Mexican Advice

My new friends Leo and Betty invited dad and I out to their house today to talk about travelling in Mexico on the motorbike. Not only do they have an amazing house, he has a gorgeous Harley DAvidson, nifty trailer, and a motorhome and trailer to carry them and two quads. They travel down to Arizona, leave the kit, and jump on the bike with the small trailer. He suggested I take a border crossing at Sanoyta, as he likened it to driving through downtown Stettler. My dad thinks I will ignore this advice and go through the borders he said to avoid. We had a wonderful conversation, and it jumpstarted my brain to think of a few things to take care of. They gave me a phone number of 'Mexico Bob' Acosta, from San Xavier Mexico Insurance at 1-888-327-1255. They have an office in Tucson, which is nice to know. They went through Cathy at RBC here in Stettler for travel insurance.
I'm just going to ramble through some of the precautions, and things to think about:

* Don't drink the water except in bottles
* Make sure you've got your shots and malaria pills
* Green Angels travel the Toll roads and will help you if your car breaks down. All you pay is for parts!
* Don't drive at night
* Make sure you deal with insurance companies that are trusted
* Have photocopies of registration, ownership, insurance, passport and driving license
* Take a 1 litre gas can - turns out the gas is in fine shape down there since the government got involved
* Make sure you have a can of the tire repair - you shouldn't even need a spare tire, but I'll bring one anyways.
* Take an anti-histamine with you. Betty told me about how she got bit three times while they were going 100 km/ hr!

Overall, it was very generous of them to spend the time with us. I think it put my mom and dad's mind at ease a bit to know that the Mexicans are some of the friendliest, and helpful on earth.