Day P6: Mexico Banking Attempt

January 21, 2020

After waking up from an awesome sleep, I walked over to the PedWest crossing and exchanged about $100 worth of cash to pesos. The name of this game would be to follow up on a lead from a friend and try to open a savings account in Mexico. According to his claim and verified online, these pay about 7% interest rates which is significantly higher than the US dollar accounts. Who knows if I'd qualify but it was worth an attempt for sure.

Also, I had booked for a supposedly awesome beach resort in Rosarito. As it turns out, that was a huge mistake. But for now I needed to cross the border into Mexico. It was about a 3km walk to the border and then through the turnstiles. Once through, it felt like a point of no return because we all know those turnstiles only go one way.

In the daytime there wasn't much to fret about. My Spanish was put to the test on getting a ticket to Rosarito from the ABC bus lines. After a little back and forth, it was discovered these buses only take the freeways (toll roads) and I would be dropped off somewhere near a 7/11. I said sure, fine, why not. Well that was a problem. The dropoff point was literally on the side of the highway and it meant an hour walk to the town center of Rosarito.

The bus just dropped me off in the middle of nowhere

The bike was clearly showing its advantage by me not having one. Yes a bicycle may be slower but it's direct and I would have gotten there faster. Nonetheless I found out about these collectivo vans and know exactly where to find them for next trip.

Eventually I was able to the find the resort, and the name is Quinta Pacifica Beachfront Villas. Just so you know, *do not* book them. They are not marked and are located on a sketchy looking side road that veers off from the Chevron gas station. Even on a bicycle they'd be hard to find as Google maps tells you to go on side roads that are walled off.

Once there, a sign said the check in is only from 3pm to 8pm and there was nobody at the gate. The whole place was eerily quiet. There was a side gate that appeared to be locked but I tried opening it and it wasn't locked at all. The lock was disabled actually. Once inside I found the office and the girl said they wanted a credit card to charge for incidental deposits. I explained that the credit card was blocked, and she said "Yes we tried contacting your bank and it was reported stolen." Oh wow!

I then said, "Can you take cash?" She said, "No cash, only credit card." I passed over my Hong Kong card which would be useless for this purpose and she goes, "Where is this bank from?" and I basically said China. She gave me a totally surprised look and then asked, "Does it have money on it?" I said yes. But to no surprise, the card wouldn't charge like a credit card and so I said, "Alright maybe I'll just cancel this whole thing" and was prepared to eat it and go find somewhere else to stay like I should have all along.

Just as I was about to walk off she said, "Ok we can take cash deposit, do you have $400?" I did, but I was afraid that if I parted with all that I wouldn't get it back and so I negotiated down to $200 and she took the deposit. Then I went to check in and later explored around the town. The whole place felt really dead and depressed, even the main tourist center, and not the least of which was this resort where nobody was staying. Still I found a few cool places like the supermarkets selling alcohol for rock bottom prices I couldn't even imagine possible. After stocking up and making a few videos by the beach, I went to bed and slept over 16 hours straight. The sound of the waves actually made this one of the most peaceful sleeps I can remember in ages.

No idea why I booked this honestly. It seemed like a great deal and it was but it was far too spacious for one person and came with a host of problems. In the future as always it is better not to book and just show up to places.

The next day, well the afternoon mainly, I did some more walking around the town and wanted to inquire about opening a savings account. It seemed simple and only a minimum deposit of 500 pesos, but the catch was I needed proof of a Mexican address. The guy was very cool about it, he just said use a friend's address. So I contacted one of my buddies in Tijuana and I knew him from earlier. Unfortunately nothing came of this attempt because for whatever reason he didn't want to see me this trip.

Well that was a bummer, but for next time the best bet is to stay in an Airbnb and talk to the hosts about this.

There was another thing I wanted to do and that was to explore how the vans work from going back and forth from Tijuana and Rosarito. Plus it was an excuse to hit the clubs in Tijuana and well, you know how that goes. You catch the vans anywhere and they drop you off at the terminal which is very near the border crossing and I memorized the location. Coming back, because of that, I just reversed the process. I enjoyed another great night of sleep in the hotel, then did some research on how much alcohol I could bring back to the US.

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