Mexico Trip Day 2

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We had no trouble getting through security at the airport. It was 1 a.m. and there was hardly anybody at LAX. I have to admit I was a little anxious flying TACA Airlines given their recent debacle in Honduras where the pilot missed the runway. We walked up to the counter and what should have been an easy boarding turned into a task too difficult for the counter agents to handle. We were four and the plane had only groups of three. I requested two and two would be fine but even that was too difficult. They instead seat us individually at all ends of the plane. They somehow expected my babies to fly alone. Brilliant. When we boarded the plane we explained to the attendants the brillance of the counter agents and they rectified the problem without any dispute.

The ticket we purchased was a great price of only $200 from LAX to MEX. The only problem was that our flight took us first to San Salvador, El Salvador and then on to Mexico City. The flight from LAX to San Salvador was nearly 5 hours and I hardly slept at all. We spent an hour in El Salvador then flew on towards MEX, arriving by noon that day.

By the time we arrived in Mexico we were very tired. We hadn't slept for more than 30 hours and were not in the best mood. The cultural shock arriving in Mexico was more than we could handle in such a state. Unfortunately, the Mexican officials do not work. I found they show up for work, or at least there were sufficient workers present, but they were not working. We stood in line for immigration and waited more than 3 hours in a line that hardly moved. For the 20+ counters they ambitiously installed in the airport, only 2 were in use. While 2 employees were working, there were more than 10 that I counted that were gathered in a corner chismorreando. After I figured they were on break, or lunch, but a 3 hour lunch with no sign of ending? Terrible service. The comments from the other international travelers in the line was the same as ours: "This is the last time we fly to Mexico City." Great tourism effort there MEX. A warning for the traveler, NEVER have a stop over in Mexico City. Even if you are flying to Acapulco, Cancun, or wherever and your plane stops in DF, they will make you go through immigration (give yourself 2-3 hours) then you have to go get your luggage only to check it back in. They do not transfer your luggage. You have to do it.

One of the travelers in line with us told us that since we had young children we could just walk up to the front of the line. Karla went to ask an immigration official if this was true and she was told to get back in line. When we finally arrived at the counter the immigration official told us that we should have passed to the front of the line where he would have taken us because of the young children. Little did we know but this was going to the norm for the rest of the trip. There are rules and regulations in Mexico but they're a hit and miss according to your luck.

Taca sent us to pick up our bag on baggage claim 8. We started at 16 and walked down passing 15, 14, etc. Suddenly we are at 21. The numbering went from 11 to 21 and then started to climb. Oh this is just perfect, I thought. Karla on the other hand expressed her outrage at Mexican officials for not knowing how to logically count. We had to walk all the way back to the immigration area, ask another official who directed us up stairs where we exited the baggage claim area. We crossed all the way to the other side of the terminal where we finally found baggage claim 8. We thought we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel by this point but we were wrong. We reached aduana and they wanted our statement. To our disbelief we realized that the immigration official way back on the other side of the airport took it and never gave it back. They made us step out of line, fill out a new form and repeat the line. Terrible to say the least.

We did make it out of the airport. We now were furious, tired and hungry - in perfect condition for Mexico City driving.

Our driving experience was supposed to be pleasant. We simply had to exit the airport, continue straight until Zaragoza where we'd turn left, then it was Zaragoza all the way to nearly the city of Veracruz. Unfortunately we underestimated the disorganized chaos that is called driving in Mexico.

There are no lines on the road. If there are lines on the road the drivers think it means you drive saddling the line, not choosing either side. Where I couldn't imagine two cars driving side by side 4 would manage to squeeze. Throw in to the mix pot holes so large and deep your car literally dips down, millions of feral dogs that the people claim are not feral but have owners, though the dogs are running down the middle of the street, and people big and small walking down the middle of the street selling all sorts of junk. That left turn onto Zaragoza opened my eyes to it all. After not moving for some time I decided to do as the Romans do, so to speak and hit the gas pedal cutting of the bus, (who honked, flashed his brights and who knows what else) flooring it straight for the dog, which ran, and the vendor, which moved to another lane and I was on my way.

