Our Mexican Adventure

A month ago, we left our readers hanging with an unfinished account of our 2nd journey from Chicago to Playa del Carmen. We seemingly dropped off the universe between Mexico City and Puebla. Yet, nary a reader inquired as to our well-being. This either attests to our lack of readership or proves that our readers really suck. In either case, a sense of obligation probably stemming from our Catholic school days (and also so John will stop nagging Libby about it), compels us to finish our trip report.

So … Puebla. After our harrowing ride through Mexico City, we settled in for a much-needed 2 night break in Puebla, a large city in central Mexico which attracts both business and leisure visitors. Puebla’s historic center, a Unesco World Heritage Site, boasts beautifully preserved colonial architecture with many buildings sporting painted ceramic tiles (azulejos). A church rounds every corner (seriously!). Historically significant buildings are signposted with brief blurbs in Spanish and English. It was the perfect place for our aimless wanderings.


To fuel our walking tour, we snacked on perfect churros (check out La Churreria Antigua Catedral if you’re in town, but skip the greasy donuts), scrumptious baked goods (only rivaling those of Mexico’s Walmart bakeries — go ahead and laugh), and tacos arabe. Mmmm … tacos arabe. Mexico, and particularly Puebla, has a sizable Lebanese population. The Lebanese brought with them their practice of roasting meat on a vertical spit rotisserie. Adapted for pork (How do they explain that to Allah?), these have become very popular all over Mexico, only with regional differences. In the Yucatan Peninsula where we live, the pork is marinated with a local spice called achiote (or annatto), and called tacos al pastor. In central Mexico, tacos arabe are herbed pork on pan arabe, a cross between a tortilla and a pita. Served with steamed onions, these are mmm mmm good!

Unfortunately, our stay in Puebla ended on a sour note when we encountered one of Puebla’s “finest” on our way out of town. Considering we had done nothing wrong, we assumed we’d take care of this annoyance with a little “consideration”. Not so lucky. After an hour of intimidation tactics and seizure of John’s driver’s license, we finally gave in to his outrageous mordida demand. Only time we’ve been robbed in Mexico! Angered by the incident, we planned to file an official complaint and publish the guy’s name and badge number. However, a native Mexican and former resident of Mexico City dissuaded us from doing so as she believed it could come back to haunt us. Judging from recent Puebla news, she’s probably right.

We’ve probably said too much already. If you don’t hear from us soon, check the Puebla jails. Oh wait, we know you won’t bother.

Puebla Photos

As it’s been two weeks since our last post, you may be wondering if we are hopelessly lost somewhere, still trying to make our way to Puebla. In fact, we’ve been back in Playa now for about two weeks. Although we still plan to report on the rest of our journey home to Playa, we’ve been sidetracked by a very serious matter. Our good friend, DJ, who many of our friends and family have met while vacationing in Playa, was involved in a serious motor scooter accident two weeks ago.

His list of injuries was grim: blood clot in the brain, fractured skull, punctured & infected lung and 8 broken ribs. He was unconscious for the first two days, a very scary time. Because he had no identification or health insurance information on him when he was discovered, DJ was transported to Cancun’s General Hospital, over an hour away. Although there are closer hospitals, many here will not accept a patient without health insurance and/or a cash or credit card deposit.

Luckily, a friend recognized DJ in one of the gory accident pictures they post in the local newspaper, and positively identified him at the hospital. The General Hospital was not the kind of place we wanted for DJ, but due to the severity of his injuries, he could not be moved immediately. This was the sort of place, not uncommon in Mexico, where medications for patients had to be bought by the family members. Although DJ was kept on life support, he was not medicated for his blood clot until he was discovered 1 1/2 days after the accident.

Fortunately, DJ responded well to the medication, and regained consciousness. His blood clot was receding. After a few days, he was moved to a new hospital in Cancun — a big improvement, but still not the type of care we are accustomed to in the states. Despite that, DJ continued to make wonderful progress. The first time we saw DJ, he slept much of the time, could barely talk, moaned in pain when moving, and coughed horribly due to the lung infection. The last time Libby saw DJ (on Friday), he was talking, perusing magazines, walking all over the place (despite her objections but with her help) and taking a great interest in his personal appearance.

One of the first indications we had that DJ would be okay, was when he started asking for his cigarettes. And asking and asking … and begging and begging. He doesn’t understand why we won’t just let him go out to the store for some smokes. “I’ll be right back”, he assures us. He is under heavy medication, which prevents him from fully understanding his current situation, and which makes him say and do some funny things. Examining his hospital room one day, he commented, “I really don’t care for what they’ve done with this place.” And he takes full advantage of the situation by flirting with the many girls who come by to spend time with him, giving us hugs and kisses. It’s very sweet.

