Hello folks,
She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have traveled in both Canada and Mexico during the last year. Our crossing into Mexico, including the preparatory paperwork took over half a day but this included the papers for a motorhome and a toad to be driven throughout Mexico. There are extensive requirements regarding the vehicles. Similarly, paperwork for traveling beyond the border region is very different from that needed for short excursions into the country. When a traveler hits the military checkpoints located about fifty miles south of the border, they discover what an inspection of papers means. FWIW, we were inspected about 25 times in our two months in Mexico, some were cursory, some detailed. Returning to the states also took several hours at the border. Most of this time was getting clearance for the vehicles, but some involved getting through a truckers' blockade. We were passed through U.S. border quickly. All-in-all we enjoyed the trip but there were some tense times, too, but that's another post.
More to the point, our crossing into Canada would have been a piece of cake except for the lack of agents to handle the flow. The Alberta entrance we used had about ten gates but only two were staffed, one for trucks which flowed well and one for noncommercial, so it took about two hours to get to the gate and maybe ten minutes to be cleared. Yes, we had passports and that speeded that process. We returned to the U.S. via a less traveled route, had no wait, and were cleared in minutes. Again, an enjoyable trip and no internal Canadian inspections, but we obeyed the laws of the country.
Safe travels to all
JT