How to Drive in Mexico Without Getting Killed

I tell a lot of stories about driving through Mexico — about the dried-up riverbeds that serve as roads to rural communities, about the car rental agencies that sometimes need to be threatened before they get you your car, about the expansive beauty of the Sierra Madres. But perhaps the strongest reactions I get are to tales of driving through blockades — roadblocks set up by protestors to intentionally create traffic problems as a way of making a political statement. That’s what we cover in this week’s episode of Agave Road Trip! (But the support material on this page, below, will help you if you want to drive through Mexico.)

This episode of Agave Road Trip is brought to you by Flask Fine Wines. Flask Fine Wines offers nationwide shipping of fine wines and spirits, including vintage spirits and heritage agave spirits. Learn more, and get your next bottle, at flaskfinewines.com

Agave Road Trip is a podcast that helps gringo bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. It’s hosted by Lou Bank and Chava Periban. 

This is what a normal toll looks like between Oaxaca and Mexico City. Even the normal tolls can get backed up for miles … at which point people will show up and try to sell you things like snacks, devices that hold your phone while you drive, and puppies. Why puppies? I don’t know. I mean, I love puppies. But if I’m stuck waiting 30 minutes to get to a toll, I would imagine the only thing that would add to my frustration is a little puppy that isn’t housebroken and doesn’t understand how sharp it’s teeth are. But anyway …

I don’t seem to have any photos of toll booths that have been taken over by protestors, or of blockades set up in the expansive distances between toll booths. That suggests to me that I may be smarter than I think. Realistically, it’s probably ill-advised to take photos of people who have taken over toll booths, right? But trust me when I say, you’ll recognize it when you see it. Lots of traffic, often not moving at all for hours. People congregated at the front with arms folded. If they ask for money, give them money. It’s rarely more than US$10.

For more detail on how to navigate blockades … hey, listen to this episode! And for more details on driving in Mexico … keep scrolling.

First, figure out where you’re going. If it’s just city-to-city, like Mexico City to Oaxaca, no problem, most any vehicle will do. (But not from Fox Rent a Car. More on that later.) If you’re finally making your dream visit to Santa Maria Ixcatlan? Be warned: sometimes Google Maps mistakes streams for roads. And the roads it does recognize … well, it doesn’t recognize how rough they can be. Ground-clearance is no small matter. Be aware of your needs, check in with folks who have driven these roads — and not with folks who have only ever driven pick-up trucks. They won’t get it.

Need help figuring out where to go? Our friends at Maguey Melate share GPS coordinates of the producers from whom they source agave spirits. You can also use the app Understanding Mezcal. Or, hey, drop me a note — always happy to share contact info for producers.

My experiences renting cars in Mexico City and Oaxaca have largely been awful. Like, worse than going to the DMV in Chicago. You think reserving online would be easy, right? You’ve done it a million times in Dallas and Boston and Los Angeles and so how could it be any different? Well … it is. At least in Oaxaca and Mexico City. Durango, Jalisco … they were both super easy and exactly like home. But I’ve had to threaten to burn down at least two car-rental places in Mexico City before getting any satisfaction. Hell, the Hertz at the Mexico City airport once tried to charge me for damage they did after I returned the car … which is still better than Fox Rent a Car, which rented me a vehicle that didn’t even make it to Puebla from CDMX, and then they charged me an added fee to go pick up their broken-down jalopy. (Incidentally, neither of these situations were the ones that led me to threaten to burn down the agencies. So … tip of the iceberg.)

Anyway, in my experience, the only place in Oaxaca from which you want to rent a car is Only Rent-a-Car. Go ahead and reserve online. It’s like an actual rental place: you make a reservation online; you show up; they have your car; you’re gone in, like, ten minutes.

In Mexico City, you should only rent from Avis; you should make your reservation online, using the avis.com site (not avis.mx); you should prepay; and you should have a printed copy of that prepayment notice with you. To be fair, I have only needed the printed pre-pay confirmation once. But it’s good to have it.

If, when you get there, the rental agency says they are sold out of the SUV you reserved and instead try to move you to a BMW 5 Series, show them the video below and tell them that’s the same road you’ll be driving on. Then ask them … are they really out of SUVs?

I was recently asked if you need to worry about police when you drive in Mexico. Honestly, in the 50+ driving trips I’ve done, I’ve never had a negative encounter with the police, A couple have stopped me to marvel at the fact that I made it past a blockade that they thought was impassable.

An officer in Huautla, Oaxaca, once searched me out in the town to let me know that where I had parked was going to become a no-parking zone soon, and he didn’t want me to be fined; he suggested another place to park my car, and when I came back hours later, he was there watching it because he thought some people were eyeing it funny. I tried to tip him and he refused.

One time when I was driving with Chava, a policeman suggested he thought I’d been drinking. Chava thought he was fishing for a bribe, but he let us go.

I’m not suggesting you’ll never be strong-armed for a bribe by an officer. But I am telling you that I never have, in all of my drives through Mexico State, Puebla, Oaxaca, Michoacan, Jalisco, or Durango. I’ve never encountered any problems with cartels, either. You might be. One thing you should know: police officers usually drive with their flashers on, so you might think they are pulling you over when in fact they are just driving behind you. Don’t pul over unless you hear a siren or they speak to you through their loud speaker.

This pic is of a car in Oaxaca with a handwritten Illinois license plate. Apparently that works in Oaxaca.