Today was another very interesting day. There were 3 things that could have gone wrong that could have ruined a perfectly good day, but I’m glad none of it were too bad.
I woke up at 7:00 AM after some 6 hours of sleep (after 4.5 hours the night before) to have breakfast with the church group I participated in the nightly service with. They were very friendly, again, and introduced themselves. I checked out of my hotel room, and I pulled up behind one of the three buses heading about 20 minutes east from Central Monterrey to the housing locations.
So I had noticed earlier during the trip that my car completely vents the outside air. Which is good in that it helps me recognize the smells of each country/cities, but bad in that some of the areas, like the place we were building houses today, smell like trash. I don’t know exactly where the odor is coming from, but sometimes it’s pretty bad.
Mishap #1
This is actually an almost mishap. While I was caravaning behind the buses through the city traffic, one of local buses try to fit in between that bus and the car to the left of it. It pulls in real fast to my left, misses my sideview mirror by what seemed like 4-6 inches. The car to its left wasn’t so lucky. The bus had totally scraped one side of the car to its left. It couldn’t run away either. Monterrey seemed to have a traffic cop in every other block, and two were actually only some 50 meters away from the scene and started to investigate immediately. I was just thinking how bad it would have been if I had been hit, and I thanked god for my good fortune.
Anyway, the houses are built out of concrete blocks and they were laying them on and pouring cement inside. It turns out they didn’t have a lot of machines down there, so they measured 2 buckes of gravel, 1 bucket of sand, 1 bucket worth of mixer, and about a bucket of water to mix the concrete. 4 people would grab a shovel and rotate while digging underneath the pile and throwing them back on top to make the cement. There was a bit of an unfortunate event for a while when the gravel/sand truck unloaded right next to the lady’s door. Her ‘room’ in her ‘house’ was pretty much built with tin pieces and pieces of wood nailed together as the door. She couldn’t get inside, so we had to constantly clear the doorway. My 2 Entrenching Tool (E-tool), or military issue foldable shovels, came in pretty handy. I never thought I’d use it during the trip, but I was more than happy to share the shovels for the time I was there.
This was the first time I ever got involved with some sort of a mission work. So it was a lot of fun, but I had to leave earlier than I wanted to at around 2:22 PM because I wanted to get to Tampico, which is about 350 miles away from Monterrey. So after a brief turkey sandwich lunch, I left. That’s when things started to go downhill.
I was already pretty tired. And I had no idea how to get to Tampico, especially since the city map of Monterrey I had didn’t tell me how to go south. So I went to the nearest gas station I could find, and asked the attendants inside if they know how to go to Tampico. At first I thought it was a simple question, something that every Mexican would know. But later on, I realized that it’s like asking someone in LA how to get to Las Vegas. Unless you go there often, you really wouldn’t know how to get there. A gentleman that was at the counter then started to draw a map for me, and says, “mira, I will take you to the entrace of the highway, follow me.” At least that’s what I think he said, cuz it was all in Spanish. He led me to this highway entrance after some 10 minute drive, got out of the car and said, take this highway to the next one, and transfer over to the next one leading to this particular city. Travel well, he said, and left back to his car as to avoid trying to look like he was selling a service. He is by far the classiest man I’ve met in Mexico so far, and probably will remain so.
But when I got to the attendant to pay for the expressway, and told him I was going to Tampico, he said, no this highway doesn’t go to Tampico at all, you gotta turn around and go the other way. I believed him and turned around and went the other way. It turned out that the attendant didn’t know what he was talking about either. I was supposed to only take the highway to transfer to the next one. Anyway, so I go on reverse gear for about 150 meters back and take the expressway going the opposite direction now. I start to look at the map and it’s clearly leading me towards the wrong direction. I get off, pay the 30 pesos for using the expressway for 3 minutes, and tracked my way back to the hotel via GPS.