The only memorable thing about DF that day was watching the kids play in the dilapidated park covered with graffiti and litter. As I watched the wind picked up a swirl of paper and trash, traveled over to a tent which took flight and crashed into a lady carrying a baby. I had originally planned on sight seeing some in DF but plans were changed immediately as I saw what DF really was and I was not impressed.

After exiting DF the cuotas began. There are lots of cuotas. It cost me approximately $65 US in cuotas to go from DF to Coatzacoalcos. You'd imagine the roads would be really nice after spending that amount of money but they were not. They were good enough to go 110 km/h but you could feel the beating that rental car was taking.

The road out of DF on 150 takes you over the Sierra Madres and down into Puebla. Puebla is a much nicer town to pass through. It is not nearly as trashy, destroyed and run down as DF. The only unnerving experience I passed through in Puebla was the idea of putting bus stops on the freeway. I still can't understand the reasoning. If you are on the far right side behind a bus, know that it will without notice come to a complete stop in the middle of the lane. If you are in the middle right of the road and you see 2 buses stopped, know that if the bus in back unloads first it will try to pass the other bus and pull in front of you at 10 km/h even though you are travelling at 110 km/h. Also know that many drivers do not have a license or insurance of any sort.

Most internet websites do not recommend driving in Mexico at night. I actually preferred it. At night the dogs were asleep, the pedestrians were no longer walking down the middle of the road and traffic travels much slower. Mexican drivers are very communicative. Use of the turn signal can me "I'm turning/passing", "I'm passing on the left", "Pass me on the left", "I forgot to turn off the turn signal" or "How do I turn this thing off?". Most turns (90%?) are completed without use of the signal. Use of the signal is used mostly to communicate. Most drivers do not understand that bright lights blind other drivers. At night at least 60% of drivers drive around at all times with the brights on. The others flash them at other drivers for no apparent reason. Honking is done for mostly no reason. This was confirmed while riding with some relatives in Coatzacoalcos where our driver periodically honked just to honk at other drivers. Odd, but just part of the culture. Finally there are only two speeds on the highway. It is either 30 km/h or 200 km/h. Speed limits mean nothing. I would come up on cars that appeared to not be moving and some that were in fact not moving and parked in the middle of the highway. Other cars passed me at blinding speeds. There weren't any other cars in the 110-130 km/h speed frame.

Somewhere along the freeway at a retorno we stopped for food in Puebla. We opened the car door and suddenly there were cat-calls from all directions. I wondered if I ran over somebody's dog without knowing it. The potholes were so deep that if it were an animal or pot hole I had no way of knowing. But no, it wasn't somebody's mut, it was competition. There were 4 or 5 restaurants with ladies at each one screaming for business. Those with kids sent the kids running to bring us in. The restaurants also fronted as homes for these individuals. We chose the closest one and ordered tacos de pollo, or so we thought. Chicken with pellejo, hueso, tuetano and all else was thrown on the grill, along with pumpkin flowers and other herbs. The tortillas were huge. The food was delicious, the girls ate and nobody got sick so we considered it an success.

The border of Puebla and Veracruz takes you up into the most gorgeous mountains. The road travels through a few tunnels in thick vegetation with steep ravines on the right side of the road. We entered Veracruz in the dark and as is typical for Veracruz in the summer, it was raining at night. The rain continued to pour down the rest of the journey.

Before arriving at Veracruz we veered onto 145 and headed south until Coatzacoalcos. The air was hot, humid and the rain was pouring. With the air conditioning on high we could manage to keep the windows somewhat clear, though we were sticky and wet, not to mention tired as well. We arrived at Coatzacoalcos at around 1 a.m. on Sunday. We were happy to find a bed to sleep in. We hadn't slept for 43 hours, nearly all of it traveling, and were exhausted.

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Photos

Photo 1
El Salvador

Photo 2
El Salvador

Photo 3
El Salvador

Photo 4
Taco a la china poblana

Photo 5
que rico

Photo 9
Estado de Puebla pasando volcanes

Photo 10
Otro volcan y otra cuota