Weblog: Mexico Day 3: Puebla to Palenque
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We got up early and headed for the highway in Ed's Vocho (VW beetle). We drove the whole day along toll highways and reached Palenque just after nightfall. It ended up costing quite a lot for all the tolls, over 500 pesos I think. The highways were in pretty good condition, but still quite a lot of potholes. I only drove for a few hours along some long stretches of highway (since I hadn't practiced very long at driving standard, and Ed's car insurance only counts if the driver has a Mexican driver's license). It took some getting used to have to watch carefully for potholes while speeding along at 90-100 km/h. It also rained quite a bit and the drainage wasn't very good in parts. One of the toll highways was a very long stretch (I'm guessing 150km or more) with not a single entrance or exit, not a single building, just long straight highway through nothing but forest. We had our first breakdown along the way, I'm not sure in which city but I think it was Villahermosa. We had stopped for gas, then pulled into the parking lot of a 7-eleven type place right nextdoor to get some snacks. When Ed went to start the car, there was no power (just minutes before the car had started fine). The nice thing about Mexico is that there always seems to be a mechanic nearby, so he walked off to find one while I stayed with the car. A few minutes later a rabbit pulled up and there he was with a mechanic. It was just a simple connection that had gotten loose. The mechanic asked for 100 pesos, which was a rip off but we just wanted to get going so we paid. We passed through our first military checkpoint with no problems near Palenque.
Posted on Mon, 7 Oct 2020
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