Obstacle Course

Driving in Mexico is an interesting event. I just finished driving from Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico to Aquismon, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  The whole thing took me 12 hours yesterday and 15 hours today. It should be slightly less next time since I wasn't familiar with this new route from Poza Rica to Aquismon by going through the mountains. The tolls add up to about $600.00 pesos or about $50.00 USD with the current exchange rate and the gas was about $1400.00 pesos or about $125.00 USD.   

One of the notable things about driving in Mexico is the obvious lack of standardization. This seems to wreak havoc with drivers from industrialized nations. You should beware if you are the latter.  Between yesterday and today I dodged a cow, several piles of unknown debris, numerous construction sites and workers, parked vehicles, oncoming vehicles, carts, people, small boulders, missing road, and  very large pot holes.

Let’s take the example of the “pot holes”. I really mean holes over six feet deep,  twice as wide, and three times as long. It was big enough to swallow your vehicle whole. Think about looking over to the shoulder of the road and seeing this dark mass creeping onto the highway marked by two small orange cones. I probably couldn’t count the number of smashed cones I’ve seen on freeways in the United States. We’d have a line of cones about ¼ mile long for this hazard.

Yes, I do understand that this stuff happens in industrialized nations but very with this frequency. It can be nearly constant at times but it’s usually not that bad. You will get very used to seeing this all. It can catch you off guard if you’re not familiar with it. Taking your eyes off the road of a few seconds can easily land you in the hospital around here.

Regards,

Ben Kim