Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

We have driven 11,000 miles (17,000 km) on our trip so far and very few things still surprise us on the road.  Our guidebook says the traffic rules are pretty standard like everywhere else in the world and are universally ignored.  They couldn’t be more accurate.

I remember when we first started driving in Mexico we were pretty excited and surprised when we saw a pig or even a goat next to the road. In the meantime we don’t even notice livestock on the road anymore unless it’s a herd of 20 bulls or more blocking all lanes. This also happens on major freeways like the Pan-American highway which is, by the way, much better than its reputation. It has also become normal that cars are passing each other in curves (blind to any on-coming traffic) and almost never let you change lanes. On a two-lane road if there is space for three cars side by side, someone might pass (straddling the center lane) which means you just have to move over on to the shoulder.  If you are a pedestrian in Central America you know better than to cross a road when cars are nearing, no matter if there is a crosswalk or a traffic light. When you are in your car, you are in control.

In the meantime I know not to let other cars squeeze into my lane and I must admit I start to enjoy protecting my territory. It took me a while not to let pedestrians cross the road anymore, but I mastered that, too. And the fact that the Yodavan isn’t the newest and nicest car on the road means I can be as aggressive as I wish, because one more dent will make hardly any difference in its appearance.  No matter how aggressive people are in their cars, I noticed that if you hand signal to another driver that you would like to change lanes or pull out into a busy road, people almost always let you in. All you need to do is have eye contact, look friendly, push your way out into the road and people let you in. I do the same thing.

One thing I still have to work on is the honking. Unfortunately the horn on the Yodavan only works when the steering wheel is slightly off-center.  When I am driving straight it doesn’t work. Therefore I have a real handicap on the roads. I think I need to get this fixed soon, because other ways you are at a real disadvantage, especially if you are a taxi driver. We drove in taxis with built in special buttons to make it easier to honk.  (I have yet to ride in a taxi that had a working speedometer, but almost all of them have pimped their horn.) Just like a parent who can distinguish between a baby’s hungry-cry, tired-cry or dirty diaper-cry, I also figured out the different meanings of honking. Some mean “thank you”, others warn you of something, like “I’m passing you on the left” or “I’m passing you on your right”, others are just the random “I’m driving in Central America so I’m going to honk a few times” and finally there are the “get lost gringo” honks.

Once you have learned all that you are almost good to go, but the most important thing is to realize that you should never expect anything to be as it would be in the States. Don’t ever assume the brake lights of the car in front of you work.  For that reason most cars leave a nice distance between them and the next car.  You expect that animals, palm fronds, broken down vehicles and man holes without covers might materialize at any moment – regardless of whether you are driving on a residential road or the nicest paved 4-line highway (of which there are few in Central America).  Expect that a car might be in your lane as you enter a curve, because not being able to see on-coming traffic is no reason not to overtake another car.  Besides, the oncoming car can always pull out onto the shoulder.  It is this new mindset that enables me to enjoy driving in total chaos through San Salvador with loud 80’s music in-between 2 busses that were both an inch or 2 from my rear view mirrors.  Knowing all this you just need to be “tranquillo”, be prepared for anything and you’ll have the best time on the road, at least if the outside temperature isn’t above 95 degrees.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.