PSQUARED: Lots Of Moving Pieces

We learned mid last week that we were not going to be allowed to ship our van with the belongings inside to Ecuador as they had not opened that aspect of their borders as yet. That left us with a lot to do.

The shipping agent we contacted for shipping our belongings recommended we use Houston as opposed to LA and also told us not to use a Mexican port so we plotted a course for the Texas border and chose Brownsville.

We also had the little task of selling the van, and there have been modifications made that make it more of an overlanding rig than a cargo van. We decided to list it for sale on the Pan-American Travelers Facebook page and in less than a day we had three interested parties. The next morning we had a "I'll take it." so we arranged the pickup in the Dallas area and began looking at flights.

I was able to find flights on the 24th of June which gave us time to get stuff done like packing and detailing all of our belongings into tubs and dropping them off at a warehouse in Houston where they will wait until about July the to begin their journey south to allow us time to get our visas done so our stuff can be legally imported.

The trip up was simple and other than a little confusion at the border and a long wait on the US side it went well. We had three Federale stops on day one which ranged from curiosity to the photo being taken which is their way of saying keep moving north.

The next day was longer than expected because the beach town we intended to stop at had closed beaches and was otherwise not worth a visit so we kept moving to Ciudad Victoria. We chose a better hotel so we could be guaranteed the rest we needed after a 12 plus hour drive and the Best Western Santorin more than fit the bill.

In the morning we had only three hours to the border so we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast before heading out. We hit the border and were looking for the Aduana building which has green and red stripes and there were 4 or 5 such structures and no actual signage. You might ask why we needed it and the answer is to cancel our Temporary Import Permit which meant a $4000 deposit refund and also being stamped out of Mexico.

We finished that process and landed in a nearly 2 hour line to enter the US. There was lots of border workers, but one line to go through except the rapid line for people with a special pass.

We crossed back without issue and headed to Corpus Christi for the night after dinner at the Executive Surf Club where not many face masks were in use.

We headed in the morning to Houston to get to packing and after some shopping - new laptops since ours were both on their last legs and many storage totes for our stuff. Once we had the totes we headed to a little park nearby in search of a shade tree. We found such a spot, backed in and emptied the van in the shade behind the van. To say we got some scared looks during the next 5 hours in 90 degree heat would be an understatement. I would have expected at least one visit from the police.

Once we ran out of totes - yes not out of stuff, just totes - we headed to a hotel - with a beer and wine stop on the way - and showered, ordered food in and began typing the lists into one of the new laptops. The pizza was quite good and the beer was exceptional. The typing was long and trying, but we finished everything we had packed.

We decided early the next day while packing stuff to stay another night in the same hotel and just after noon we headed to the warehouse with the van full of totes and stuff to be dropped off. We arrived at one and at 1:45 we were heading back - leaving behind two pallets of stuff - 27 totes of separate items.

We earned a glass of wine and found a Max Wine Dive for some Mac n Cheese, brussell sprouts and Montepulciano Abruzzo. It was perfect.

The next morning we were off early for San Antonio to get our pre-flight covid tests done and quickly found that the places listed online were either booked out for weeks or only served Texas residents. After hours of trying we gave up deciding to give in to a 14 day quarantine on entry to Ecuador - something we really wanted to avoid.

We walked the River Walk in San Antonio - enough that we forgot where we parked - and then headed to a hotel for the night. We had posted about our misfortune with the covid tests then went to bed.

I woke up to a note from Jackie saying that her friend in San Antonio had found some places near San Antonio that were doing pop-up testing this morning so we picked the one starting at 8 and running until four and made our way there. We arrived at ten of 8 and were driving away tested before 11. There's nothing like a successful crowd sourcing effort! We may not have the results until we arrive in Ecuador, but we will have them at least.

Now we are in Austin where we hit a store for some Birkenstocks and then had a tasty beer and a salad for lunch. Pam is in the pool and I am keeping you up to date. We drop the van in Dallas on Tuesday and need to be at the airport on Wednesday at 3 AM for a 7 AM flight.