I’ve been here at Rancho Santana now for a week and it is an awesome place. Between getting moved in and starting work, I have not done much exploring. The two times I went to the beach I was the only person on it! So far so good; I’m laying on my hammock finishing the oranges I bought in Mexico and this blog.

A couple notes on how I prepared:

I did a lot of online research; some was helpful and some was not. What I found were a lot of stories from people negatively affected by singular experiences. This tainted their view of their whole trip or a whole country, for instance. Some blogs would be all negative, and some all positive. About a week before I left I quit reading them all together.

I bought international travel maps for Mexico and Central America. I also had Lonely Planet books for both regions. These were both helpful. Next time I’ll have book style maps of each country; with more detail and more detailed maps of each city or town we drive through. I google mapped the whole trip, but did not use it much. According to google the distance is roughly 3,000 miles.

Before I left I was put in touch with Fred. Him and his wife made the drive down over the summer from Oregon. His advice was invaluable.

I made 6 or so copies of all my important documents, and got a new license (one for backup). Next time I’ll have 6 copies of each document for each border crossing. A binder to organize all the papers for each country would have also been helpful.

For my truck I had enough oil and filters for 3 changes, extra fluids, belts, spark plugs, a floor jack, spare windshield wiper, flat tire repair, fuses, ropes, chains, tools, JB weld, duck tape, and a spare gas tank I filled once in Mexico and never used. I also put on a set of locking lug nuts, had a CLUB, an alarm, spare keys hidden in the bed, and a wooden bead seat cover thing. I also reinforced the chinsey windows on my used topper with ¼ inch plexiglass on the inside. We never felt the truck was in too risky a situation but these things gave me peace of mind. There are also a couple obscure laws requiring motorists to have a set of orange safety triangles and a white sheet. We rode Isabella hard for 11 straight days. She is an awesome truck; today I gave her a much needed bath and some TLC I’ve been promising her since Guatemala.

In total we traveled 4,460 miles from Ft. Collins, CO to Rancho Santana. We were on the road from early Wednesday morning to late Saturday night, 11 days.

It was a killer experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Brandon and I saw beautiful country and met friendly and welcoming people.

It has been fun sharing my adventure with you. If your thinking about making the drive and have questions or just want some encouragement, feel free to contact me at nick@ranchosantana.com…

This morning we left San Miguel at 5 am. We passed on the complimentary breakfast that didn’t start until 6 because we had 2 country borders to cross. 2 borders is sort of like crossing 4 in a sense; the truck and us have to get cleared leaving El Salvador, entering Honduras, leaving Honduras, and entering Nicaragua. There are hoops to jump through for each one. We arrived at the border crossing at Amatillo around 6 am.

It wasn’t too hectic, but people were still trying to flag us down. For this reason we drove past SAT (car people), and he had to chase us down. Even after showing us his official card thing, we were still skeptical as everyone down here has some sort of card with their name on it. Anyway, he wasn’t too upset we bypassed him but we had to turn around. Turned out the guy we needed to see didn’t get to work until 8 so we hung out for a couple hours. When he finally got there it was the typical hoops; go get some copies, pay some fees, get the truck inspected. 4 hours later we were on our way into Honduras!

Leaving Honduras I had apparently misplaced a paper I had been given on the way in. I know someone at the other border just took it to set me up for a bribe. The official wanted $150 USD, I told him I’d just drive back to the other border for a new paper. I ended up paying him $20 to let me leave Honduras (we were only in the country for about 2 hours). These bribes are a joke, and this one in particular was set up by the guy behind the window who was stamping passports. He actually brought me into his office to wax me for some cash. I was just happy he settled for $20 as I did not want to drive back to the other Honduran border.

The only impression I got from Honduras was of the borders; the people were all nice when they weren’t bribing me. We were on CA1 now, and it is only about 85 miles long in Honduras. We got stopped once by police near the border with no issues; seemed like they just wanted to check out our gear.
We got to the Nicaraguan side of the border just before 1 and felt we could see the finish line. This border was real relaxed; and the officials were nice, but wanted us to empty the back of the truck. About half way in he told me if I paid him $4 USD I could stop emptying my truck, OK? Then he wanted to see the baseball gear I declared. I showed him the bat and he wanted that as a gift. I told him I’d sell it to him but no, he just wanted it as a gift, sure thing buddy, Merry Christmas. At this border we saw quite a few tourists and buses which we hadn’t really seen since Mexico.

