I'm considering driving my gas 35 footer to the Merida area. Potholes? Bandits? Gangs? Bad roads? I speak some spanish and may want to move there.
Also books, websites, etc? I don't care about the west coast of Mexico or Baja.
Thanks!
The only thing I would look out for would be those nasty topes. Apart from that, the trip is a blast and there are some pretty good rv parks as well as boondocking spots along the coast.
The roads down the east coast can be full of potholes if you come right after the rainy season. As long as you aren't trying to break any speed records, it's fine. It's a beautiful drive in fact, one of my favorites. If you are in a hurry, it is faster to come down the middle through Mexico City but that has its own problems.
Either way, if your attitude is good you will enjoy it. We are completing work on a house in Merida and will move out of the RV when it is done. It's a beautiful city, I love it here.
Ditto on Church's book and a good map book. Also would recommend that you not have a schedule. There is a lot to see and do along that route. Fuel is readily available and lot's of good food. ATM's are available in the medium sized towns and larger to get pesos. We had a blast this spring going down the east coast.
Ken and Carol
Rig has too few miles
Ken has too many
There aren't any bandits or gangs, at least none that we've ever seen, but there are occasional military checkpoints, which can be a bit intimidating for the first few times. As far as the roads are concerned, we've always felt that the second day out of Brownsville is the worst - the road conditions are usually fairly rough. If you are sensitive to rough roads, day 2 will be the day you feel like turning around. After that, it's not too bad, but none of the roads after day 1 are anywhere close to USA standards. As was stated in one of the posts above, you have to have the right attitude or you could be miserable.
Thanks, ED. I drove to Panama in the 70's, and I expect that the roads are none the better. I had to pay a 20 dollar bribe at a checkpoint in Guatemala.
I am more concerned about having my rig and all my worldly possessions hijacked, as I travel alone. Maybe I should team up with at least one more rig.
You are not likely to get hijacked unless you start picking up odd passengers or dropping off "product" along the way. Seriously, the only hijackings I've heard of involve either drug transportation or large semi's full of valuable stuff like TVs. We are 2 women who travel alone in a small RV towing a jeep and we stay at truck stops and Pemex and toll plazas and behind restaurants and police kiosks along that route. We aren't stupid and we don't go out drinking when we stop but using some street smarts and having a couple of dogs seems to be all that we need. In fact, we did it for a few years without any dogs. We still had the street smarts though.
There are a lot of roads that are equal to and better than roads in the US down here in the south but they are not along the first few days of that route. Most major roads in Yucatan and Quintana Roo are better than most highways in California, that's for sure. I don't think I've ever taken my RV over a worse road than 580 going into the Bay Area. I have been over worse roads but I didn't have to drive them at 60mph to avoid being hit from behind.
If your last time through here was in the 70's then you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the roads, they are not at all as they were then.
We went down and up to the Yucatan last winter. We like to travel some byway roads that take us though the smaller towns. Sometimes narrow and slow, but all quite good. Lotsa topes, though.
Somewhere on rv.net I found reference to this Mexico Hiways site. Even though this was our 6th drive into Mexico, it was helpful to do some desktop traveling before we left.
The Mexican Highways RUTAS site. This gives you all kinds of detail, road #'s, distances, driving times, and location and cost of tolls. (But not road conditions)
Have your "Roji" map on one side, your Church & Church Campgrounds book in the other, and your laptop in the middle, you can plot routes anywhere in Mexico, from any point to point, short or long, with up to two waypoints in between.
Note also that there is the selection of which vehicle you are driving. For our truck and 5th, the rate is that for "automovil remolque 2 eje".
http://aplicaciones4.sct.gob.mx/sibuac_internet/ControllerUI?action=cmdEscogeRuta
Offline
Online
