Nuevo Laredo For Glasses

We took the foot bridge across the Rio Grande this morning for new eyeglasses. We were looking for Optica Devlin where we bought our last pair in Juarez  in April of 08. A guy on the street asked if we needed help finding anything so we asked about Optica Devlin. He said there was none but he knew of a good one. He lead us to Optica Omega on a side street. It looked nice and they had a sale on so we went in. We both got our eyes tested and prescriptions written and Norma ordered two pair of progressives for $90 and $120 USA. I ordered one pair of progressive, transition glasses for $160 USA. They told us they would be ready in two hours. We went for breakfast and returned at the appointed time but they were not ready.  They asked for another hour. We walked around and came back but still no glasses. It took another hour. I wish they would have told us four hours right from the start. but then if they did we may have gone elsewhere.

While we were sitting outside the shop waiting I noticed a dentist office next door and went in to ask for a cleaning. They sat me right down and the dentist gave me a good cleaning for $30 USA. Good deal.

When we got back to the State Park we went in to ask for another night and told the ranger the story about having to wait four hours for glasses. He said it was because no tourists are going there any more and the labs have had to lay off most of their workers. When we thought about it, he was right! The whole day we did not see any non Mexican other than ourselves. It never occurred to us as we are so used to it but he was right. The American scare tactics are working. No tourists are going to Mexico border towns at all, if Neuvo Laredo is any indication.

We wandered around town all day and never had a problem. At one point we were having a coffee in the Centro and three Policia Tourista’s came over and talked to us for some time. They asked about our time in Mexico and where we were from. They were being followed by a TV cameraman who filmed the whole exchange. When they were about to leave the cameraman said something to the policia in Spanish and they asked if we would pose with them. Norma got on one of their scooters and I and one of the Policia stood beside her while he filmed. We are now Mexican TV stars! The Policia Tourista’s told us to tell our friends about them and the fact that they all spoke English and that they were there to help tourists. They were all very nice.

Anyway, we bought some duty free booze and headed back across the bridge. The USA collected $1.25 duty per bottle and we were back on USA soil. Nothing bad happened. Again. It is another beautiful day!