We drove until almost midnight and camped on the edge of a lake in Valley de Bravo. It was pretty dang cold, I was again wearing every piece of warm clothing I had brought with me.
After some crappy tacos, I was in a bad mood. I told everyone we were traveling with that our schedules don't work very well together (we get up early and don't want to drive after sundown) and that Cara and I are gonna try Mexico Solo. Looking at the map I don't feel that our current route is feasible given the time we have. We exchange contact info and blast off, into the unknown. Thus the real adventure begins!
We backtrack to Toluca and begin planning our assault upon Mexico City. The book we have says Mexico City has 20 million inhabitants. Thats alot. It's huge. In Toluca, miles and miles away from Mexico City we were already innundated by traffic and congestion, which was what we were trying to avoid. I decide that we can avoid Mexico city by taking some surface roads between highways and skip most of the nonsense. We head off.
What the heck is that sign for? Boobies? Mexico puts up signs alerting you to boobies! Mexico is really different than the USA in alot of ways. Safety regulations are almost non-existant. I can walk around, into, and through OSHA nightmares and it's a common occourance. Live wires are hanging out of the concrete walls everywhere. Unpreserved and unrefregirated food is being sold on the shoulder of the road everywhere. And they put signs up to let you know to keep an eye out for some boobies. For which, the word in spanish is Tope.
Boobs ahead!! --- >
My daydreaming about what sort of boobies would be magnificient enough to have a street sign posted for them is interrupted. Oh jeez, whats that, a parking curb?! in the road? Lookout, can't stop... wham! Oh look, I think we're airborne... oh, not anymore. We found the ground. Everyone still inside? Conscious? Holy cow. I discovered that Tope, and the boobie signs, are indicators of an upcoming speedbump. And Mexico doesn't mess about when putting together a speedbump. Some of them are only a couple inches tall and of basically no consequence, but others are awe inspiring. I believe some road engineers took a few ques from the Mayan architecture when designing their Topes. They have large flat plazas on top of them, with sloping sides and stairways on one side. Small cars get high centered on them. Fortunately Donkey has enough ground clearance to handle even the largest, but if you don't know whats happening it can be quite exciting. There have been more than one that were large enough that Donkey had all four feet off the road, on the Tope.
Topes are to slow traffic down, they put them at crosswalks, intersections, the beginnings of towns, entrys to roundabouts, anywhere they think you should be driving slower. And after hitting a few, they work really, really well.
Since you're presumably slowing down anyways, the Mexicans have taken advantage of this opportunity to open drive through vending stations, where you can procure all sorts of things ranging from fresh fish and shrimp (pescado y camarones) to fruit, fresh fruit juice (Jugo), Cheese (Queso) and even a car charger for your phone or a hot tamale for lunch. Most Topes have someone standing in the middle of the road flapping something at you in the hopes that you'll buy it from them. I began referring to them as the Economical Stimulus Topes, because there was someone working at almost every one. Cara is pretty sure she even saw them selling booze at a few.
Notice the Boobie sign.... er, Tope -- >
So, speaking of roadside vendors, I feel I have something else to share. In alaska, at almost any busy intersection, there are people standing around with cardboard signs claiming anything from homeless and starving to just plain lazy asking for handouts. Since crossing into Mexico 24 days ago, I don't think I've seen more than 2 panhandlers. And both of them were missing an arm or leg or something else more significant. What I do see is an abundance of people at intersections or Topes offering goods or services in exchange for pesos. I've had my windshield cleaned 3 or 4 times at stoplights. I haven't purchased any food at a tope yet because I don't know what they're selling most of the time, but I hope to before leaving the country. I've tipped entertainers at stoplights for breakdancing in the street and juggling firey batons. I had my car washed in a grocery store parking lot while I was inside shopping. Whether it was worth the 1-10 pesos I tipped them I'm not sure, but I feel alot better about it than when I'm approached by some dirty smelly bum asking me to give him money for standing there holding a piece of cardboard he found in the trash.
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