We were on a make or break mission to reach Rancho Santana today. Then tomorrow we could cross into Costa Rica to get Brandon on his plane. The driving was slow and we took a back road by accident which ate up an extra hour. We hit Rivas around 11pm and stopped at Pollo Tip Top for a quick bite; at this point we were extremely tired and hungry, but new we were close.

On the road today we traveled 400 miles in 19 hours; about 21 mph. We finally made it to Rancho Santana just before midnight. No one was expecting me because no one knew just when I would arrive (I failed to purchase a phone). We slept on a couch behind the clubhouse. When the sun came up we could finally check the place out a bit. It is an awesome ranch in a beautiful location; and the facility way exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to fully check this place out. As for now, I still need to get Brandon across another border and to the airport…

We left the auto hotel in the woods first thing in the morning. I was up most of the night with a mild fever so Brandon drove the first leg. About 3 miles in traffic was stopped due to the road being washed out. We had to wait about 45 minutes for our turn.

We have a morning ritual of listening to an extreme survival audio book. The premise is the author wanted to figure out why some people survived in extreme situations when other did not; plane crashes, lightning strikes, etc. This mornings story was about a group of people who attempted to climb Mt. Hood and got stuck in a storm. Some died and some lived, and it was a good story.

We got to the El Salvador border about 7:30 and it was way less chaotic than the border of Mex/Guat. On the El Salvador border there are signs posted saying there are no fees or bribes to get thru, which was nice. All the border employees I spoke with spoke a little English and were very helpful. They even formally welcomed us to the country and gave us a map with tourist routes highlighted! These little things were nice after the shit show called the Mex/Guat border crossing.

All of Guat was a little rough for Brandon and I. I came down with diarrhea in Tapachula and our sleeping arrangements would have given Hannibal Lecter nightmares. Brandon drove and I was sleepy the whole time. He assured me that Quetzaltenango and other parts of Guat he visited were awesome and the people as well.

In El Salvador we took the southern route (CA2), the road and signage were both great. Our goal for the day was San Miguel, about 30 miles from the Honduras border crossing at Amatillo. We still followed the no night driving rule but it started to seem less important; lighting and signage were both real good where we traveled. In Mexico the lack of signage was a worry, in Guat it was the potholes. Never a worry of banditos or anything like that; I’ve heard they exist but we were never too concerned.

We stopped in El Tonque (sp?) on the coast for lunch. Brandon learned to surf here last year and it was cool to see him remember an obvious good time. Wish we could have stayed longer.

We found a Comfort Inn in San Miguel at dusk and were both thrilled after last night’s auto hotel. Back to 2 beds, cold beer, food, wifi; all the modern comforts. The room cost about $35USD.

On the road today we traveled 213 miles in just over 12 hours; just shy of 18 mph. This includes the 3 or so hours spent at the border.

We had hoped to be in Rivas or even Granada in Nicaragua by tonight. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll push through the borders of Honduras and get to Rancho Santana in the early afternoon. If not we’re not stopping until we get there…

This morning we slept in a little to take advantage of the comp breakfast that didn’t start until 6.  After breakfast we were going to cross the border into Guat. Right off the bat we got lost for about 1 hour leaving Tapachula. Even though we planned our route in the hotel room before leaving! It was like Mexico saying goodbye with a smirk on her face.

The border was hectic; people swarm to try and help and little kids swarmed to try to clean my tennis sneakers. After about 12 attempts I just laughed and asked them if they really thought I was that dumb where I’d have sneakers polished. They got the point, and laughed a little too. I’m not sure anything I write could prepare you for what the Mex/Guat border was like, so drive down there and check it out yourself! It was tough to see children working at such a young age; we gave them oranges and they were quick to grab them up. Even though there is fruit everywhere, they had none. I grabbed a trabajadora (mule) and the first thing I told him was that there were too many people swarming for me to understand him. This helped. My stomach had started to hurt in the morning and I was dehydrated and this made the border crossing a little more stressful but we got through in roughly 1 hour.

