Mexico City is an overcrowded, crime-ridden, polluted mass of 20 million inhabitants. Robberies and kidnappings of tourists and middle and upper class Mexicans occur all too often. Traffic and pollution is so bad that vehicles are prevented from driving one day a week based on the first digit of their license plate. Travel guides, the U.S. State Department, and Mexico City residents themselves warn of the dangers and annoyances rampant in this, the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world. (Tokyo is the largest.)
It is also the major economic and cultural center of Mexico, resplendent with renowned museums, peaceful city parks and swanky shopping and eating establishments. For the latter reason, we had always hoped to one day see Mexico City, arriving by plane and being guided by a reputable professional in private, unmarked transport. For the former reason, we vowed to never drive through Mexico City on one of our trips to Playa del Carmen or Chicago.
But Mexico is full of surprises. 4 1/2 hours into our drive to Cuautla (previously mentioned in Long & Winding Road), we found ourselves in Mexico City. In Mexico, all roads lead to Mexico City. Avoiding it requires getting off the toll roads and using two-lane highways (one lane each way) usually with no shoulders, but sometimes with potholes. Everyone, and their brother who drives a huge truck traveling at 35 mph, takes these roads. Getting past these slow trucks requires speeding into the opposing lane of traffic to pass. A number of Mexicans seem to have a different sense of spatial relations than we do, as they take chances when passing that make our hearts race. These highways also take us through small towns, which have speed bumps, which have enterprising and daring souls selling items ranging from handmade hats to chile peppers to batteries. It can make for a very interesting drive … but not a drive you make when you’re in a hurry.
We had experienced this before and still preferred it to the risks of Mexico City. Previously, we had circumvented the city on the east side and stayed in the agreeable town of Pachuca. As much as we like Pachuca, we wanted something new this time around, and chose to go west and stay in Cuautla. This was a new route for us, and turned out to be even slower and definitely more confusing than the eastern route. But we persevered. We made the first 200 miles slowly, but surely. We were looking for highway 106. Mexican highway signs often do not list highway numbers. They simply show one of the cities that the highway will take you to. It’s hard to say which city it will be. It could be a city 30 miles away, or 300 miles away. If there are multiple signs for the same highway, it’s very possible that each sign will show a different city. We deal with this by memorizing all the cities along our route so that we can make split-second decisions when confronted with sudden turnoffs.
We finally find the turnoff for 106, although it’s signposted as highway 6 and we can’t find the city it supposedly goes to on the map. Close enough. There are many towns, many potholes, many speed bumps, and the driving is very, very slow. But at least the town names are matching up with what our map shows. We’re in the right place. Cool. Until … a police officer is blocking the road. We see someone else try to get through and talk to the cop. Rejected. Uhhh … what now? Our options are to take an even worse road for an even longer distance. It could take all night. Our other option is to drive through Mexico City. If we did that, we could stay in Puebla, an hour outside Mexico City and just off the toll road. Once we got through Mexico City, it would be simple. And we’ve been wanting to see Puebla anyway.
It’s not a decision we made easily, but we made it. We were going through Mexico City. Libby was scared. It was her turn to drive. John said he would drive. Libby was a little relieved … until she began her role as navigator by looking at a map of Mexico City. It certainly did not look straightforward. She would have her work cut out for her. 5 minutes into town, and already a wrong turn was made. No problem. We’ll take the long way around. Hopefully, less traffic that way. We got onto the road we needed — a crazy, high-speed loop around the city where cars took no heed of lane indicators. Who says you need any more than 1 inch of space between side mirrors? It’s almost like they changed a two-lane road into a three-lane road simply by repainting the lines.
We spotted a sign for the tollway to Puebla. Yay! This wouldn’t be as bad as we had thought. We followed the signs to Puebla … and followed … and … hey! Where did the signs to Puebla go? We were approaching the airport, which meant we overshot the highway already. No problem. There’s another way we can go. And this way will be even simpler. Um … we should have hit the highway by now. And so it went … for 2 hours. We spotted many signs to Puebla, but they never went anywhere. Apparently, the signs are merely a warning that a turnoff is coming up, but it is up to you to decide where you actually need to turn off.
We weren’t exactly lost. We knew more or less where we were. We just couldn’t figure out how to get onto the highway. We went past modern office buildings in the downtown, past the international airport, through middle-class neighborhoods, a few markets and through slummy neighborhoods. We stuck out like sore thumbs. Two gringos and a curious cat with Illinois license plates and a Trek bike and Thule cargo bag attached to our Yakima car roof rack. If ever we were to become victims of a crime in Mexico, this would be it.
John, being of masculine persuasion, was determined to keep driving around until we figured our way out of this mess. Libby started considering other options. We could ask a police officer for help. But Mexico City police have been known to be corrupt. We could hire a taxi to lead us out of the city. But taxi drivers have been known to be part of the crime problem. We could go to a fancy-schmancy downtown hotel and ask for a private driver to lead us out of the city. But that would require navigating through the downtown area. Desperation … setting in.
We finally remembered our Garmin GPS unit and pulled it out. Mexico mapping software is definitely lacking, but it was good enough to show us the highway we needed. We headed in the direction of the highway, and miraculously found the frontage road. Ten minutes and a laborious turn around later, and we were finally on our way out of Mexico City and heading towards Puebla! Hallelujah! See the yellow path on the map at the right for our misguided route.
Disclaimer: Some of the negative comments we have made about Mexico City were based not on our personal experience, but on resources such as our Lonely Planet Mexico travel guide, the U.S. State Department, and insights from current and former Mexico City residents. Although Mexico City certainly has its problems, we certainly don’t want to dissuade anyone from visiting. We still hope to enjoy this amazing city one day. However, we would encourage potential visitors to do their research first. Be prepared and then enjoy.
