Watch out for topes! And other life saving tips for driving in Mexico.

Driving in Mexico is stressful - I just want to get that out of the way to start with. The traffic is awful, the other drivers operate in a different universe of road rules (who am I kidding - what road rules), the road signs are someone's idea of a bad joke (when they exist at all), the frequent potholes are yawning caverns with 'journey to the centre of the earth' like proportions and don't get me started on the speed bumps.

Mexicans call speed bumps 'topes' which, literally translated, means 'stop'. It is a good name because if you hit one at speed you risk coming to a sudden, axle-breaking halt. They vary in height from mere ripples in the road to huge mountains of bitumen. Some are sign-posted - many are not. Some are painted yellow or white - many are not. Approach them in any way other than slowly and carefully, at your peril. David and I found the only way to deal with them was to have the front passenger watch for them and call out 'bump' whenever we got near one. The driver can't possibly see them all in time because he has a gazillion other hazards to negotiate.

Oh, and one other little gem for my countrymen (fellow Aussies), Mexicans drive on the right so on top of everything else you have to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Watch out for topes.

Have I put you off driving in Mexico yet? Earlier this year we (David and I) spent four weeks road tripping in Mexico.  As long as you have an adventurous spirit and the courage of Theseus fighting the Minotaur*, we found driving was a great way to get around.  Of course that's easy for me to say - I didn't actually do the driving - David did. I sat in the front passenger's seat praying. Sometimes I was too scared to pray and sat catatonic with fear instead. On a few rare occasions I watched the world go by and enjoyed the scenery.

Lest you think 'if David can do it, so can I', I should warn you that David will drive almost anywhere. He has been known to rent a car and drive in Lima, Peru. We once lived in Hong Kong and he drove everywhere (and more of a miracle he found places to park) and he's the only person I know crazy enough to drive in Macau. Also he doesn't do tours or public buses so when we began planning our Mexican adventure there was no question but that it would be a driving holiday.

Driving in the Yucatan Peninsula

Our driving itinerary 

We arrived in Cancun where we rented a car and did a 10 day loop around the Yucatan Peninsula staying at Chichen Itza, Merida, Tixkokob and Valladolid. From Merida we did side trips to Mayapan and Celestun and from Valladolid we did a long day trip to Coba and Tulum. All together we travelled more than 1,000 kms (620 miles).

This was the easy part of the holiday. Driving in the Yucatan Peninsula is not much more difficult than driving anywhere else in the world. Except for the urban centres this is a sparsely populated part of the country with few cars on the roads. 

Tips for driving in the Yucatan Peninsula 

• Cancun International Airport is 18 kms south of central Cancun. If you rent a car from the airport you can jump straight onto the 180 cuota (toll road) without having to negotiate the city centre.

• Don't drive at night. This is a universal rule throughout Mexico which you ignore at your peril. We broke it on our first day of course. It took us almost two hours to struggle through passport control at Cancun. The airport was days away from opening a new terminal which I am sure will help a lot. Then we waited another hour to pick up our rental car. After that we had a two hour drive to Chichen Itza. With the wisdom of hindsight we should have caught an earlier flight - we were never going to make it in the daylight. Negotiating our way through the chaotic streets of Piste (2.5 kms from the Mayan ruins) in the dark and finding our hotel - hidden away behind Chichen Itza on a back road was an experience I don't want to repeat.

• When travelling long distances stick to the cuotas - unless you plan on spending the rest of your life wandering around the Yucatan Peninsula. The cuotas (toll roads) are generally in excellent condition and have very little traffic. Not only does it take forever to get anywhere on the free roads but once you miss the on ramp to a cuota it can be very difficult to find another one.

• Take cash for the cuotas (toll roads). We were warned not to pay with a credit card if we could avoid it. Apparently card skimming is a national sport.

• Keep your petrol (gas) tank topped up. Petrol (gas) stations can be few and far between.

• Plan your route and make sure you know where you are going. Our brand new Garmin Nuvi GPS navigator was not always accurate. Google maps was better but still not infallible. If you have a GPS which tells you which lane to be in, nominate a passenger to keep an eye on this and call out lane changes. Mexico is not a place to make sudden lane changes.

• Before you arrive make sure you get an international sim card. If the worst happens and you break down or have an accident at least you will be able to call for help. The Yucatan Peninsula is (surprisingly) sparsely populated.  If you have data as well - all the better for navigating with Google Maps.

• Keep an eye out for one-way street signs. One-way streets are everywhere. The signs are usually a small arrow high up on street corners where you would expect to see nothing more than the name of the road.

• Parking translates as estacionamento. If you see a sign with a large 'E' on it, you have found somewhere to park.

