Road Trip - Part 2: Mexico - Nuevo Laredo to Santiago Linaries

Road Trip – Part 1: Crossing the Border - Nuevo Laredo to Santiago Linaries

So, this is it. Day 1 in Mexico.

I headed out about 7 am and by 7:15 I was queued up and ready to cross the border.

I had chosen to cross into Mexico early on Christmas Day because my sole focus on that day was to get well south of Monterrey. Everyone who thought I was crazy for making this trip was thinking about Monterray and the danger strangers faced crossing through that city.

On my first effort to penetrate the southern border, which admittedly, did seem all too easy, I got all the way to the interior checkpoint (about 50 km into Mexico) before discovering that I needed a vehicle permit. I knew that I would need a permit in most countries but as I crossed the border at Laredo it seemed like all they wanted was for me to keep moving, so that’s what I did. So I ticked off an hour lost as I turned around and headed back to the border to get the required vehicle permit.

The US/Mexico border crossing works like a cattle pen; once you get in, you can’t get out. So when I got back to the border and couldn’t spot a vehicle permit office, I ended up crossing all the way back into the US. Mom would have been happy if I had called it quits right there and just kept on driving north. It took two more runs back and forth across the border before I finally broke out and spotted a Policia Federal to ask for help finding the permit office.

The Policia gave me the directions I needed and then promptly asked for a tip. That’s was when I realized that my wallet was missing. I frantically searched the car, and, anxious to move on, was just about to pull away thinking it was probably just buried under all the stuff in the passenger seat when I thought to check outside the car. And there it was. It had fallen out of my lap when I jumped out to ask for directions. I had about $250 folded lose in my wallet and quickly realized that it had all blown away down the highway. I quickly found $20 and the Policia joined in to help me look for the rest. After a few minutes, I found another $50 but unfortunately that was all that I could find. A real blow but hey, at least I had my wallet.

I arrived at the permit office and got my vehicle permit without much trouble. I detoured around the insurance sales vendors thinking a) I was in a hurry; b) Geico had my back; c) they would tell me at the permit window if I needed the coverage, and; d) I had just literally thrown about $150 to the wind. They didn’t ask, so I didn’t buy.

I was bolstered by a certain sense of pride as I smoothed out my Mexican auto permit on the windshield; I was now officially ready to start my trek across Mexico. I had set my GPS for a small town called Santiago, safely located 100 km south of Monterrey. Hemingway was the consummate ex-pat so Santiago seemed to be a fitting destination.

The border area in Nuevo Laredo is a cesspool. Every stereotypical image of Mexican squalor was there on full display. I just wanted to find my way back to the highway and finally get underway.

I made my way back to highway 85 out of Nuevo Laredo headed south. If you look at the map, highway 85 goes straight through Monterrey and directly on to my planned destination, Santiago. But I wasn’t looking at the map. I was relying on my GPS and when I approached Monterrey it took me west. I knew I was supposed to pass through Monterrey so after driving on for nearly an hour I realized that the road signs I was seeing for Monterrey were all pointing back to the east. That’s when I also realized that my GPS was showing my estimated arrival in Santiago for 6:30 am the next day. Something was clearly wrong. I pulled over and reset my GPS for Monterrey which confirmed that I need to turn around and head back in the opposite direction. But that was easier said than done. I was on the access-controlled, divided, highway 400 going across the northern edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains through the Parque Nacional Cumbres de Monterrey so I had no choice but to continue driving west; torturously knowing that I really needed be going in the opposite direction.

I had one chance to get off and turn around. And I missed it.

I ended up in Santillo. As I meandered through the city trying to get myself turned around I passed a road sign for Monterrey so I used a “returno” to make a u-turn to head back the other way. As I was making my second “returno” a Policia Federal drove past me and made a motion to me. I made my turn and there he was flagging me over. He said I had run a red light and then he proceeded to ask for my Mexican insurance. When I couldn’t produce proof of the Mexican insurance that I had pompously sidestepped at the border he offered me a choice of having the car towed, spending the night in jail and appearing the next day to answer the ticket. or I could pay it on the spot for 8000 pesos! Of course he offered to take me to the ATM to get the necessary money. I told him that I did not have that amount of money and that I have to have my money wired, that I could not get it from the ATM. After much back and forth he finally settled on $200 US plus the 40 pesos and roughly $18 loose bills that I had in my wallet. I retrieved the $200 from its hiding place in the back of the car and handed over all the loose bills in my wallet. He then shook my hand and guided me out to the Highway 57 headed south.

I realized later that the stop lights in Mexico are in really odd places, often on the other side of the road, so it is entirely possible that I did run the red light and that the fine for that plus not having the insurance was in fact $8000 pesos. Still though, even if he was actually doing me a favor by accepting only $200 that coupled with the money that I lost at the crossing was totally depressing.

I tried to put it out of my mind and concentrate on getting to my destination.

I drove and drove and drove but just couldn’t make sense of my GPS routing compared to the road signs I was seeing. I finally gave in and stopped and bought a Mexican road atlas for $210 pesos. I located my position on the atlas and realized that my GPS was giving me totally useless directions to someplace else. I continued driving for a while hoping that I would just stumble across some place to spend the night. By sundown I realized that wasn’t happening so I went back to the atlas and found a suitable town directly to the east. Highway 31 to Linares was coming up soon and sure enough I quickly found the turn and headed off. It looked like it would only be about an hours drive which in my mind seemed tolerable even though I was breaking one of my rules about driving after dark in northern Mexico.

Shortly after heading east on Highway 31 I hit my first “destruction” zone. The highway was was being rebuilt and unfortuntely a detour in Mexico is a road to hell. They essentially take a road grader and run it one pass through a field and that then becomes the detour. These detours are like driving a cobblestone street only worse because they are across dry, dusty dirt. Top speed is generally 5 to maybe 10 miles per hour. I must have gone through 20 of these trying to get to Linares. At one point I found myself driving through a corn field and then down an embankment and across a creek. I finally made Linares about 11:30 pm. Maybe I should have listened to Mom.

Between my reluctance to stop anywhere in the northern zone and my anxiety about being lost most of the day I had only eaten a few slices of bologna from the cooler in my car throughout the day. Still, I was too exhausted to eat.

Fortunately Linares was a wonderful little place to land in; a small historic city with friendly Policia on every corner. I found a hotel for $28 with a nice room and good hot water. I had to park about 2 blocks away but the parking was in a secure lot with a watchman who helped me carry my bag to the hotel. It was a good start toward erasing frustration from all the missteps that I had taken throughout the rest of the day.

Next up: Part 2: Mexico – Linaries to Tampico

By: Bob LaGarde
Originally published Deember 26th, 2010 at www.southboundrambler.com