Modern Times Banditos

Well so far, we have not met any “banditos” on the roads of Mexico… Or, let’s put it that way, no traditional banditos, the ones ambushing vehicles to rob them. But there are new kinds of banditos, and unfortunately, our sprays are completely useless against them. Some lie undetected in the middle of the roads and destroy the suspensions of the vehicles, they are called “topes” or humps. Others are posted at regular intervals on the roads and empty our wallet, they are called “casetas de cobro” or toll barriers. The roads of Mexico are infested with them and there is no way to escape. We have two choices, either we take toll roads and face the “casetas de cobro” or we take free roads and have to deal with the “topes”. Difficult choice… We have tried both and do not know which is best, really… so we go for a Swiss compromise and do half half… There are topes everywhere on free roads, on average five or six in each hamlet. Some are very high and are not marked, so we have to be extremely careful and scan the road constantly. We have to slow down to a stop to pass them to avoid ending up with a flat tyre or a broken suspension. We did some statistics today and counted an average of one tope per minute of travel… completely insane. On the other hand, casetas de cobro are everywhere on toll roads. They rob you an average of one USD per twelve kilometres (more statistics), which is insane when put in proportion with Mexican average income. So only wealthy people and commercial vehicles use toll roads. So, one would think that toll roads are better than free roads, right?

 Yes, but unfortunately this does not prove right, specially in the south of Mexico. The toll roads are in a despicable state there, narrow, bumpy, patched, huge potholes, trucks zigzagging to avoid them, no emergency lane, and so on. Obviously, the money collected does not go into road maintenance… It is an ordeal to drive on those “highways”, we are completely knackered after 300 kilometres of this. We have avoided any major damage so far and decided to laugh about this (except the occasional swearing) as there is absolutely nothing we can do. And we reckon it is not going to improve further south…there will maybe be more topes and less casetas to cobro…or more…it is still better than traditional banditos anyway, but this is armed robbery all the same. Nevertheless, we drove today for 500 kilometres on a very nice road in the state of Campeche, with no caseta de cobro and very few topes; there are also some nice surprises!!!