Warning about Baja Travel

[Jimmyz123]

My family and I went on a 4 day trip to San Felipe Baja California on Sat. the 14th and got home yesterday. The trip was going well until we had to stop at the Puesta De Control about 20 minutes North of San Felipe.

We got out of the SUV as normal to be inspected and what normally is a 5 minute stop usually turned out to be a 1 1/2 hour mess. As we were pulling away my wife checks the bag that had her medications and our Passports and money, or some of our money. $300 was missing from the bag however our passports were still in place and all other items were still there. I turned around before I could even get out of the inspection place and confronted the guards. Me not being able to speak spanish was problem number 1, Finally I found someone who spoke english and spanish and explained what happened. They smiled at me and talked back and forth pulled a couple of guys to the side and had them strip down. 90 minutes had passed from the time I was able to tell them what happened to the time they had the guards strip down to find no money on them. One guard was acting like a jerk for what they had to do. 90 minutes was plenty of time for the guard to pass the money off or go hide it somewhere.

I have been traveling South of the border for 10 years now and have never had anything go wrong, and have never had any problems with the police, military, people or anything until now. I have defended traveling to San Felipe to 100s of people who tell me I'm crazy for going down there. I still like the area, I love the fishing, and my family always has a great time down there. I'll go back but I have learned that one should keep their money either on them, or at least when being inspected keep it on you. Also, learn the language so that you know how to communicate.

Be careful and always travel with insurance South of the Border.