When Captain Heinous invited me to his bachelor party in Cabo San Lucas I knew there would be nothing to stop me from attending, however I soon I became victim to the changing passport regulations on both sides of the border.
Some background on the new passport regulations:
This year I let my passport expire and being the libertarian that I am I wasn't too excited to get a new one since they have RFID chips in them. It used to be that you could travel around Mexico with a driver's license but the U.S. now requires that you have a valid passport. Mexico also requires you to get a Tourist Card ($30) and you can't get one of those without a passport now. Before September 30 of this year you could show that your passport paperwork was in progress and they'd let you get on a plane but the Cabo trip was going to be thirteen days past that deadline. I could have also paid someone $300+ to expedite my passport but I am far too cheap for that.
So here's what I did, I had heard that the requirements to walk across the border had not changed yet, meaning that to get into Tijuana I probably wouldn't have to show any I.D. and to get back into the U.S. I had to show my driver's licence and expired passport (this proved to be true). I also learned that I could get a Tourist Visa with a driver's liscence, an expired passport and possibly a voter registration card. I was in luck, I had my voter registration card (but that proved to be worthless). I also found an airline, Volaris, which would pick me up at the San Diego Train Depot and drive me to the Tijuana Airport for $15. This was a deal. So I flew dow to San Diego early, hopped on the shuttle bus and I was at the TJ airport in about 30 minutes. At the border a Mexican customs agent hopped aboard the bus and went through my bag but didn't ask me for any ID. I didn't have any problems at the Tijuana Airport either. The ticket desk didn't ask for any ID and I didn't go through customs so I decided to see if I could do the whole trip without getting a tourist card. My flight down to Cabo was great. The airplanes were brand new, the plane was almost empty and they gave free tequila shots.
Cabo: Calamity ensued.
Flight Back: On the way back, there was no customs desk at the Cabo airport. I nearly missed my flight because I was talking with Laurent and wasn't paying attention to the time. Got back to TJ without a hitch but when I was exiting the airport I went through a door and there for the first time in Mexico someone asked to see my ID. This struck me as strange but I gave him my driver's licence. He asked for my passport. I gave him my expired one. He looked through it and asked where my tourist visa was. I said I was never issued one. He said when you travel to the airport you need a tourist visa and then pointed me to the exit. That was it! Took the shuttle back. No problems at the US border. When we got to the train depot the shuttle driver said he'd drive me to San Diego Airport for $10, so did that too.
