Driving in Mexico can be summed up in the immortal words ‘just do it.’ ‘It’ means doing whatever it takes to get you where you want to be before the other guy gets there – even if he’s not going where you’re going. I mean whatever. cutting in front of other cars, changing lanes on a dime, going the wrong way down one way streets, cutting someone off by making a u-turn around them, making unexpected u-turns in general, backing up into oncoming traffic… I’ve seen things no sane diver has even dreamed of. It doesn’t help that there are so many one-way roads and so much construction screwing everything up.’just do it’. it’s a demolition derby driver’s dream.
I’ve found that the best way for me to approach driving in G. is to keep my left eye glued to the outside driver-side mirror, my right eye alternating between looking straight ahead and in the rear view mirror, with an occasional glance to the right, just in case a pedestrian decides to jump in front of my car, and to keep my automatic transmission in 1st gear. there’s no use having it in ‘D’, i’m never going to get above 5 mph anyway, and the low gear gives me the instant acceleration i constantly need. i’m going to have to get some new brake pads soon, though.
yesterday, we went into Guadalajara to hit up the new Home Depot there for a fireplace screen to keep Mandy the gata (cat) out of the ashes. THE LADY IN THE GPS DOESNT KNOW A DARN THING ABOUT DRIVING IN GUADALAJARA!
i cant even describe the wild-goose chase she sent us on. about an hour ending with a half-hour’s drive on a dirt road somewhere. i’d like to show you a photo of the neighborhood she took us through, but stopping to get out of the car and take a picture just didnt seem like such a bright idea. finally, she got us near an intersection that would take us back to Ajijic, and we took it. a three hour trip, and no Home Depot.
last nite, i played with the gps, hoping i could program in better instructions to get us there. i thought i had it down pretty good, and so this morning we took off for Home Depot once more. amazingly, our lady friend turned us down the same dirt road we had travelled the day before – just going the opposite direction! ‘She’s diabolical’ Les exclaimed.
Deciding that we’d go in the opposite direction of whichever way she told us to go, we slowly approached the neighborhood of the Home Depot. But there was construction and we had to take another street to get there. At one intersection, we decided to take a right to see if we could get back to the street the store was on, when we noticed that we were actually in the Home Depot parking lot! How in the world that happened, I’ll never know.
I’ll just briefly say that the store didnt carry any fireplace accessories, and that only one person in the store spoke passable english. however, everyone was delightfully friendly and helpful. While we were in shopping, I paid some men in the parking lot 40 pesos (around $3.50) to wash our car. they did a great job, and would have cleaned the inside too if we hadnt locked it.
But back to our lady inside the GPS. twice she led us around in circles trying to get back to the highway, each much larger than the one before. constantly she asked us to turn down the wrong way on one way streets. we finally turned her off and just drove as far as we could away from the Home Depot before turning her on again. By this time, Les had located us on the map we had, and had devised a route back to Ajijic. at this point, the smart lady in the Garmin agreed with her.
David is a brave soul though, after driving in Guadalajara I sincerely question his sanity. The word chaotic does not even begin to describe the pandemonium that ensues as you venture into the unknown traffic patterns of the city and surrounding environs. The person in front has the right of way (at least the person who is driving the vehicle has the right of way – pedestrians are another matter all together). One of my co-workers who spent several summers in Guadalajara made a comment, in passing, “the city is beautiful and you will fall in love with it – just don’t try to cross the street”. Not only did we not heed her warning, we crossed the street walking – with only one fall on record which we will not address in this narrative and we ventured out driving. At one point, as David was driving through one of the residential areas and he was actually – believe it or not – beginning to get the hang of driving without boundaries – he dead panned the following comment as we pulled up behind someone who didn’t seem to know where they were going (a familiar happening) “I’m feeling compelled to honk” (honking is something you hear often – not that it does any good). As I looked at him, he has this wonderful smile on his face and I realized, to my astonishment, he was enjoying this adventure! Got to love the man!!
Les
Traffic in Ajijic, Lake Chapala
There’s only one road around Lake Chapala, and sometimes the traffic can build up. Especially in Ajijic.