• Stop at the 'alto' signs. In Spanish 'alto' literally means high. In Mexico it denotes a stop sign. I have no idea why and for once Google is absolutely no help. Just take it on faith that 'alto' means 'stop' - and stop!

• Watch out for topes! Topes are literally everywhere, even occasionally on the highways. We once saw a car break an axle by hitting one too fast.

Do not park here.

Driving in Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca

Our driving itinerary

The states of Mexico City (Distrito Federal), Puebla and Oaxaca are as difficult to drive in as the Yucatan Peninsula is easy. Outside the cities and larger towns it isn't too bad. There is more traffic on the cuotas, going much faster and with a lot less regard for keeping a safe distance between vehicles but if you don't drive at night and keep your wits about you chances are you will come out alive.

I can't say the same for the cities. There are 127.5 million people in Mexico and every last one of them seems to own a car (or a bike or a truck) and spend most of their time in it. The sheer volumes of traffic make even short trips a nightmare and if you happen to take a wrong turn just accept that it will take a very long time before you get back on the right road.

We spent five nights in Mexico City, picking up a car at the airport on our last day. Even David isn't crazy enough to drive in the centre of Mexico City! From the airport we drove to Puebla City for three nights and then Oaxaca City for another three nights before retracing the route back to Mexico City Airport. This was a journey of about 1,000 kms (620 miles). The worst part of the trip was the bit around Mexico City airport and our biggest mistake was not giving ourselves a night at an airport hotel after returning the car. We just didn't need the stress of knowing we had a flight to catch when we were driving back to the airport.

Mexico City International Airport is only 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the centre of the city - not nearly far enough to escape the congestion which plagues the city. Moreover the highway around the airport has never been completely reconstructed after the last earthquake (or the one before that, or perhaps the one before that). The asphalt rolls and surges like a badly made bed after a hard night on the turps**. Our car felt like a boat dipping and swaying in a heavy swell, with no way to know which direction it would fall away to next. Any sensible driver would slow down in such conditions and proceed with all the caution he could muster - not the natives of Mexico City. They make not a single concession to the damaged state of the road, continuing to drive at dangerously high speeds and darting from lane to lane as if there are no other cars on the road.

The central square in Puebla City.

A few extra tips for driving in Mexico City DF, Puebla and Oaxaca

• Don't! Sorry - I just had to get that out of the way to start with. Knowing what we know now, would we drive in this part of Mexico again? Yes, probably, but only with great reluctance and because David point blank refuses to do tours or public transport.

• Don't drive in Mexico City. Both Puebla and Oaxaca have international airports. If we were doing the trip again I think we would fly to one of those, or catch a bus or a train, or ride a donkey or walk if we had to, and avoid driving anywhere near Mexico City. Just to give you some idea of how bad the traffic can be we took a red bus tour while we were there. The hour and a half tour lasted for nearly four hours. For at least three of which we were stuck in gridlock traffic.

• Read my tips above for driving in the Yucatan Peninsula. Don't drive after dark, stop at the alto signs, watch out for one-way street signs, plan your route beforehand and if you are travelling a long way stick to the cuotas. All of this advice is even more important in the rest of Mexico.

• Leave plenty of time and then add a bit more. You will get caught in traffic at some point and it will take forever to clear. The driving will be a lot less stressful if you aren't glancing at your watch every five minutes.

• Watch out for hidden red lights. Red lights in Mexico are not easy to see. Neither are green or orange lights but the consequences are less dramatic if you miss one. Along with watching out for topes and lane changes, designate the front passenger to be on red light alert scanning every intersection for these elusive creatures.

• Don't get put off by stories you might hear about police corruption. I am not saying it doesn't happen but none of the policeman we came across gave even a hint of wanting a bribe - even the one who pulled us over for going through a red light. We were headed to the airport completely confused about whether we were on the right road and stressed out of our minds. He didn't even issue a ticket. In the end he took pity on us and gave us directions instead. 

• Oh and - did I tell you to watch out for topes!

One last thing - Good Luck!

If you have ever driven in Mexico, or someone equally difficult, leave me a comment and tell me what it was like. I would love to hear your experiences.

* Theseus was a hero of Greek mythology renowned for his courage in defeating the Minotaur a labyrinth dwelling monster with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man.

** For my American readers, the expression 'a hard night on the turps' is an Australian/British saying which refers to someone who has drunk too much - way too much.

My other blog posts on Mexico

• Chichen Itza: Everything you need to know before you visit.

• The flamingos of Celestun, Mexico: Everything you need to know before you go.

• Mayapan: Chichen Itza without the crowds.

• The Mayan ruins of Coba

• Uxmal: Mayan ruins on a grand scale

• How NOT to buy a souvenir: 8 tips on avoiding that piece of useless junk

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