Unexpected Road Trip to the Border

We took an unexpected trip to the U.S. border at Nogales recently. Only over 2000 miles round trip and hundreds of dollars spent doing something we still don't know was necessary. One person says one thing, another person says another. Where lies the truth? We certainly don't know because we don't know where to find the "fine print". We were "supposed" to be changing our vehicle permit is what it was all about. That is the furthest I will go into it.

Did we have a vacation? Well, no with 8 days of driving I would say not, it was not a vacation. Did we go somewhere new? Ok, maybe we did venture into El Centro of two cities we had never been in, other than on a toll road around it. Los Mochis and Hermosillo and the little town of Tecuala between Mazatlan and Tepic.

One good thing about the trip was I got to get more practice in driving in Mexico. Usually Victor drives most of the time, when we take long trips pulling our trailer. This time, no trailer, so I felt comfortable to drive. Fortunately, almost the entire trip was 4 lane toll roads. But that doesn't mean the condition of the road was good. There were bad stretches of highway at times, where we drove in the left lane which was less damaged. There are many many stretches of highway with no shoulder. This is much worse on the two lane highways, especially in the mountainous areas These are the times I do a lot of praying, that some idiot isn't passing on a curve, headed right for us head on in the curve, with no where to go off the road to avoid a collision. On these roads we like to drive right behind a bigger truck, so if someone is coming towards us in our lane, the truck will get hit first. It is called "running interference", as in this photo above.

Road trips are always an opportunity to learn more Spanish, by reading road signs and bill boards. Victor knows most of them, but I am always learning more and keep a little notebook handy to write new Spanish words in, and the Spanish/English dictionary is always close at hand. "Carril izquierdo solo para rebasar" translates in English to "Left lane only to pass".


Getting used to kilometers instead of miles isn't too hard. Just take .6 times 60 km/h as in the photo, gets you 36 mph. It is approximate, but close enough (actual computation is .62 x kilometers=miles). Most people speed in Mexico though, but we do try to slow down when going through small towns and areas of pedestrians. Believe me, you don't want to be in a traffic accident in Mexico. It can get sticky. Enough said. And many Mexicans have no car insurance.

It appears many never have been taught rules of the road, or taken any driver training, either book or behind the wheel. Some just buy a car and drive it, not even getting a driver's license, let alone driver training or insurance. So it can be risky getting out on the roads here. Seeing this sign, ALTO, which means STOP in Mexico should be a highly respected sign. But quite often people totally ignore it, especially in the towns. On highways going through towns, it is not unusual for fast moving vehicles to just run the stop sign and even red lights. If you are a pedestrian, watch out. You could be killed if you don't have your wits about you at all times.
Whether you are driving or walking, one must look in all directions several times to be sure a vehicle is not racing through Stop or Red.

If there were more of these in towns, it would help immensely. They are "topes", or speed bumps, and they are a good way to get cars to slow down in towns or school crossings. We need them badly in our town, for the traffic coming through our town from Puerto Vallarta or Guadalajara can be heavy at times, especially if its a holiday, and these cars fly through our town. Also big trucks and buses drive too fast on our highway.

Back to our road trip. When driving in Mexico, one has to be on the lookout for strange things on the road, or side of the road. Even on toll roads there are bicyclists where they shouldn't be, because so many Mexicans don't own a car, and get around by bike. Here are some pics of typical sights seen on the Mexian highways.

Bikers on Toll Roads

Very common sight

Cattle at times are very close to the highway

The Can Man

Moving Day?

What happened to seat belts?

Orange Vendor with Loudspeaker

One of the most surprising things I saw on our first road trip through Mexico in 2005 when we drove all over for 3 months, and we continue to see, was at the Toll Booths on toll roads. I nearly died when I saw the people holding puppies and kittens for sale, juices, homemade food, fruit.

Driving through small towns people do this too. They stand in the middle of the highway at stop lights to sell newspapers, flowers, cookies,fruit.

Here are some photos of interesting sights seen our recent road trip. Sugar cane is grown in the state of Nayarit where we live, and right now some of it has these tassles on top of it. Tobacco also is grown, but I didn't get a shot of it. Lots of corn is grown, and pineapples, bananas, mangoes (Nayarit, our state, grows the most mangoes in the world, second to India).

This beautiful church on the town square in Hermosillo caught our eyes. Orange trees grew right in front of it. We walked around the square getting a cup of coffee first (it even was Latte and Americana style!). Got breakfast a block away at a little open air cafe, fresh squeezed orange juice is always served. I'll never be able to drink frozen concentrated orange juice again!


These gorgeous birds with super long tails were seen at a rest stop by the toll booth where you can buy snacks, beverages, and hot food, use the restrooms, study the map. We even ran into some Americans whose 3 sons were chiropractors that studied at the school Victor attended in U.S. This couple were staying in Mazatlan for awhile and were out driving a couple hours north of M, looking for some road to some beautiful beach they heard about.


We spent a night in a hotel overlooking the ocean in Mazatlan. In the morning we walked for an hour on the Malecon along the beach, looking for a great cup of coffee for me. But alas, could not find the coffee shop we drank good coffee at last year. With all the coffee grown in Mexico, you would think Mexicans would love good coffee, but most drink Nescafe (yuk).
The landscape is very pretty at Mazatlan, as you can see in this photo.

It was good to get some exercise, well worth the hour spent before hitting the road. All that sitting in the car for 8 days is not a good thing at all. Being January, it gets dark by 6 pm and we try very hard not to drive in the dark in Mexico, so it takes a lot longer to reach your goal compared to driving long distances in the U.S.



While on our walk, we saw a near accident on this construction site when the two men on the upper floor were moving this very long piece of something, and it bent or broke and nearly hit the man on the floor below. Also note the tree trunks, or branches? holding up the levels....not exactly. But it is a common method of building here in Mexico.


In our state of Nayarit, some of the trees and vegetation make me feel like I am back home in Minnesota. On a stretch of highway two hours north of our town, between the inland city of Tepic and Compestela are a lot of oak trees and it is not a tropical jungle like near the coast where we live. Needless to say, the landscape in Nayarit is beautiful, be it this scene to the right or the ocean and tropics.