Exiting Mexico was time-consuming but civilized. Entering Guatemala was chaos. It’s not like we didn’t know it would be more nutso on the other side of the border but it happens so fast it’s quite a shock!

Our newly minted truck title isn’t quite a miracle worker because the title is not in my married name so I need the marriage certificate to go along with it. The Guatemalan auto import tax guy needed a lot of convincing to believe this was a normal thing in the US to change names after marriage. I even had my old drivers license and my new one and he tried to say I didn’t look like my old one. For goodness sake. I really hope it’s not that stressful at every border crossing from here on out.
The nice thing is that Ted was hanging his big yellow dog head out of the back window of the truck the whole time and no one asked a single thing about him. Not the guy who went to inspect the truck, not the Customs guy at the end. So much for all that fancy paperwork from the Mexican vet….and really glad we didn’t bother trying to get that paperwork stamped at a Guatemalan Consulate like the official rules state. This marks 2 countries we’ve entered without being asked to show a single piece of paper regarding our giant yellow fur-baby. That’s one trend I hope continues!

We stayed the night in Huehuetenago, a 2 hour drive from the border. There’s a great, clean, pet-friendly hotel there called Hotel Premier on the outskirts of the city with secure parking, restaurant, and cable TV!
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