In Guat the road became CA2, which I had low expectations for. We had heard about the tough rainy season they had and the hotel owner was pretty sure CA2 would be in tough shape. CA2 was potholed but fairly well signed. It takes a southern route; not on the coast but south of the major cities of Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City. The route wasn’t as mountainous as I expected and really we haven’t driven thru any mountains since early Chiapas region in Mexico. Again we tried to follow locals closely who new the lines around the potholes.

I hadn’t felt well for much of the day, and was looking forward to finding a good nights sleep. We found an auto hotel in the middle of no where (outside Taxisco). At first it seemed sketchy, like something out of the movie Hostel. So much so that even though we rented 2 rooms, we decided to share a bed and sleep with the baseball bat. It was just that it was really secure in wierd ways, we were never given keys (but could lock the doors), and the 2 workers and I kept miscommunicating (like when they wouldn’t refund me for the 2nd room I no longer needed).

We went outside to throw my glow in the dark frisbee a little to lighten the mood and hopefully interact with the 2 workers again. Right away they joined the toss and we talked. I think they were equally confused by us. Turns out they were Quichua (natives), and couldn’t refund our money on the room or they would be fired. Everything sort of made sense now. We ended up having a lot of fun throwing around the frisbee with these guys and chatting. Their names were Israel and Israei (sp.?), both lived in Queztaltenango, and commuted to live here for 6 days out of the week. We returned to our room and felt 100% better about the situation and laughed about how funny the paranoia was.

On the road today we traveled 211 miles in 9 1/2 hours; or 22 mph. There continued to be military checkpoints, no problems at any of them. Tomorrow we will get up first thing in the morning and cross into El Salvador. I didn’t get much of a lasting impression from todays drive thru Guat; kind of in a haze from stomach pains and brain dead from the border. The country was beautiful with hills and lots of farm land. Hopefully i’ll get to return soon to visit Queztaltenango…

Puerto Escondido to Tapachula

Today was a fairly easy day on the road, once again we started at 5am. It had become my favorite time to drive, towns are starting to get going and you can watch people getting ready for their days. The towns and roads are cool and quiet. Without major hiccups we would make it to Tapachula today and cross into Guatemala tomorrow. As we left we hoped to maybe even get to Tapachula early. When I drive thru Mexico again I’ll do it with at least 3 more days. It’s been 6 days for us in Mexico. It’s hot on the road and there are a lot of roadside fires here and by the end of the day it feels like you’ve been camping.

Today we traveled 440 miles in 11 hours, or 40 mph average.

We are heading mostly east at this point on rt 200. Parts of the drive were real windy, probably about 50-60 mph or so. Nothing major to report from the road. Lots of torch bearing runners, one started a small wild fire on the side of the road that was pretty close to the car as we drove by. We would constantly see someone behind the sprinter stepping out ashes; they must have missed one.

At one point I think we ran over a tarantula.

We also solved the 1.5 hour lunch break thing by going to BK. It was nice and a little familiar for a sec and then it was just BK again.

Passing through two of the larger towns people tried to stop us by waving cards at us. We’ve learned to go thru bigger towns with the windows up. It helps to remove about half of the chaos of driving.  95% of the towns we drive thru are small and tranquil, and these are where we usually stop for food or gas without worry.

At a gas station in one of the towns where people were flagging down drivers I approached a federale to ask him what they were all about. He said he didn’t know but not to stop. Looking back on it, not stopping is obvious. But these guys are often in the center line of the road, holding some b.s. badge pointed towards you, and whistling. With another guy pointing towards the side of the road. In the states these guys would make great salesman. And it feels like you’re being pulled over.

We got into Tapachula about 4pm and had time to walk around a bit. We stayed at the Hotel Mexicana, a 10 room place with a small pool. It didn’t look like much from the outside but was tip top inside, and they had a nice restaurant (white linen). Dinner was good we got queso with chorizo, ribeye steak, and chicken mole. The mole sauce was the best I’ve ever had. This meal was more expensive, about $40 total with a few cold Victorias.

Tomorrow we head into Guatemala at sunrise. It is familiar territory for Brandon and I can tell he is excited. We have also gotten back on schedule and don’t feel as stressed, we think we’ll reach Nicaragua by Friday. The learning curve to drive in Mexico has been steep and very stressful at times.

Everything else about it has been spectacular…

We left Zihuatanejo once again at 5 in the morning. Brandon took the wheel first and he is an excellent driver on these winding hills. His pace was scary at times but worth it to be back on track, which we got back on yesterday.

