Mexico cont’d
A few miles south of the city things started changing again as we got into the mountains where it was impossible to make any time, loaded as I was. Towns big enough to have accommodations were virtually nonexistent, resulting in my first nighttime driving experience outside Canada or the US.
Firstly, narrowly missed a herd of 5 deer in the deepening dusk, then there were the other hazards of cows, horses, bicycles etc to keep one on their toes. Not a pleasant experience & one I didn’t wish to try again. (little did I know it would be repeated the next evening).
The following morning found the route going through flatlands again. Here I noticed a change in the people. Should any graduate student be looking for an interesting subject for a thesis, I would suggest a comparison of the similarities between cultures according to latitude. Reason being is it seemed as if I could of been entering SE Asia here in the Americas. Also when traveling through northern Finland, I spent the night in an older hotel in Kemi where if it wasn’t for the labels on the liquor bottles & the language, one could have very well of been in northern Ontario, right down to the mannerisms of the people.
Towards the end of a day of boring scenery, punctuated by a couple road train rollovers, I neared the last good sized Mexican town, where I intended on spending the night before crossing Guatemalan border. However entering the town the border crossing touts were out in full force (12 km before the border), from them I learned that it was necessary to cancel the temporary vehicle import permit, there before arriving at the border, also that there was a holiday the next day & the border was closing to traffic requiring inspection at 7:00 pm for a day. So instead of spending 2 nights on the border decided to pay the price wanted by the touts + some facilitating fees on both sides (didn’t really want to unload the van) to enter Guatemala that night.
Did I get ripped off? Likely a little but the alternative wasn’t appealing!
One gets a different perspective driving through a country than merely taking the bus but it seemed that Mexico was more prosperous than my last trip a couple years ago. The intercity buses seemed newer as did the majority of private vehicles. Roads were being upgraded & there was a major antilitter campaign from one end of the country to the other.
All in all I spent a very interesting & enlightening days in the country, where I was treated very well in all the varying price ranges of hotels, from the $17/night to the $40+ (likely around $120 for comparable in the US).
Tags: Travel
busman7