Blog 7: The Dentist Capital of the World - Algodones, Baja, Mexico

March 20-25, 2019

My brother. Michael, needed a bridge replacement or dental impants and heard about getting it done in Algodones, Mexico for a much lower price than in the states. He did research on the internet and decided to get a consultation from Dental Solutions.

He had an appointment scheduled for Thursday morning, so we located at the nearby River's Edge RV Resort located along the bank of the Colorado River in Winterhaven, California on Wednesday afternoon. We drove 240 miles from our last campsite in Gilbert Ray Campground near Saguaro National Park West. This was the longest we had driven for a day between our next camping destination so far. The vastness of the desert in Arizona seemed infinite.

I was very impressed with the River's Edge RV Park. It has almost 500 full hookup sites, restrooms, showers, three laundries, restrooms, a library, a game room with pool tables, foosball, and card tables, a large swimming pool with two spas, shuffleboards, horseshoe pits, and a pickleball court for amenities. The park has three quarters of a mile of beauriful frontage on the Colorado River. There are many tall trees providing shade for all the RV spots and plenty of trees lining the river. Along the river there are picnic tables and fire pits with free wood available, grills and chairs with plenty of shade. There is something to do every day on the event calendar like yoga, pool aerobics, games of many kinds like poker tournaments, cribbage and dominoes. I played in a fourteen player poker tournament that was very fun and competitive, with only a four dollar entry.

Algodones, also known as Molar City, is geographically the northern most place in Mexico, located in the state of Baja California. There are spots here that if you go any direction you will end up in either Arizona or California. The town originally was a tourist destination for shopping and restaurants, but now it attracts visitors mainly for cheaper pharmaceuticals, eye, dental and health care. There are more dentists here per capita than any other city in the world.

My brother originally was hoping to get dental implants that would allow him to bite with his front teeth. A bridge would be mostly cosmetic on the other hand. They did a CT scan of his jaw and the dentist recommended a bridge that encompassed 6 of his upper front teeth because the bone structure would make his front teeth protrude too much with implants. The cost total was $2748. The price in the US would have been between 7500 and 10,000.

His appointment was at 11 am Thursday and he left with his temporary bridge at 3:30. He needed to return on Monday to have the permanent bridge installed.

While his procedure was being done, my sister and I walked around the city and ate lunch and had margaritas at El Paraiso.
Beautiful hand woven tortilla basket on our table.

A good place to eat and shop at the same time as someone stopped by your table about every five minutes offering something for sale. Some of the items they peddled were cigars, jewelry, hats, kitchy decorations, and clothes. You name it and someone was trying to sell it to you. One of the things I love about Mexico is the convenient shopping. While we were sitting in the waiting room a lady walked in selling broccoli. Another lady had a prime street corner location on the sidewalk selling only asparagus. We bought three nice sized bunches for 70 pesos or about $4.

After my brother was done with his dental appointment we headed toward the parking lot. We figured there would be a line at customs, but what we encountered was at least 100 yards in length, way longer than we imagined. We decided it was best to relax and have a few drinks and eat some Mexican food while we waited for the line to shorten. We had Bohemias and margaritas with some appetizers at Pueblo Viejo on a sidewalk table where we could watch the progress of the line leaving Mexico. When we were done eating and drinking the line was decreased by about half and it still took us about a half hour in line to exit Mexico.

Tyranny: Barbed razor wire on top of border fence.

We stayed in the RV park until Monday when my brother's last appointmet would be, so we had the weekend to explore the Yuma area.

Opuntia Erinacea, the Mojave or grizzlybear prickly pear.

On Friday we took a drive to Picacho State Recreation Area, located north of Yuma, requiring a long moderately rough, curvy dirt and gravel road for 18 miles. We ended up on the Colorado River and saw some nice panoramic views and colorful desert scenery with spring wild flowers along the way.

Coulter's globemallow

There are some campgrounds, but I would not stay here because of the ridiculous camping and entry fees California charges for its state parks. Traveling in California has some negatives that makes me avoid traveling there, high gasoline prices, high fees for its parks and way too many rules and regulations. Socialist California, although it's natural beauty can be some of the best in the world, can be too expensive for the nomad frugal traveler unless you plan carefully. Frugal travel is possible, but you must be patient when searching for places outside of their state park system and for less expensive regional and county parks you should stay away from the more populated areas of the state.

I played in a Texas holdem poker tournament at the RV park on Saturday. The entry was three dollars plus a one dollar that was optional that went into a pot that went to the player with the high hand. We started with two tables of 16 players. At the beginning I was hot, getting very good starting cards and then hitting the flop with top pair, sets, flush and straight draws and making two pair, full houses, straights, and flushes with the turn and river cards. I was in the chip lead at my table most of the time until we consolidated to the final table of 8 players and for the time being even had the high hand with aces full of jacks. Then my cards started getting much weaker and bluffing became much riskier with blinds so high compared to chip stacks that all ins were common starting bets and raises. Unfortunately someone got quad fours to beat my boat for high hand. Then I went out in seventh place when someone went all in and my hole cards were ace, king off suit, so I had to call I of course, figuring I would likely be in a race at that point versus a pair. I was right, he turns over pocket queens and no ace or king comes for me, so I busted out of the tournament.

On Sunday we took a stroll through the West Wetlands Park, along the banks of the Colorado River, across from our RV park in Yuma. The soil along the river here was deep sand, with some beachs for swimming when the weather was warmer. The landscape here, forested with a variety of trees starting to bud and the sound of song birds made the typical sparseness of the surrounding desert seem surreal. This was a great place for seeing wildlife and plants one would not find in the vast Sonoran desert surrounding Yuma.
Ornate Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus)

The Colorado river is also the water supply for vegetable farming, the most important income source for the area. Small local farmers seemed to be non-existent though, as the farmers market in Saturday had only two tables selling produce.

The free market is alive and well in Algodones and not so much in America. Government intervention in health care has caused higher prices in the US and Mexico is giving the same quality dental care for one third the price. Of course do you own due diligence before crossing the border just like you would do when looking for a doctor, optomologist, dentist, or plastic surgeon in the US. My brother is very happy with his dental bridge done by Dental Solutions. Judging by the lines leaving Mexico on both days we were there, many people are now realizing that quality health care is available here at way better prices than in Canada and the US.