We have recovered from the rough driving day on Sunday and feel confident tomorrow will be our last in Mexico. Not that we want to leave. The landscape here rivals the most beautiful parts of the USA that I have traveled. Then parts of the jungle pop up to put it over the top. Last year during his travels thru central and south America, Brandon’s favorite was Guatemala. Now he says it’s Mexico.

Fresh coconut water is delicious, especially when the coconut is pulled from a cooler of ice.

On the road today we went 403 miles down the pacific coast in 13 hours, 31 mph average. Yes we are covering ground as fast as we can!!! Rt 200 took us through Acapulco and onto our destination of Puerto Escondido.

On the road today there was a torch relay race of some sorts. We couldn’t figure out what exactly it was for but something to do with Guadelupe. We passed probable 40 or so trucks; the backs filled with runners and one guy running in front. It was a cool sight, especially in the dark. Many of them were wearing wool caps and/or jackets as well and I’m talking southern Mexico; hardcore dedication!

Outside of Acapulco we got bribed. It was a nerve rattling experience and I can see why it is the topic of so much discussion. Here’s how it went down for us: we were stopped at a light on the outskirts of town and instantly swarmed by 2 kids washing the window and a “tourism official”. The light turned green, we heard a siren and tourism told us we were being pulled over (he spoke English well). I had to cross traffic onto the parallel frontage road. The “cop” rolls up and asks for my papers and also for a cargo paper for my stuff in the back of Isabella. He spoke fast and did not heed my requests to slow down a tad. He did however make a few things clear; we were going to get a ticket that would cost 5k pesos, take 5 days to process, and we would have to travel to San Marcos down the coast. After hearing this we knew it was an obvious bribe.

The cop and tourism guy went back and forth playing good cop bad cop. I dug out 120 pesos and said I didn’t have any more. Supposedly tourism guy would help us get out of this situation. This was very hectic but luckily I had read up a little on the Internet and that made it easy to spot. The cops body language was also very nervous. It’s tricky though because he did have some sort of security or cop car.

I played dumb and submitted to his requests to get processed; because I only had $120 pesos. It wasn’t a spoken bribe but was obvious I’d part with it. You win turd take my $10, give me back my license, and go away. We went back and forth for about 45 minutes and my $120 pesos turned into $170 pesos. All the sudden things changed when he noticed my iPod on Brandon’s lap. He became irked and even more nervous and wanted to know what it did. I lied and told him it was only for music but really we started taping half way in. Instantly he was shaking my hand, trading my license for my pesos, and saying I wouldn’t have more problems in town. Ultimately we were unsure of his true authority; he looked fairly legit. And down here we want as few problems as possible. It was a balance of being polite, staying firm, and acting dumb (yes haha the last one was easy).

We learned a lot from this experience; mainly that true authority down here are relaxed, professional, in full control, sometimes even chatty and curious. This guy was a wet ball of yarn!!

Next time we’ll record the whole thing and not submit to the bribe.

We rolled into Puerto Escondido a little early today and did the usual. Food, walk the strip, have a couple beers, chat with my wife and dogs via Skype, clean up and go to sleep. Puerto Escondido had a young feel to it and we stayed in my new favorite hotel; pool, hammocks, on the beach, soft beds for a change, restaurant and bar and friendly staff; all for 650 pesos. Next time I’ll stay longer but you know that drill by now. Tomorrow it’s onto Tapachula and goodbye to Mexico…

This morning we were up at 4:30 and on the road by 5. The oxxo ( convenience store) was open and we got coffee and biscuit things and still had infiniti oranges. We followed our new plan and would reach today’s destination; Zihuatenajo.

We got to see the sunrise over the jungle, it looked like a giant dried apricot. Brandon thought the smog made it look red and we speculated maybe it was Mexico city, which was over in that direction some where.

Today we figured out how to drive on rt 200. We traveled 460 miles in 14 hours, an average of 33mph.

Yes it’s slow!! Rt 200 travels down the coast past towns and cities and is also often the main road into these towns. So we learned to ignore big turns to avoid going into town. I know it seems simple but signage down here is different and hard to explain. We’re also using a compass to navigate, which has come in real handy.

For about 2 hours I was able to tail a truck driver thru the hills and that sped us up a bit. He knew the speeds and lines and had an obvious higher center of gravity. I was sad to see him exit, gave him a honk and a wave and he knew why.

