"A Once-in-a-lifetime Experience"

Above is the way my new friend Ed Van Riper described his trek through Mexico in a little Dodge Dakota pickup. At the time he told me, I thought he might be exaggerating the severity of the roads & general driving conditions.  As you talk to various people who have made the drive through Mexico, you get widely conflicting opinions.  Some people think it’s a piece of cake, some like Ed wouldn’t do it again for love or money.

Here was my experience. 

Moises & I flew to Houston on Monday & he went on to Jackson, Mississippi, where he saw a lawyer & picked up some stuff from his in-laws.  He came back on a bus almost immediately, and I picked him up late Tuesday night.  In the meanwhile, I picked up the trailer, got back the money I had paid to have it shipped to Belize, and then did a LOT of shopping.  I was buying stuff for my friend John, as well as for us.  Everything came out of the boxes, and was “aged” so that it would look used.  I replaced the tires on the Scout, and put two new tires on the front of the tandem setup on the trailer.  I put the spare scout tires in the back of the Scout. On Wed. morning, we started down from Houston to McAllen, which is a minimal point of entry compared to Brownsville.  The idea, I found, is to hit the border where there’s a shortage of officials; this minimizes the bureaucracy.  Moses is a great talker, and we got through with minimal hassle.  One interesting encounter -- it turns out that only one spare is permitted; an inspector suggested that I give him $20 US to overlook the tires (big oversized COOPER off road tires.)  We had to do the bribery very circumspectly, because the entire area is Videotaped.  (!!!)  After some reflection, I realized that the tires were not worth that much, and if someone else hassled us again, I would simply take out the tires & give them to them!  Of course, it never happened again.

We went down the coast route through the mountains to Tampico.  I drove a little the first morning, and then decided that it was just too much strain on my heart.  By the time we got to Tampico, I was having chest pains & some left arm pain, and expected that I would probably die of a heart attack if I didn’t get out of the Scout.  Moses is not a natural driver; he tends to overcorrect; his eyes wander, and he just simply drives me crazy.  Every time I start to relax, he does something scary like drift over the centerline when we are being passed by a semi.  So, I left the drive at Tampico  on Friday, and Moses went on alone.  He felt better about this because he wanted to drive at night, and I absolutely refused to do that.  He drove by himself to Veracruz, on to Villa Hermosa, and into Chetumal; a drive which he has made about fifteen times, tho never with a trailer.  He was a pretty good trailer driver by the time he got to Chetumal on Monday night. 

I had been waiting for him in Chetumal (at the Holiday Inn, by the way – the most expensive hotel there) and I took over and drove to the border.  Charlotte came up from Belize City, it took us about three hours & $850 in duty to get thru customs, and Charlotte drove in to Corozal.  So much for the facts of driving.

About the roads.  They are absolutely the worst main roads I have ever been on.  There are no restrictions on loads in Mexico; the roads are dominated by huge Superbusses with four or six doolies in the back, and 22-wheel semis which are probably carrying 100,000 lb.  The roads thru the mountains are a lot like Independence Pass (Buena Vista to Aspen) with no shoulder, designed for light loads.  Can you imagine what a light mountain road would be like if you were hitting it every day with several hundred overweight trucks & busses?  Not only is there no defined shoulder, but the ground drops off at road edge, so that if you went off, you would most certainly roll.  Occasionally, there is a guard rail, but usually not. 

If you see pictures of the Mexican roads, they will look pretty good.  However, the trucks are destroying the base of the road, so that, altho it looks smooth, it is actually very wavy.  This made it impossible to drive the trailer at more than about 35 mph. Mexico has fairly high gasoline taxes, and they are a gas producer.  This combination leads to GREAT roads in Texas; in Mexico, I think it leads to very prosperous politicians. 

Moses had some trouble with the Scout; one of the wheels kept coming loose (lug holes were enlarged) and we had some recurring brake troubles.  All in all, he spent a couple hundred US dollars on emergency repairs; a penalty because the mechanic (me) bailed out on him. 

We had anticipated having to pay some bribes, but Moses is such a great talker (Spanish), and of course, he is filled with The Spirit, so he had very little trouble in that regard.  I’m sure that Charlotte & I, driving it together, would have had more trouble.  In general, tho, the real killer is the road conditions. 

We were very fortunate getting thru Customs at the Belize northern border.  It helped that we had been hanging out at “The Garden Spot” at the border, where all the customs guys gamble, shoot pool & drink.  So, they knew that we were locals. Actually, they never really looked inside the Scout or the trailer, they just accessed the value of both, heavily depreciated them on the basis of their obvious wear and tear, and charged us the legal percentage.  They decided the Scout was worth $1500 BZ, which is $750US, and I had to pay 88 percent of that, because it is a heavy 8-cylinder truck. 

Enuf on this:  Ask me questions, if I left anything out.

Best,

Sr. ric

Copyright, CASELab, 1999. All rights reserved. 

NEW: Rick writes about his 2004 experiences driving to Belize from Colorado here.