Back in the US, back in the US, back in the US of A.....

Well, we hit the border yesterday without incident, and passed through without any drama or even an inspection.  It was even completely obvious where to go to turn in our Mexican Tourist Cards and Temporary Car Importation Certificate (both of which are necessary to drive in Mexico).  This was quite the contrast with our entry into Mexico, which involved two separate searches for the correct offices.

Also, I don't know about you, but I naturally assume that although things will be fine in the end, crossing borders will be a hassle.  I was fully prepared for there to be a long line-up, and then to have US customs to ask us lots of questions, pull us aside and inspect the food items that we were bringing across, and perhaps even search our car on general principles.  Not, you understand, because we had anything to hide.  We'd even regretfully dumped the chipil seeds we'd bought in the Villa Etla market so that we could grow this uniquely Oaxacan herb ourselves at home.   (We realized after purchasing them that seeds are a prohibited plant material.  And although it was hard to imagine what harm those seeds could do in Vancouver given that any bug adapted to Oaxacan near-desert conditions would struggle to survive a single wet, cold, and rainy Vancouver winter,  what do I know?  IANAPB or entomologist.  (IANAPB = I Am Not a Plant Biologist, of course)).

But as it turns out, everything went very smoothly.  We'd planned to spend the night at Las Cruces, New Mexico, only about 45 minutes past the border.  We got there about 2pm, even after stopping in El Paso for lunch.

La Cruces is one of the many formerly Mexican towns that pre-dates the American annexation of this part  of the world.  We spent the remainder of the afternoon in the historic La Mesilla town centre eating ice cream, visiting shops, and, ironically, learning more about the carpets that we bought in Teotitlan del Valle (near Oaxaca).  The woman who runs one of the shops in La Mesilla imports large quantities of Zapotec carpets and is quite knowledgeable about them.  Unfortunately, she put the idea into my head that at least one of the carpets that we bought is an investment piece, and that we might want to consider framing what I'd imagined would be a mat for our back door....I will try to resist.  Aren't beautiful useful objects meant to be used?