The drive down the coast was once again beautiful.

We stopped for lunch about 1 hour NW of playa azul. We were hoping for a quick bite and this place was called “cocina economica”, which I thought might mean a grab and go situation with some creative translation. We chatted with the owner and his daughter and then she got to work on our meal. I hesitated to ask for it fast, but tryed to imply we had a ton of driving to do. The owner (I got his name but it’s super long and his dialect was abnormally tough for me) sat with us and tryed to get us to camp for a few nights on his property on the beach. He had built a campsite with shelters, bathrooms, and this restaurant and bar. To stay was free he just requested we eat and drink at his kitchen. This was unreal to me; his property was on a pristine isolated beach, we wanted to stay but were already chomping at the bit to chew and screw (politely). Again I told him we had to reach guat in 2 days to imply a hurry. I showed him our map and asked where we were and he didn’t know. He called his son over and he showed me and was much easier for me to talk to.

Meanwhile his daughter was cooking up a storm. We were humbled by what she cooked for us and I was a little ashamed to eat so fast. 2 whole fried fish and a half a chicken, rice, beAns, salad, and fresh tortillas and salsas. We plowed thru it as gentlemanly as possible. This was truly a place you could get lost at for a couple weeks and probably have the beach to yourself the whole time. The Owner and his family were truly hospitable and his daughter was a bad ass cook!

Our bill came to $12usd and I tipped her another 6, showered her with praise for the meal and we were on our way.

We rolled into Zihuatenajo about 7pm, found our room, had a few tacos and cleaned up and went to sleep. Today we felt better about our progress and were happy we stuck with rt 200. The only change for tomorrow is to try to avoid another hour and a half lunch break.

On the road the tolls have all but disappeared. Federale checkpoints have been replaced with military checkpoints. Again no stoppages there just stone cold nods and an occasional wave from dudes who must be sweltering under all that gear….

We left Mazatlan at around 8 Sunday morning; today’s plan was to reach Manzanillo thru Puerto Vallarta. Rt 15 comes off the coast towards Tepic and eventually on to Mexico city. Google maps told us to go east thru Tepic and then southwest to PV. On our map we found a cut through that stayed on the coast. We figured it would save us some time, but this was a dumb move.

Calling the road slow was an under statement; let’s go with grueling. The fact that it winded along the coast was ok, more than a fair price to pay for the ocean view. It was the way the road meandered into and thru towns that was frustrating. Getting into them was always easy, out another story. Typically the small villages were a straight shot through with no issue, the larger (1000+?) were more complex. They had multiple streets, little signage, unmarked one way streets, and asking for directions had been a crapshoot (we still tried though).

We got lost a few times and wasted a half day, more on this later. The countryside is beautiful, and its people matched that. In these towns, people were always helpful and kind, a little surprised to see us off the beaten path. For lunch we ate oranges we bought at a roadside stand. A 50 lb sack cost just over 4 bucks!

Just outside of PV we jumped onto rt 200, our new way thru the rest of Mexico. The road improved, luckily, and our speed went from probably 25 mph to about 45.

We rolled into PV about 4 pm, exhausted and worried. Our progress from the previous 2 days had just been cut in half. We needed a new plan, maybe a new route, an attitude adjustment, and an easier day tomorrow for sure!

This is me, Nick, enjoying a pitstop Mexico style

The hotel in PV was awesome, on the beach, great view, pool, bar, nice staff and rooms, etc; so far the best hotel we’d stayed in. For just under 800 pesos. So far, all the towns we had stayed in had much to see and do. Each night we poked around a bit but never had enough time. Each morning we left saying “I gotta come back some day”. PV was no different; some sort of fiesta on the main drag, Mexicans and gringos alike just having a good time.

Not too shabby a hotel stay in PV

We chatted up some older women about our drive and concerns and got some good advice from them. Mainly, to leave at 5 am not 8. This might seem obvious but the sun wasn’t coming up until just after 7 and we didn’t want to drive in the dark. The lady understood why we weren’t driving in the dark but assured us early in the morning would be different. She also told us Acapulco was 20 hours and laughed when we told her we wanted to exit Mexico in 2 days.

