Ok…so you wanted to read about miercoles adventures?
Same point form.
-left at 615am and outside our complex was mi amigo Tony…mecanio/taxista. Working 6am-9pm…yikes.
-every bridge in Mexico has it’s own name. EVERY bridge!! My favorite that I saw? No Agua Derecha…No Water Right
-132 km in the first 2 hours
-quite a few collapsed bridges. All due to shoddy construction and the rainy season
-toll roads are the way to go. The first one occurs after 150km…$27 pesos or just over $2 Cdn
-light drizzle as I was driving through the montaña
-good thing I installed the new wiper baldes I had brought sown last year. The old ones were warped from the heat of the front window.
-4 hours into the trip…into estado Vera Cruz
-beautiful valleys and montaña
-and now there is much alluvia…rain
-lots of on going road work
-paid a toll at the caseta de cobra (toll booth). Took off seat belt to get money and as I drove away, I encountered a checkpoint manned by Policia Federal.
I was signaled to pull over and was told that no seat belt would cost me $1500 pesos ($125 Cdn…15 days minimum wage) and the surfboard was sticking out of the back of the camioneta too far…another $1500 pesos.
Now I always hide my $$ and have only a little bit (hee x3) in my pocket. I showed this to the officer/thief and as we talked about options for 30 minutes he asked to see my ID and proof that I had credit cards.
The solution? He gave me his personal banking account number and told me to deposit the money in the account HOY…or he would make sure I did not leave the country with the truck.
The ba**s on that guy. Oh his account is at Bancomer…2761156896. Of course I did not pay the $4000…oh yeah…an extra $1000 was interest he told me…and I made it out of the country no problem. Butt head.
It is called the mordida..the bite.
-onwards and I saw no less then 20 junked cars being towed…probably to be repaired really cheap and then re-sold
-pass under lots of overpasses…each one has someone selling jugo (juices) in the sombre…shade
-and now there are TONS of coffee bean stands…and coffee liquor as well
-huge mountain pass after Cordoba. Must have been no less then 20 switch backs…reminded me of the Swiss Alps
-total of 18 toll booths during my trip through Mexico…$1215 pesos or $100 Cdn…worth every penny
-hit lots of fog this high up…lots of pino trees again
-50 vehicle caravan of army troops
-have no entered estado of Puebla after starting in Oaxaca
-outside a toll booth were 2 groups of people (10 in total) waving new born puppies for sale
-a lot of broken down cars (not ours!!). Carlos (service manager Nissan Huatulco) tells me that most people do no preventative maintenance because they cannot afford it
-into estado of Puebla
-at one point, Puebla, Puebla was going to be my first stop, but I made it there so fast, I decided to go onto Querétaro. My km calculations of 770km were correct, but I made it in 10 hours vs 11.5 projected.
-but first I must find the Arco Norte. This is the route that will take me around DF…a huge headache I am told.
But the signage is not good, and for the first time, I get lost. I see a VERY old hombre and ask him for directions. He mumbles and then asks for $5 pesos!! Ja ja ja
Onto a gas station where I get very strange looks and they try to help me. I understand derecha (right) and izquierda (left), but when I come to the fork in the road, their instructions did not help.
So…I pull to the curb and pull out the map. I start driving no more then 3 minutes later, and I get pulled over by a motorcycle cop. I was not allowed to stop back there…it is an infraction.
Yes the Arco Norte is up ahead, but first we need to deal with the infraction. But…it is late, the oficina is closed and since I am from out of country, he will need to confiscate the camioneta until the morning, when I can pay the fine of $860 pesos.
I talk to the man and there is NOTHING I can do…or nothing he can do. Story about pregnant novia in DF…nothing. Story about needing to get to Querétaro…nothing.
But after 25 minutes, he agrees…he can take the “deposito” for me and pay the fine himself mañana. Yeah right. So out comes the pesos and for $860, I get the guided tour to the Arco Norte toll booth.
The Arco is a beautiful drive. Nice valleys and montaña and the conditions of the road are great.
Now you might recall that I have been talking about bad gas mileage. I have made sure the truck has enough fuel, and I have the garrafon with 5 litros in it. I have also seen that there are Pemex stations on the Arco, so I ma not worried.
So I get on at the first tollbooth, San Martin Texmelucan and plan on exiting at the last booth, Querétaro, 169km and $255 pesos later.
I am at about 140km and I decide I have not got enough fuel to get to the last booth…and I have seen only 1 Pemex and that was right when I got on the Arco. So I pour in the 5 litros and that gets me just to the exit toll booth.
I talk to the cashier and she tells me the first Pemex is 17km away. That won’t do. She points me to the oficina and I climb up a hill and go in. Here I meet a super friendly employee who drives me to Pemex…the one that is only 5 km away.
We fill up my garrafon and head back…along with the Coke I bought for him. He is super friendly and we chat about niños, novias and cuna asultas..cradle robbers!! Ja ja ja
Get the truck up and running and off I go.
Little information that I did not read. The last exit is called Querétaro, but the city of Querétaro is 90 minutes past this exit!!! Ja ja ja
This means I will have broken 2 Mexico driving rules…don’t run out of gas and don’t drive at night.
As I am bombing, I drive by a Ritchie Bros auction site. This is a BC based company with auction sites around the world. Small world that is.
Good thing I was on a main highway and I found my way into Querétaro no problems, booking into a nice hotel for $910 pesos!! Rico!!
I am now in the state of Hidalgo, after leaving the estado of Mexico.
Great hotel, only issue was that I could not find Bexico. It was 930pm and her flight to DF should have landed over 2 hours prior, and her hotel was in the airport.
No email from her, so I call the hotel. She has not checked in. Hmmm. I did get nervioso…only because of niño. I know she can take care of herself, but with the extra attention needed for niño, I was concerned.
I chatted with mis padres who were in Vancouver, and they had not heard from her. I called the airline and was told, yes she got on the plane, and yes it had landed.
Now I am concerned more. Called the hotel again, nada. And then she calls!! Yes her plane was delayed a few hours, thus her delay. I have never experienced an Interjet flight being delayed…it had never really crossed my mind, especially after the agent told me it had landed.
Remind me to drop Interjet a line!!
So after 15 hours of driving on 5 hours of sleep, I hit the hay knowing I had to get up in 6 hours.
And folks, that was day #1.
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