drmike
Sep 16, 2008, 9:37 AM
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Listen to the advice of the MexConnect veterans
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My wife and I just returned from a visit to the Yucatan. We traveled by car. Toluca to Tulum is a very long way by road. There is much road construction all along the way, turning the trip into an unending marathon of detours and bad roads.
What I would like to pass along to the new members of MexConnect is that it is imperative to listen to the advice of the veterans. Over and over it has been posted to "not drive at night in Mexcio". There are many reasons for this; farm animals on the roadways, unlighted roads, poor signage, crazy-assed drivers, banditos, malovant policia, etc.
We chose to ignore this advice on our return trip in order to get home sooner. Last Friday night we came through Puebla to Tepolztlan and finally exited the autopista at Tres Maria on the way to Toluca. We exited Tres Maria around midnight and continued on the narrow road through a very dark forest, through the mountains toward Toluca. Traffic was very light except for a few cars which quickly gained on us, passed us and disapeared around the next bend.
Anyone who has driven this road knows it is a curvy, tough road. As usual when we crossed into Estado de Mexico (around 1:00 am) there, hidden in the dark, were two Estado De Mexico policia signaling us with a flashlight to pull over very nervously as this sort of thing has happened to us previously. We did and one of the policia began talking about our "placa". I realized this was another guilty of "having Arizona plates" on our vehicle.The first officer spoke very rapidly and kept saying "placa" and he seemed to be warming up for the first suggestion of "the fine". Fortunately for us, another vehicle came in the opposite direction, so the offcial "Welcome to Esatado de Mexico Welcome Wagon" greeter went to shake him down. As the first officer was speaking with the other driver the second officer came up and asked for my drivers license and we gave him our FM-3's and vehicle form which showed our vehicle was legally in Mexico and told him we live in the Toluca area and just wanted to get home. He waved us on without further problems.
We became exceedingly lost further down the road with all the road construction and lack of detour signage. Concern overcame us as we realized we had no idea where we were, or how to get out of this parallel universe. Roads dead ended, forked and forked again all without any effort on the part of the State to place any directional signs. The compass in our vehicle went from N-E-W-S-NE-NW-SW and SE. No reason or order seemed to be happening.
At long last we saw a sign,covered in construction dust, that read Toluca. We finally reached an area we rocognized and found our way home. It was 3:30 am.
The next day I read on the News.Mx that 24 bodies had been found in Estado de Mexico, hands bound and shot in the head. These bodies were found within a few miles of where we were driving, lost in the mountainous forest after midnight, on a road we did not recognize.
We were lucky to have not had more trouble while doing a very foolish thing. When the veterans say, don't drive at night, listen to them. It can be more dangerous than you think.
Dr. Mike
http://www.smarthealthchoices.blogspot.com
There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn't matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.
Hindu teaching
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