Monterrey does not want you to go south. For whatever reason, they have highway signs posted saying go here and here to go east, west, and north, but no sign led to a highway going south. I decided to trust my GPS and just go south, towards what seemed to be the highway I needed to get to Tampico. During this process, I ended up going through downtown Monterrey, which is a very bustling, business like place. I was also quite impressed with the Mayor’s house I passed by and what seemed like a museum. I wish I had a bit more time to park and take pictures.
So even though the signs on the street tell me there’s nothing going south, I trust my GPS and it works. After a while, I pass over the highway but reverse direction a block back, and voila! A sign for CD (ciudad) Victoria comes up. So I’m all excited, and take that highway, highway 85.
One thing about Mexico highways is that they don’t just keep running through major cities like American highways do. They literally become one of the city streets in the city, with signs that tell you to slow down from your highway miles to some 40-60 kmh. It’s even got street lights on it. Which I think is really ridiculous. Highway 85 was the same one I took from Nuevo Laredo last night to get into Monterrey, and it was the same one I needed to take to get out, but it took forever to find the place where it picked back up.
Mishap #2
Anyway, so I’m all excited I found the right way and I’m driving through Highway 85. All of a sudden, right before 5PM, people start to slow down and pull off to the side. I hear some buzzing noise, so I thought it was from the speakers I had been having sporadic problems with. I hear it again later, and it turned out to be a cop behind me. He pulls up, and says he doesn’t speak a word of English, and says I need to get a ticket because I was going about 110 kph on a 60 kph zone. Truth is, he was completely right. I was going double what the speed limit was. As much as you think I’m crazy, though, I gotta tell you, unless you’ve driven in Mexico before, you have no idea how spontaneously the speed limits change. One minute it’s 60kph, next it’s 110. Sometimes, they tell you to slow down to 40kph, and they somehow manage to hide these huge speed bumps that rattle the car even when you’re going below 40kph. (The trick is to never go faster than the person in front of you in the residential areas… they’ll either know the road better than you or their car will indicate whether there is a bump or not). So I give him all my documents, my passport, my vehicle permit, my international driver’s license, and my california driver’s license. He says, all in spanish, that I need to get a ticket, and that’s like 43 dollars or something. He goes back to his car with his documents and I’m thinking, jeez, I really don’t want to pay a 43 dollar ticket, and I don’t want to have to go to a local police station to pay for it. He comes back, and says you’re going too fast, this is kilometers, go about 30 miles per hour (this was when the highway was still cutting through the last bit of Monterrey and still had signal lights on them before it converted into a complete highway). And he says do you want a ticket? A 43 dollar ticket? And I said, no, and I notice that he’s still holding my driver’s license and my vehicle permit. Please, I said, this is my second day here. And he says ok, como vez… And I’m like, ok, he wants me to buy him out. So I offer him 100 pesos for his time. And he says 430 pesos or 100 pesos, ok I’ll let you go with 100 pesos. As soon as I give him the money, he says, ok, and makes a motion and noise of a cash register. And says we’re done, drive safely.
So I’m quite ambivalent about this cop pulling me over thing. On one hand, I was clearly violating the law. On the other hand, seeing how I was only going about 5-10 miles faster than the other guys, I thought it was a little too much. Seriously, most people here go about 100 kph on a 60kph zone. Because it’s so ridiculous. I would like to think if a Mexican got pulled over in an American city, he’d get off with a warning. But you know, I really can’t complain. I seriously doubt that he pulled me over because I’m from California. I strongly believe that he pulled me over because I was violating the law and I just happened to be Californian. This is the 5th time I’ve ever been pulled over now without getting a ticket (Germany, Colorado, New York, Berkeley).
Mishap #3
Anyway, I know it’s gonna be a long ride, and after about 250 miles, my gas light goes on. Unfortunately, there weren’t any gas stations for about 30-40 miles. I stopped by the nearest Pemex. And just as soon as the attendant is about to pour in gas, I’m like, Diesel, right? And he says, no, it’s unleaded. I think I could have seriously ended my trip prematurely at this point. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I am seriously the luckiest bastard alive. The attendant speaks a bit of english, and says we do offer diesel, but we ran out, where are you going? (Tampico) Go about 15 minutes, and the Pemex there should have Diesel. Travel well, he says.
