Driving Through Mexico

For Keith and I to start our 15 month journey, we needed to drive 4 days through Mexico back to the US. We were both a bit nervous of the unknown as we've heard good and bad reports from friends who have done the drive before. I was most worried about being pulled over by the police and shaken down for money. I prepped for the worst and I am happy to report, we had zero issues. When we do this again, we will do exactly what we did, drive over the weekend and leave super early in the mornings and be done by 4pm.

We started in Akumal and drove the first day for about 10 hours. After seeing thousands of animals (dogs, goats, bulls, monkeys...), an encounter with 2 street dogs that I lured away from us with milk bones, many cenote sized potholes, overcast skies, lots of rain, 4 security checkpoints (none of which made us stop. They loved the dogs though!), tons of street side food vendors, 2 cappuccinos, crazy drivers and great tunes, we made it to Villahermosa in 9 hours and 40 minutes. We went straight to our hotel and decided to just relax in our room due to the dogs and being exhausted. I ordered a domino's pizza, with the help of the front desk, and it was a lazy night of TV. 

We woke up early to get on the road to Puebla, which was over 7 hours. The day seemed so much longer longer than the day before, even though it wasn’t. We drove on a very long boring highway that was only country side, gas stations and fruit stands. No small towns to see. We saw parrots on sticks for sale, the car was X-rayed 3 times, we went through 2 checkpoints, 8 tolls with the most expensive one being $213 pesos. There was more traffic due to construction. Our day started with horrible drivers in Villahermosa and ended with horrible drivers in Puebla. We did manage to get a Starbucks before we started today and that was good - no coffee crankies for us! Our hotel was cute but it was the WORST bed we have ever slept in. 

The next morning we woke up early so we could get on the road to drive around Mexico City (around, not through) on our way to Saltillo. We made it to Saltillo safe and sound - I think this was the day we were most worried about due to having to find Arco Norte and just not sure what driving around Mexico City would be like. The trip included our first train sighting, many many MANY factories, only 2 checkpoints, a ton of police on the roads, the biggest toll at $355 pesos 1 birthday froofroo coffee drink (I turned 42!), a buffet dinner sign for 65 pesos ($3.42), 1 discussion on cacti vs cactus's, donkeys and goats, the many “cafes” along the highway and several highway fires... 8.5 hours down. 

The border was just 3 hours from Saltillo! The drive was a boring drive with lots of mountains and desert, Saltillo is a cute town but there is NO booze on Sunday and most restaurants were closed. We had 1 checkpoint with no one really manning it, we saw 1 dead horse on the side of the road 24 miles from the border (that was a horrific sight!!), the final cost for all tolls was $113.62 USD, at immigration we were the only people there, and we were never asked to see any of the dogs paperwork... 

32 hours and 35 minutes later, we arrived! The whole trip was 2,780 kilometers! 

Would we do it again - YES. It really wasn't as bad as we had expected at all. IF you have any questions on the drive, tolls, where to stay, etc... Just ask!