Really, driving in Mexico wasn’t so hard once I got used to people, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, and trucks appearing out of nowhere, changing lanes, and then changing back again, all in the blink of an eye. Left turn, right turn, and flashing signal lights mean nothing at all, except perhaps to test that they are working, so I learned to pay no attention to them. With quick reflexes and eyes pointing forward and to both sides, as well as towards both outside mirrors and the rear-view mirror simultaneously, it’s a breeze.
The Cathedral, Guadalajara, Mexico
The architecture in the Historical area is just wonderful. Everywhere we looked, there was the dome, tower, or spire of a church. There are small squares on virtually every other corner, filled with people young and old sitting on the benches chatting and relaxing. But the Grand Square, opposite the Cathedral, is something else altogether. Filled with children playing in the fountain, vendors selling all sorts of toys, people simply milling around, and hundreds sitting on the benches, enjoying the late afternoon light and cool air, the square is clearly the place to be. In the evening a band plays in the bandshell in the middle of the square, and people flock to listen. Last night there was an 8 or 9 man Mariachi band, complete with gray suits. But unlike Mariachi bands you might see in the states, in San Antonio for instance, who are playing for the tourists, this band was playing for the locals, and they loved it.
Ive read that driving in Rome can be terrifying, unless youre a Roman. And Mexico City has a pretty bad reputation.
If they’re any worse than Guadalajara – I dont want to drive in them. The drivers here whiz back and forth between lanes, squeeze their cars through the tightest spaces, and are either very brave or just plain crazy. And the trucks! We almost clipped one who was backing out of an alley into a major street. But I guess I should have realized it would be this way when we had to back out of the rental car agency into a major road at the airport.
Dont even think of driving in Guadalajara without a GPS. Sure, there are signs to help you get around – but theyre not that much help.
Today we walked to the Mercado Liberdad – a huge market not to be missed when here. More about it on another post. But when we tried to find a cab to drive us back to the hotel, none of the drivers had even heard of it, even though it was in the historic register of Mexico. I guess that is an argument for staying at the Hilton. Anyway, not only had they not heard of the hotel, we found only one driver who knew where the streets were, and that only after we showed him a map!
The car we rented was a nice little Chevy Avia. It`s a great little car and has plenty of leg room – even for someone 6′4″ tall.
But we ran into a little hitch – ok – several no-so-little hitches at the Rental Car office.
I had booked this little Avia online for something like $83, including tax. That seemed like a great deal for 6 days. But the liability insurance was an extra $7, and the collision another $10, and finally, the loss damage waiver was $17. That raised the total cost of the insurance to $35/day plus taxes! All in all, the 6 day rental of the car didn`t cost the $100-150 including insurance that I expected, but a whopping $360!
In addition, they wanted to charge a $1250 deposit to my credit card!
Daily rental insurance prices are set by the government, so this agency was not trying to rip me off – but the price was a shock.
But after driving from the airport to downtown G., I was happy to pay every cent of it.
Les and I both own Garmin GPS units for our cars. But here in the States, they don’t come with maps for Mexico. It would be great to have a GPS when driving in Mexico - especially in Guadalajara itself – but we’re leaving in 2 days and we don’t have one. I thought for sure that we’d be able to go to Garmin.com and download a Mexico map – but I was wrong!!! (Les has informed me that this has happened before.) They only come on CDs or SD cards that we can order from their store or buy from a dealer. We don’t have time to order one before we leave for Mexico – so we had to find a dealer in Dallas who had a Mexican CD or SD card, or else use printed maps (remember those?)
You’d think with Texas being so close to Mexico, almost next door as it were, a map would be easy to find. But after five phone calls, nada. At the last moment, we dropped in to a local Best Buy (I’d called them before – but no one had answered the phone), and that only because after a hard day of pre-trip shopping, we were eating at a restaurant next to one. Surprisingly, unlike the other 4 stores, they actually had a Map of Mexico SD card! It cost $130, not the $100 it would cost from the Garmin online store – but now we have a GPS to use in Mexico.
Moral: If you have time, order one from Garmin far in advance of leaving. If you’re shortsided like us and don’t have any idea what you are doing, go to Best Buy!