In fact, although DJ can be very stubborn at times, we’re amazed at how sweet and polite he has been throughout his ordeal. He is always thanking his friends and the hospital staff, and even apologizes when he’s been difficult. DJ has always been there for us, since our first night in Playa when he warned us away from slick-talking Victor (a time-share salesman as it turned out). He helped us learn the ropes, and introduced us to many of our Playa friends. We’re so happy to be able to return the favor now that he needs us.

And we’re not the only ones who feel this way. The incredible outpouring of support from the Playa community is a testament to DJ. His friends organized a constant vigil, making sure he was never alone at the hospital, and are holding countless fundraising events. Friends and fans from around the world have made monetary donations towards his care. DJ has no health insurance and his family is not in a position to pay for his medical needs. If you would like to help DJ, you may donate via Paypal here.

More information about DJ’s condition and fundraising events can be found here.

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.

After a enjoyable day and a half in Zacatecas, we set off for the city of Patzcuaro, described by our guidebook as a colonial gem. It would take us over an hour out of our way, but how could we resist a colonial gem? The trip was only about 300 miles and SCT (previously mentioned in Back in Mexico) estimated that the trip would take 5 hours and 16 minutes. After 9 hours of stressful driving, we finally arrived in Patzcuaro to find a pleasant enough town but not quite the gem we had hoped for.

The longer than expected drive to Patzcuaro was due to unwanted forays through towns along the way. Normally, the toll roads divert you around the cities. Either by our error or by design, we ended up in one of those cities along the toll road. (Irapuato, you might be a nice enough city normally, but getting through you back to the highway sucked!) And the last 100 miles off the toll road took us through many towns. Normally, these entail a simple, albeit slow, drive through town. However, on this day, every city seemed to be doing construction and set us off on long, poorly signposted detours. Getting through each of these cities took anywhere from 20-60 minutes. Luckily, just when we were sure we were lost, we’d finally see another sign for the highway.

When we finally arrived, we found Patzcuaro to be a small, quiet town that pretty much shut down by 9pm. Aside from the requisite church on the zócalo (main plaza), all the architecture looked pretty much the same. In fact, everything in the historic center was painted white and burnt orange to look the same. Nice, but a bit boring. To be fair, we didn’t spend much time in town so we may very well have missed some of its’ nicer features.

On the bright side, we were accepted at the first hotel we tried despite the front desk clerk’s fear of cats. We’ve often suspected that many Mexicans are either afraid of cats or just plain don’t like them. We often see horror in the eyes of front desk clerks upon mentioning our gata. Bringing a cat into a Mexican hotel room seems to be about the equivalent of trying to bring a pet alligator into an American Holiday Inn.

After a brief night in Patzcuaro, we planned to head off for a night in the town of Cuautla, about 50 miles from Mexico City. Cuautla is known for its’ hot springs, which we planned to soak our tense muscles in, and is a popular weekend escape for Mexico City residents.

We’ve been back in Mexico for several days now. Longer travel times than we expected on this new, unfamiliar route have prevented us from posting earlier. Mexico’s department of transportation, SCT, has a very informative website that provides trip planning between many Mexican destinations. Although their itinerary, along with our indispensable Guia Roji Mexico Atlas, have been very helpful, we have found SCT’s travel time estimates to be more than a little optimistic.

For one particular drive (Zacatecas to Patzcuaro), SCT estimated a time of 5 hours and 16 minutes. It actually took us 9 hours. So much for our joy ride. Of course, about 30 minutes of that was us going the wrong way. And we never did find 2 of the toll roads that SCT said we should take; although they would have only taken us very short distances, they would have been faster than their free alternatives. Oh yeah, and then, there was that hour-long wait to cross a bridge that some maniacal speeding jerk drove off of. You may think we should be more sensitive, but we have little sympathy for those who choose to drive blindingly fast into dangerous curves or while passing in the opposing lane of traffic. They put all of our lives in jeopardy. We could write a whole blog entry on driving in Mexico … and probably will … one day.

