Greetings from Nuevo Progresso, Mexico

Bernie and I decided to spend a couple of days in Nuevo Progresso Mexico last week and had a great time.  We Love It There.

Approaching the Border

As you approach the border they make it really clear they don’t want guns coming into the country. It seemed funny to be seeing this huge sign at the border when we hear so much about the violence down there right now. When I thought about it, it’s the same as we are in Canada, no guns allowed. The problem is the “bad guys” don’t worry about the signs. Hmmm?? Maybe the Texans have it right.

We parked the car and walked over, the same as we have many times except this time I remembered the camera. Bernie just rolls her eyes and groans when I do that.

This is a shot from up on the bridge, you can see the Rio Grande River and if you look to the back of the picture (right/American side) you’ll see a bit of that famous Border fence. In this area the fence is built on top of a high earthen, dike like, support structure so it appears much higher than it is. I haven’t measured it but it looks like about 15’ of steel on top about of 15’ of earth. It’s pretty intimidating. I found a spot I could drive on top of the dike, because the fence isn't up yet, and did so for 4 or 5 miles. It was a hoot, the Border patrol 4X4s are everywhere and we’re bouncing along in the Smart Car. They left us alone, they know we couldn’t be smuggling anybody our Smarty, OR MAYBE, they wanted nothing to do with anybody dumb enough to drive a Smart car up there.

A couple of years ago we were exploring down under the international bridge leading to Reynosa with our van. I was just having some fun but admit I was scaring my poor wife. It was interesting because the bridge goes on for two or three miles, and under it there are farms, before you get to the river/border. It’s all very low land and I suspect it’s a hot spot for illegal’s. All of a sudden, from nowhere, I had a Border patrol 4x4 on our tail. He just drove there about 4’ off our back bumper on a dirt road. I didn’t know what to do, although I had a pretty good idea what he was doing on his radio. So I kept my speed, made a quick left and kept going, dust flying everywhere, 2 or 3 miles to the Border Patrol parking lot. He followed us right onto the lot but when we parked, to go to the duty free store, he kept going. (I think he had to get a wash) Our hearts were beating pretty well by then. Note to self, stay away from under the Reynosa Bridge. 

Sorry I got off topic, back to Progresso.

This shot is from the bridge, the Boundary is in the middle of the river.

Welcome to Mexico.

They like Winter Texans here.

Looking North on the Main Street in Progresso.

Looking South.

The pictures don’t do it justice but try to count the dentist and pharmacy signs in these pictures. There has to be at least a hundred, probably more, dental offices in this small section of town. Add a similar number of pharmacies and you know how this town exists. The number of Canadians and Americans that come here for dental work and prescriptions is mind blowing. You sit in the dentist’s office and talk to people from all over the continent. I was chatting with a lady from Illinois who wants “to be a Canadian in her next life.” It was fun.

The food court of the dentists mall.  In the back you see the bar and in the front (empty tables) the only food normally being sold is candied pecans.  The bar is cheap and the pecans are delicious.

You can’t blame people for coming down here for dental work. The Mexican dental prices run at about 1/3 (sometimes less) of the up North numbers. The people are certified, many are trained in the U.S., and they are very skilled. We have talked to folks who fly down, stay in a hotel, rent a car, and walk over to their dentist.  They still save tons of money. Prescription pharmaceuticals run at ½ or less and they’re the same brands you buy at home.

Also from those pictures note the absence of police and military. In the five years we’ve been coming here the Mexican army has always had a huge machine gun placed right in the middle of the street, at the bridge end, along with a number of machine gun equipped soldiers standing guard. They’re all gone. We were told they have posted them S. of town to make snow birds feel safer. I kind of liked having them there but we feel safe either way.

So we did our shopping, had lunch at our favourite restaurant, The Red Snapper, and headed home. We’ll be back tomorrow, and again and again.

It's so nice to cross this border.  The Mexicans ignore you on the way in.  On the way out the Americans just ask a couple of basic questions while they scan your passport and it's done.  Its seems so strange becuase of what we go through both ways at the Canadian border.


As a side note I read yesterday that the country wide murder rate in Mexico is lower than Washington, D.C., Chicago, and many other places in Canada and the U.S. It’s all about drugs. If the gangs weren’t fighting each other for control of drugs Mexico would be among the safest places on earth. 1.6 Million Canadians will visit there this winter, for the warmth of both the sun and the people.  These two Canadians sure enjoy it.

So our two days in Progresso ended and we were happy.  We'll be back once or twice before we go, keep those Margaritas chilled.

We have our heat back. Some days are getting back into the 80’s and the air conditioners are running quite a bit. We’ve put away the heaters :-)  :-)  :-)  OHHHH Ya. Time to go to the pool and start thinking North, it’s getting tooooo hot.......  Appologies to anyone reading this from up North.  I just had to throw that in.

It's time to go for today.  Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie