After our adventures in New Mexico, we loaded up and headed for Mexico on January 5th. The first day we drove South on I-25 to a border crossing called Santa Teresa. It is a much smaller crossing than Laredo (where we would actually be crossing the border) so we decided to stop and get all of our paperwork out of the way. It went pretty smoothly until we were about to leave we luckily noticed that Steve had given them the wrong vehicle title and had accidentally imported one of his motorcycles instead of the truck. It was very fortunate that we noticed this quickly. If we had not noticed and crossed the border a couple days later with the paperwork like that, who knows what would have happened. We got it fixed and got back on the road. We stayed the night in Fort Stockton, Texas and were on the road early the next morning. After another uneventful day of driving and we made it to Laredo, Texas where we would cross the border the next morning.
We woke up very early and were on the road by 6:15. There was no traffic at this usually busy border crossing and we were through before it even got light. The GPS was spot on the entire way, so not much navigation was necessary. We made it to Santiago de Queretaro that day with a beautiful drive through several mountainous areas. We stayed in a new hotel on the East side of Queretaro and had an excellent Argentinian style multi-course meal at the restaurant next door. We were up very early the next morning and back on the road before the morning rush. Another uneventful day of driving, although the roads were pretty bad in some portions of this route. We were driving on Cuotas most of the way, which are Mexican toll roads. They can be pretty pricey so there was never much traffic on them. We were driving the truck and towing the Tracker, so the fees were quite expensive. The fees were never the same, but most of the time they ended up charging us the regular car fee for the Tracker. The truck, being a dually (dual rear wheels), was another story. Most of the time they charged us more than double the car fee even though we were not hauling any cargo. The truck bed was almost completely empty. It ended costing around $350 USD for all the toll fees by the time we got to Tulum. A note for anyone wanting to do this drive. If you take just a regular car, expect to pay $100-$150 in tolls each way.
We passed North of Mexico city, and never got less than 60 miles or so from it, but we could tell we were close. The smog was horrible. Even that far away, it burned our throats and eyes, and it was very visible. Yuck. I can't see how or why people live in that, but there are over 20 million in that particular area. We also passed by Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico at around 19,000 feet. We forgot to take pictures, but it was pretty spectacular with it being the only mountain in the area. Shortly after Orizaba, we began our descent down from the high areas in central Mexico. Mexico City is at around 7,500 feet, so it was a long way down into the rain forests of the Yucatan.
Our stop that night was supposed to be in Villahermosa. Less than an hour outside of Villahermosa, Steve said, "Something is wrong, pull over." He ended up getting a pretty bad case of "turista", and we had to pull over a couple more times before reaching our hotel. By the time we got into Villahermosa, it was already dark and rush hour was in full effect. We crept through the outskirts with Steve trying to "hold it in" the whole time. We drove through all of Villahermosa without seeing a hotel that we could get the truck into. Once we realized we were out of the city and back into the country, it was past 8 and we were all exhausted. Over the next rise, like a shining beacon of hope when all seemed lost, we saw a hotel on the other side of the road. We took the next retorno and got two rooms. It ended up being a Hilton, and one of the most expensive hotels I have ever had the pleasure of staying in. We ate room service and got Steve everything we could to try to speed up his recovery. We wracked our brains as to how he got sick (since we had all eaten the same food), but finally decided it was because he had accidentally used the tap to brush his teeth the night before. DO NOT drink tap water in Mexico. Do not even get it in your mouth. That night, we went to bed worried that our journey would be held up indefinitely when we were so close to our objective. The next morning Steve was still sick, but much better than the night before. We decided to push on and let him sleep in the back seat of the truck and try to recover.
The GPS was telling us we would not arrive until after 7:30 that night, so we had another long day ahead of us. We had been getting better and better at driving in Mexico over the previous two days, but on this day Whit and I really honed our Mexican driving skills. "When in Mexico, drive as the Mexican do" became the thing we said when we did something we would NEVER even consider doing while behind the wheel in the US. We said it a lot that day. Mexican roads and driving styles are very different that in the US. Sure, we drive on the same sides of the road, there are stop lights and stop signs, and the speed limits are roughly the same (although in Kilometers vs miles), but that is pretty much where the similarities end. There are hardly any divided, multi-lane highways in Mexico. Most roads are two or four lane and undivided. There is a LOT of truck traffic in Mexico, and most of the trucks are so old or overloaded, they can barely do 55 mph, while others can do just under light speed. Cars, on the other hand, all come with warp drive and seldom do less than warp 9.5.
Blinkers are only used for passing in Mexico, never for turning. Some cars continually leave their left blinker on to let everyone know that they are going to pass you, no matter how fast you are going. We regularly did 112 (70 mph) in a 90 kph zone and would get passed by cars like we were standing still. That means that they were regularly doing 50% or more over the posted speed limit. We only saw these people get pulled over for speeding. The people like us that were only doing 20-30% over the speed limit never get pulled over. Also, the speed limit can change 4 times or more in less than a mile. We are still unsure of what the purpose of this is. It will go from 100 kph down to 60 when you pass a bus stop or small town, but people rarely slow down so we think it more of a notice for people to be cautious of pedestrians and other things in the road while passing through. Other times, the speed limit will go from 100 to 90, then to 80, back to 90, back to 80, then back to 100, all in a span of a couple of minutes. It makes no sense whatsoever and we never saw anyone changing speed while going through these areas, so we learned to disregard them. Another note on blinker use. Using your left blinker does not just let the people ahead of you know that you are passing, it lets oncoming traffic know that you are passing in THEIR lane. When they see you coming straight at them at 110 kph or more (on a two lane road with another car next to you that you are currently passing), but with your blinker on, they will promptly get on the shoulder and let you by while still maintaining warp 9.5 and texting their girlfriend.
It is amazing, but we never saw an accident while on the way down. We equate driving down here to driving in a go-kart race. If you treat it as such, everything will be fine. Whatever you do, do not drive like an American. You get in everyone's way and make the race much less fun. We used all of these new found tricks on our last day and literally hauled ass. We followed one of the light speed trucks (a full sized 18 wheeler) as much as we could because he was bigger than us and was passing everything on the road. It took him about as long to pass someone as it did for us, which is why we stuck with him. We never had a chance of keeping up with a car, they were just too damn fast. The truck eventually won the race and lost us, but he had helped us make great time. We ended up arriving before 5, a full three hours earlier than what the GPS had calculated. It obviously did not have "driving like a Mexican" as part of it's route calculation formulas.
Upon arrival we hastily unpacked, went to the store for some provisions, ate dinner, and all went to bed after another exhausting day. We picked Tommie up at the airport the next day and commenced our vacation. The details of the vacation so far will have to wait til next time, so until then, stay warm and take it easy. Below are a few pictures of where we are spending the winter.
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