Our journey into Mexico began with immigration just over the border. This time around was a little more hectic than last as we were less prepared, but playing the dumb tourist helped us out in the long run. We even got lucky and won the border lottery; we got a green light and didn’t have to stop for a customs inspection. In case you’ve never been to Mexico, you might find it amusing that passing through customs entails a sort of stoplight. Green light … go. Red light … pull over, amigo. It’s the same in the airports, but in the airport you actually get to press the button that randomly generates a color yourself. We made it through without any of the complications we had been worried about. We love you, Puente Colombia border crossing. (We’ve heard horror stories of the nearby border point at Nuevo Laredo.)

Although we aren’t big fans of Monterrey and its crazy traffic, we ended up there after 10 hours of driving, and needed to find a place to stay. We naively thought we’d get a room at the Best Western we stayed at previously with its comfy beds and wifi in the rooms. Finding our way back to the hotel was a nightmare because someone in Monterrey city planning must have read our blog and decided to improve the traffic situation by adding overhead bypass lanes. During construction, traffic was diverted through winding local streets. Nothing like sending 4 lanes of rush hour traffic through crowded one-lane residential streets. With no detour signs to direct us around the construction, we just followed the chain of bumper to bumper traffic until we were back on the main route. We eventually made it to the hotel, only to find that they had no rooms left. Oops. Knowing that Monterrey was not a cat-friendly city, we headed north to a highway auto hotel aka motor inn. (”What’s your price tonight?” Any Night Ranger fans out there?)

Although these types of hotels were good to us in the past, with their “ask no questions” attitude, the free “cable entertainment”, and their convenient “hourly rates” (9 hour minimum, for the record), we made a major mistake in judgment; we paid our $210 pesos before inspecting the room first. (Puedo ver el cuarto? We have that line down pat.) The resident inhabitants of the room were quick to find cover once we disturbed them by turning on the light. We ended up sleeping with the lights on during the night, to keep the more timid ones from saying hello. Although we’re not normally morning people, we were anxious to get an early start at 6am the following day.

After a very scenic 6 hour drive through the mountains, we arrived in our next destination, Zacatecas city in Zacatecas state. (Mexicans had a habit of naming their major cities after their states, or vice versa.) Like many other small mountain cities we’ve been in, Zacatecas is located in a valley between the mountains. Although this location was probably great for keeping out intruders in prior centuries, the city has grown and car traffic along with it. Noxious fumes from ancient city buses and those old non-environmentally friendly VW bugs become trapped in the valley. No emissions testing going on here. Aside from the pollution, Zacatecas is a wonderful city, and we chose to spend an extra night here so that we’d have a full day to explore.

Luckily, we were able to secure a “luxury villa” in the Hotel Don Miguel, which we referred to as “that huge yellow monstrosity”. (Our hotel was the biggest structure in town, and is still growing.) Although lacking a marble bathroom and his and hers spa robes, our room certainly was a luxury to us after the previous night’s stay in Monterrery. Despite the hard bed, we enjoyed sleeping in late and then headed out to explore the city. We found Zacatecas to be a cosmopolitan town with sophisticated eateries and bars. We had a delicious lunch at the French La Creperie. Next, we donned hard hats and boarded a rail car for a tour of one of Zacatecas’ mines. Zacatecas is a silver city, although, gold, quartz, calcite (and probably other elements we don’t know the Spanish words for) have also been mined. The mine we toured was no longer in operation as it is in the city center and could cause serious damage to its’ surroundings in the event of an explosion.

After understanding only about 30% of our tour in Español (silver … miners … children … working … dangerous, etc.), we headed for higher ground. Zacatecas’ dominant hill, La Bufa, affords a great view of the city, so we headed up via the Swiss built cable car, Teleférico. Our cable car operator spoke perfect English after having lived in the suburbs of Chicago and Racine, Wisconsin for 16 years. He told us that Zacatecas’ winters are even colder than Chicago’s. At an elevation of 2445 meters, Zacatecas is quite chilly even in the summer. We were thankful to have heating in our hotel room.

We decided to walk down the hill instead of returning by the Teleférico as we love randomly roaming through Mexican towns. Unfortunately, the menacingly dark cloud cover finally materialized into a good rain about halfway down the hill. We ducked into a tiny convenience shop and enjoyed some snacks as we watched the rain in the doorway. A random man walked by and wished us a ‘buenas tardes’ (good afternoon). When the rain slowed down, we ran out and made a couple of wrong turns (must have been fate as it gave us the opportunity to help a distraught mother move her wheelchair-bound daughter around an obstacle), and eventually found ourselves in tourist central. There we flagged down a cab to take us directly to the door of our villa (at the top of yet another hill). We rushed in, turned up the heat and removed those wet clothes.

We headed to Patzcuaro the next morning, but we’ll leave you here for now. Stay tuned.