie's Cafe on 4th Street for lunch. I had the chicken fried steak special , Lou had the meatloaf special, both very good.

Our next effort was to return to camp and get our laundry and do the wash.

We returned to camp again and enjoyed dinner of some chicken potato salad Lou had prepared last night.

Tuesday: (03/02) Don McMuffins for breakfast. We made our way back to Los Algodones. We were intentionally early for Lou's appointment was at noon so we walked around and explored the streets nearby. Interesting town. We stopped at a small taco vendor in a nice courtyard for shrimp tacos and a vanilla milkshake. The street and shop vendors sure are helpful. it's almost impossible to look without too much assistance offered. The prices are also interesting. Few posted, all negotiable to about 50% or less of first offer. All this simply means I won't be buying much if anything here since I don't barter.

Lou's dental services went well after which we went to another courtyard, El Paradaiso,  for a drink listening to a nice musical group. A return to the dentist again completed our plans for the day except for the 1.25 hour wait to get back across the border.

When we got back to Yuma, we stopped for dinner at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant. I had some good chicken dumplings while Lou had pot  roast. She finished before I did, a first in recent times. The tooth must be getting better.

Our experience thus far with Mexico's dental services is that they are at least as good as in the US, possibly better and much better priced.