Driving by intuition
“Guadalajara, Guadalajara…”, as the famous mariachi song goes, is a city of about 4 million inhabitants, the largest after the capital.
We had to drive through the big G recently on our way to the Pacific coast, and though the road to G was plenty wide and fast (and cost more than a few pesos), once you get to the outskirts there is no way to by-pass it. You literally have to drive right into the middle of the darned thing. Ak! And so…. just follow the signs, you say.
I guess I first need to explain the distrust that takes root after driving in México for a while. Lack of signage is one problem. Or lack of visible, readable signage, should I say? Signs that lie are another problem. You see a sign that says Colima is 173 km away. Then after driving for 20 km, you see another sign that says Colima is 172 km away.
If you’re driving along you may be looking for a turn-off that will plop you onto the cuota (paid road) to take you to the next major city along your route…and then… aha, there’s a sign with an arrow indicating the turn is the next left. Only when you get to the next left, the sign announces a completely new destination – a city you didn’t see on the map. Is this your turn? Quick, check the map! Oops too late!
So after a while you develop a sixth sense navigating cities. This is where the turn should be, so let’s take it! This street should be_____________ (if we could only find the street sign), so turn right here! Well we should be roughly travelling west (let’s see, where’s the sun?), so let’s turn left at the next lights.
Driving by intuition, I call it. And hey it works, most of the time. We navigated our way through Guadalajara, twice! (once even happened upon a Starbucks by accident – getting semi-lost isn’t always so bad)
We had to drive through the big G recently on our way to the Pacific coast, and though the road to G was plenty wide and fast (and cost more than a few pesos), once you get to the outskirts there is no way to by-pass it. You literally have to drive right into the middle of the darned thing. Ak! And so…. just follow the signs, you say.
I guess I first need to explain the distrust that takes root after driving in México for a while. Lack of signage is one problem. Or lack of visible, readable signage, should I say? Signs that lie are another problem. You see a sign that says Colima is 173 km away. Then after driving for 20 km, you see another sign that says Colima is 172 km away.
If you’re driving along you may be looking for a turn-off that will plop you onto the cuota (paid road) to take you to the next major city along your route…and then… aha, there’s a sign with an arrow indicating the turn is the next left. Only when you get to the next left, the sign announces a completely new destination – a city you didn’t see on the map. Is this your turn? Quick, check the map! Oops too late!
So after a while you develop a sixth sense navigating cities. This is where the turn should be, so let’s take it! This street should be_____________ (if we could only find the street sign), so turn right here! Well we should be roughly travelling west (let’s see, where’s the sun?), so let’s turn left at the next lights.
Driving by intuition, I call it. And hey it works, most of the time. We navigated our way through Guadalajara, twice! (once even happened upon a Starbucks by accident – getting semi-lost isn’t always so bad)
posted by Sabine at
12:36 PM
2 Comments:
after all that, I sure hope Starbucks spike their coffee with tequila........ole!
By
Anonymous, at 7:27 AM
...when I was in a taxi careening from the airport to downtown Mexico City I experienced another Mexican phenomenon which I'll call "Driving by Collective Intuition". It was a thing of beauty (and scary too) but it reminded me of a school of fish or a massive flock of birds that seemed to move in unison without injury despite no apparent attention to lanes or signals or big obstacles in the middle of the road...
By
Anonymous, at 1:39 PM
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