To live and drive and, Ole'!

Welcome

Driving in Mexico is different. Here are some thoughts and observations.

People will say that the most important thing about driving in Mexico is, never do it. It can be a confusing challenge but it has it's rewards.

A long row to hoe

Passing signals. The truck or car ahead of you is driving slowly and you want to pass. He turns on his left turn signal and you think, ah good he's going turn up here. No, this common understanding does not apply here.  In Mexico he is signaling that in his opinion it is now safe to pass. He is probably trying to be courteous and help you to arrive at your destination sooner, but he could be in a homicidal mood or simply have poor driving skills or be drunk. There is also a small but real possibility that he could be  turning left.  This "rule" does not apply in cities.

Do not drive at night. Really, don't. Aside from all the normal hazards, add stray animals, unmarked construction sites, roads that drop or rise a foot or two for no reason you can see in the dark and bandits. Yes, bandits or more romantically "highwaymen". They are active in many areas but Sinaloa province is especially bad. They may have official looking roadblocks and may be in uniform, borrowed, stolen or just putting in an extra shift. All in all it is not worth it to drive at night.

San Cristobal herb market at closing

Road or rollover. Most Mexican roads do not have shoulders. Avoid the urge to turn onto the shoulder if you have a flat tire or some other malfunction. You will end up in the ditch or worse. The road edge ends abruptly and the off road topography is the same 1 foot or one hundred feet from the road.

Topes. These are speed bumps Mexican style. They range from a normal speed bump you may have encountered in any city north of the border to something so vertiginous that you will certainly bottom out at more than stop and proceed speed. The "tope" marks the entrance and exit to every place attempting to imitate a town. The "tope" is hard to see. They are built by locals and are arbitrary in their placement except for the fact that they are usually built in the shade. If you were spending the day building a tope you would want to work in the shade as well. Unfortunately on a scalding sun drenched highway the tope is perfectly camoflaged by the cooling shade that the long departed workers once enjoyed. Of advantage to the community a tope forces a near stop of traffic and therefore it is a good place to sell your fruit, hammock, tacos, whatever. You will  find a tire and rim repair shop on either side of the tope.

Despite these issues with a modicum of local knowledge (check with locals re mountain passes etc.)

you will have the pure enjoyment of visiting small places where the bus won't stop and you will drive through some incredible scenery. The road over the pass from San Cristobal to Palenque passes through a valley that throws at you a colour of green that shouldn't exist. It is carved with waterfalls, rivers and villages from another time. John D. MacDonald said something like "Mexicana Airlines doesn't fly airplanes it flies time machines. "

San Cristobal morning

any small town

Palenque

Now this is where it gets interesting

I have spent the last while in the mountains of Chiapas. In 1995 the Zapatistas held a revolution here. They managed to take over Ocosingo and to a lesser extent San Cristobal.  They are still very powerful in the region and they run cooperatives and schools and yes tourist shops. In fact in Chiapas they refer to the phenomena of western visitors to the region as "Zapatourismo".  The Zapatistas are very media savvy and have done well to keep the innocents out of harms way.  

Mexican history Zapatista episode. In 1995 when the Zapatistas blocked the road to Palenque (A famous  ruin) a swiss passenger on a bus tour got very upset and started berating these balaclava wearing machine gun toting guerilla fighters saying that he had paid a lot of money and had come a long way to see the ruin at Palenque and must get through.  According to the story an armed insurgent went up to the man and in perfect English said "we understand your concerns but ...this is a revolution".