So just like he said, I drive about 15 minutes, and yes, they had diesel there. One thing about Mexican gas stations is that they all have attendants. I’m not sure if it’s just paid for in the price or I have to offer tip, but they just came by, filled up my car all the way, took my credit card and came back with a bill for me to sign, and left after saying travel well. The service was great. This was my first full service at a gas station, and it was actually cheaper here than in America. I was very impressed.
Anyway, I’m going around checking prices on Unleaded fuel as well, and this older gentleman is clearly checking out my car. So I speak up and ask him if he likes my car, and he says, I love it, I love old Mercedes. He asks me if I’m Japanese (Koreano), where I’m from, where I’m going, how long I’ve been traveling, and shakes my hand sincerely and says travel well.
So I start to drive back onto the highway again, except by this time I’m really hungry. I stop by a taco shop to the left called Los Arcos. I park my car up next to the cart they had. Which I thought was a little odd since they had chairs and tables set up right behind them on a balcony, front of a major kitchen. Anyway, I ask them how much per taco (5 pesos), and I’m about to order 2, but they say order 5. I see the size of their tortilla wrap and notice that it’s only about 3 inches in diameter. So I order 5 for 20 pesos (a little less than $2). Each of them came with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and carne asada. I grab my first bite, pretty much the entire taco. It is the best taco I’ve ever had in my life. I quickly consume my first 5 and order 3 more. I’m so impressed that I take a picture of them and even one with the older lady. For less than $3.50, I was full and fully satisfied with my dinner.
Next came the hotel search. I went to quite a few, maybe 4 or so, all of them being $50 or above. One of them was especially interesting. Habitacion for 4 hours for $160 pesos. So you actually pull up inside this inn, and it’s pretty much full of garages. You pull up into one of them like it’s your own house, and there’s a room right next to it. The garages look just like the ones in American homes. And I would have stayed there, except they said that during nighttime it’s some $600 pesos. I leave and finally come to the one I’m in now. It doens’t really have a name on it, just a sign that said it’s cheap and affordable. It’s maybe the size of a jail cell (probably was at one point), but it’s got air conditioning, a usable shower, and even a tv. It’s got a weird odor to it and it’s so close to the streets I can hear the cars passing by, but I can’t complain for $300 pesos. Besides, the air conditioning is pretty loud as is.
So far, for the most part, I’ve been very impressed with how helpful these people can be. I think if I didn’t know a word of English and tried to explain myself in LA, people would laugh at me, call me a chink and walk away.
I want to write more today, but I can’t. I seriously need to get some sleep before heading out tomorrow. Not sure where I’ll end up, but I want to see if I can’t get to one of the beaches here. If I do, then I’ll settle tomorrow night at Vera Cruz. If not, I’ll drive about 600 miles to Oaxaca.
Driving in Mexico is crazy. People cut you off, sometimes there are 2 left turn lanes which you use to turn into a 1 lane street, and cars swerve freely in the streets. Which actually is better for me, because at least me as a lost tourist is no worse than the average Mexican here. The highways are mostly 1 lane highways, with the median to pass people by. It works in the same way it does in America, pretty much. But since there are so many trucks on the highway and only 1 lane, you end up having to do this more often than not. I had to pick it up pretty quickly. The highway shoulders are wide enough that most trucks pull over to the side a bit so it’s easier for you to pass them. A left turn signal light in Mexico in an open highway means ‘pass me by.’ The craziest thing I was today was when a truck with a 40 foot container was simultaneously passed by a semitruck and an SUV at the same time. Meaning that at one point, there were 3 cars driving side by side in a 2 lane highway going in the same direction. Also, I’ve seen a few times where a pickup truck was pulling an SUV that was pulling a sedan. I guess that’s all legal here.