Hi David, Nice to hear that you are still around!
> > and given that I live right next to USA-Mexico border and given > > my ability to cross this border freely back and forth without being > > subject to any Covidian cult rituals, > > So you live in Eden! Well, the USA side of the border does not feel very Eden-like, given that T-Mobile USA are not only itching to shut down their GSM network, but have already made it impossible for any new subscribers (or anyone who lost their SIM card and needs a replacement) to get unhobbled SIMs that are compatible with classic phones, turning the 4 legacy SIMs on my family plan into precious and irreplaceable relics. However, I did feel a little more Eden-like when I was in Tijuana, especially when one of my medical tourism coordinator people brought me that Telcel prepaid SIM I asked them for, and it says right there on the paper package: "Compatible con GSM, 3G y 4G". (English translation, should be obvious even without knowing Spanish: "Compatible with GSM, 3G and 4G".) So they *officially* support GSM even for new people, even for visiting medical tourists who are buying a prepaid SIM at a kiosk - and sure enough, this prepaid SIM worked just fine in my Pirelli phone while I was chilling at the medical recovery guesthouse after my surgery. > I'm wondering if this can be done even without a passport :-) Ahmm, they do check passports at the border crossing, but only plain old-fashioned passports are needed, NOT the vaccine kind! More specifically, crossing the border from Mexico into USA requires either an American passport or a permanent resident card; I have the latter, while my American-born family members have the former. Astonishingly though, crossing by land from USA into Mexico in your own car does not involve any document checks at all: you literally drive through the border crossing without being stopped by any officials! You do have to drive slowly through the crossing, there are cameras that will take pictures of your car and all people inside, and they do have the power to stop and inspect/question you if they feel reason for suspicion - but as long as you don't look or do anything suspicious and as long as you don't trigger a match in whatever suspect database their cameras must be checking, the vast majority of the time you don't get stopped at all, just drive right through. I would venture a guess that Mexico might be the only country in the world, or one of very few, that allows such free entry. Now if you would like to visit Mexico but you don't live in USA, if you live in Europe/UK/etc instead, then you would need to fly in by plane, and you would need a regular national passport from your home country - but even then the entry requirements into Mexico are super-easy! As I understand it, they allow visa-free entry for almost everyone, and to the best of my knowledge, they never imposed any vaccine or testing or quarantine requirements - in marked contrast with Thailand! Mexico's liberal stance on letting people enter their country for tourist or social visits gives me an idea: if anyone in our FreeCalypso community would like an in-person get-together, Mexico would probably be an ideal place to do it. I could host our get-together in Tijuana, or perhaps our friends over at Rhizomatica could host one in their area. Even if you live in one of the nastier countries where the local Covidian regime is pretty bad, surely you can fly OUT of your country for a little vacation trip to Mexico, can't you? El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido! Hastla la Victoria, Siempre, Mychaela aka The Mother _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community
