April 2022 trip to Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila - México

I had intended to go to Ciudad Acuña (border town with Del Rio, Texas) next week but due to the incompetency of my doctor's office, they scheduled me for an appointment with another physician even though my appointment card clearly has his name written on it as well as my online health profile.

Friday morning we again had light rain, wind, and overcast skies until the afternoon when the heat and humidity set in. I believe the last time I went to México was in October 2021 when I took Muñeca and Molly to the vet to get fixed.

There is a lot of road work on the way to the main International Bridge. The store below I did not notice until I was editing the pictures that it now has a new name. If you click on it to enlarge it on the bottom left you will see a small white building with a flashing sign that tells you the peso to dollar exchange rate. This is the only Exchange House we have in Del Rio except for some banks but the banks charge much more. The rate today was $20.00 Mexican pesos to purchase one US dollar and $19.00 pesos to sell you one US dollar.

It costs $4.00 to cross into México at the main bridge. It is free if you cross at the Amistad Dam International bridge but that one is out by the lake and does not operate twenty-four hours like this one.

The lines going into México were not that long and it took maybe five minutes at the most.

As I was waiting this van pulling a trailer caught my eye at the self-declaration zone. I do not know if you can see how packed they are. It reaches at least four feet on top of the van and the trailer must be at least ten feet of well-stacked junk.

I ran a lot of errands on the north side of town where I stopped at Aurrera (owned by Walmart) but when I went in they had no carts. I asked an employee and he told me I had to go to the parking lot and track one down...I did not like that answer and told him so.

Anyway, that Aurrera is much too large and I had forgotten my disposable bags in the trunk of my car anyway. México stores no longer provide you with plastic bags you have to bring your own.  I did not have much on my list so decided I would stop at their near downtown store which is smaller.

At this store, the lack of carts was also noticeable. I have finished my Dollar Tree tetra packaged milk stash and need to replenish it but not at $1.25. I came across a six-pack of Lala light milk for only $122.00 pesos (122.00 divided by 20.00 exchange rate) for the dollar equivalent of $6.10 or $1.02 USD each.

Nutri Leche is another brand that I have bought in the past except it is whole milk. Selling for $18.50 or .93 cents.

Salsa Herdez jumped in my buggy at 25.00 pesos or $1.25 USD.

Isadora refried beans were going for $13.90 but I picked Walmart's Great Value at $10 pesos /.50 US cents.

A special offer on Nescafé Decaf with an extra 17% more product at 86.00 pesos / $4.30 USD

I love Jabón Zote but it is difficult to find the white one in Del Rio mostly they sell the pink ones. This bar was larger and at a very affordable $7.50 / .38 USD cents. Zote is a popular bar of laundry detergent.

I also bought bananas but I can't find my receipt. It was under one kilo (2.2 lbs) for about .50 USD cents.    

Usually, on Friday the lines heading to México are long and the ones coming to the USA not so much, or at least that was the case pre-pandemic. 

I had a 40-minute wait but I had a very nice officer greet me with a big smile which again is not always the case...he made my afternoon :-)

The picture quality of tonight's blog is atrocious. I used my Tracfone instead of my Metro by T-Mobile as I just do not see myself buying an expensive phone and paying over a thousand dollars...I would rather buy a large TV which are rather reasonable these days and with my diminishing eyesight a better buy.

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Terlingua Dreams