Back at the hotel we reformulated our plan. We need to get serious about things; Brandon has a week to catch his plane out of costa rica. 3 days into Mexico we were under halfway thru and my original plan was to take 3-4 total in Mexico. If this pace continued we would miss his plane.
Here is our new travel plan: packed up and on the road by 5 am, drive until dark without major stops, keep a travel log for times and distances, passenger seat was now a full time job; to make sure we didn’t get lost. The driving got difficult all of a sudden, but we were up to the challenge. Tomorrow was our proving ground, we could only hope rt 200 would be a solid thru way.

Our bail plan was to cut back up to 15 from Manzanillo if it takes longer than 4 hours. This would mean driving thru Mexico city (twice the population of NYC), which I did not want to attempt. We were also wondering about the 20 or so mile gap on the map where rt 200 doesn’t exist just south of Acapulco; that could be interesting……

After breakfast Saturday morning we got back on Rte 15. We took our time, stopping for tacos de cabeza on the way. We are still enjoying Mexico immensely, and know not to take it for granted. We are fairly certain the roads are not going to get better than this. On route today tolls cost roughly $25 usd. We passed 4 or 5 federale checkpoints without issue or stoppage.

We pushed through Culiucan at roughly 4 wanting to reach Mazatlan. Our rule is to get off the road by dusk, and if we hurried we would be ok. Mazatlan was tricky to navigate. Although we kept following signs to the beach (la playa), we were driving in circles. Streets are not marked, and often destinations are marked as a right turn (for instance) but you can see another sign ahead marking the same destination as straight ahead. This can be extremely confusing!! Especially in the dark.

Mazatlan is the biggest city we will stay in on our trip; 350,000 people. After about 1.5 hours of being lost we found old town, our house, and the beach. We stayed at the Hotel Belmar, which was going to be fine for the nite. No luxury, but it was safe with a hot shower, secure parking, a pool, and hard beds (good for the back).

There was a big soccer game either in town or involving the town’s team, and people were celebrating. Across the bay we could see a fireworks display. We walked a little and bought corn on a stick and fried pigs in a Mexican blanket. Neither were very good, this was the first time we ate in Mexico and did not enjoy our food. We got fish dinner at a small restaurant later that was excellent. Back at the hotel kids were partying all nite, and neither of us slept well.

Sunday we woke up and the partiers were all passed out in the lobby and hallways, it was funny. There were beer cans and cup o noodles everywhere; reminded me of my college days. Before we hit the road I made sure to wake them up! And off we were… oh yeah, we named the truck Isabella.

It’s always good to relearn an old lesson, and this morning it was “don’t believe everything you hear at waffle house”. We drove thru the nite from las Vegas and decided to stop in Tucson to get a bite and fill up the gas tank before crossing the border.

Brandon and I both knew coming into this trip that the scary reports coming out of Mexico were probably not as bad in reality. Deep down I was still a little nervous having never been myself.

At the waffle house in Tucson , everyone (6 people) knew each other, and soon knew our business. We were okay chatting because we wanted their input as well and they were all very friendly. None of them had crossed the border in over 10 years because it was too dangerous. This included a gentleman who lives in Nogales, Arizona; a town right on the border! This rattled my nerves; I was tired after an all night drive and hungry because the griddle wasn’t working so all they had to feed us were waffles (can’t say they were falsely advertising), but I wasn’t loving my waffle.

The border crossing was a breeze. No guns, no dogs, no hard questions; just tell the guy where we were headed and carry on. We drove away in disbelief at how easy it was. Nogales on the Mexican side was a little seedy, but we just drove right thru and were out in about 10 minutes. Roughly 20 minutes later we came to the next border crossing, which we weren’t expecting. Now it made sense this would surely be the headache we were expecting. Not at all! There was some paperwork, a couple lines, $40USD, and we were on our way in just under an hour. It was like a nice visit to the DMV. After the paperwork was in order we were waved thru the border again without any checks.

The end of the day found us drinking cervecas at our motel in San Carlos on the pacific coast just north of Guaymas. This town is a sleepy little getaway that hasnt done well in a tough economy. It appears that about half the buildings are either for sale or for rent. So far, MEX 15 has been a well signed, paved, 2 lane highway where my speed has averaged about 100 kph. There were plenty of gas stations, and I spent about $7usd on tolls.

No problemas, I’m happy to be in Mexico, so far it has fit my stereotype; our friendly neighbors to the south…