Estado de Chiapas Travel Forum

A friend and I want to go to the Yucatan area for a week in December, to fly into Cancun, then to see particularly the Chiapas area.

1. is it a good idea to rent a truck/4x4 and drive it ourselves, or should we take buses/public transportation? We are concerned about not having much time, and having to wait on the schedules of public transportation. If we do rent a vehicle, are there indeed terrible penalties for accidents?

2. What are the safety issues we should be aware of when travelling through Mexico, and in particular the Chiapas region, as we are foreigners with very little Sapnish between us?

Thanks!

I usually do not recommend car rental by tourists to Mexico (see my Mexico tips), but I have made exceptions for places in the Yucatan where the roads and traffic are reasonable, the population density low especially around archeological sites (fewer buses) and having a car can allow you to see more. This is especially true for visiting Uxmal from Merida. In the same area there are lots of smaller ruins, caves, a good restaurant in Tucul and an old hemp hacienda to visit so a nice little circuit can be done in a day. The roads in Chiapas may not be as good as they are in the Yucatan.

I would still recommend bus transportation because it can be a good part of the experience. Unless you are going to some obscure small place you will be amazed at the bus frequency. If you have the proper insurance, I do not think that the penalties are so terrible for an accident, but the hassles could ruin your vacation. Good luck, bob

I have heard all sort of different experiences about renting cars and driving in Yucatan. A 4x4 should be ok but it not that you really needed it that much, unless you want to explore the hills and very forgotten roads.

Your original idea about driving from Cancun towards Chiapas -somewhere in chiapas, palenque? san cristobal? waterfalls or bonampak? - sounds tempting to me, but it is also a trip for adventurers. Driving in Mexico is easy for many, specially if you use autopistas *highways or toll roads*. From Cancun to Merida is a piece of cake, but when you start heading south, after passing Champoton and heading to Emiliano Zapata *that's the intersection to Palenque and entering into Chiapas State, the road might be narrow, two ways and confusing, unless you carry a good road guide. There are some military check points, nothing to be scared of, they simply look for drugs, weapons or any suspicious activity, they barely bug visitors, since that has become kind of common. Don't expect them to speak english or any other language.

There are many visitors who don't speak spanish and they decide to experiment, so it's important to pay special attention on the very few almost unexistant signs, as in the entire country, there are things where no one tells you they are there as finding topes - speed bumps on the road to slow you down when entering or passing by a town, so you might be driving normaly and ZAZ! hit one of those and there is no one to complain, you should know that when entering to a town, you better slow down because there must be one somewhere just waiting for you to distract! some also camuflage!!

Speed limit is in kilometers as well.

Also, another thing, for driving in Mexico we follow similar rules as other people do in the hmm.. let say the U.S., but many people understand that as a suggestion, not as an order, so there are silly things that might confuse you, so you have to figure out what's going on if it's your first time, our way of driving might confuse you some, but not something that you cannot do, as someone told me here, using a turning light on the highway to let you know you can pass, not only that I might pass someone ahead of me. Sometimes it means that they drive so slow that it's ok for you to pass them, specially in the case of trucks or trailers, but i don't trust them all the time. So things like that can confuse you, as people speeding as maniacs, but as I said, that is in everywhere.

About the rental, I share your idea of manage your own time, I dislike spending time in the bus terminals, however, take a look and study the schedules, might be worth it. You can usually find information from city to city by using www.ticketbus.com.mx on the other hand, visiting archaeology sites or cenotes in the yucatan area, might require to be there in the bus terminal and find out their schedules or tours. There are pretty good tours to the Puuc area, around and in Uxmal. But i.e. there is one neat arch. site in Campeche, not so far from the city but you might need a car to get there easily because that is not walking distance, the place is Edzna and you need to pay special attention into taking the right road and turning back to the main highway, on this case if you ride a van or local transportation, you might losing time than if you go by yourself. Another example is if you are driving your own car, heading from Cancun to Merida, you can stop directly in Piste and visit Chichen Itza, and then explore, and take off again without losing any time, but there are buses arriving and leaving almost every hour.

If you ride a bus from Cancun, the other option is to find one that drops you in Chichen and riding the next bus leaving to the next city. Which is good is you have more time available.

In case of accident, there you are guilty before they can proven you are not, specially since you don't know spanish, so it will be hard to get into an agreement or communicate with your rental in case you have a cel phone and you are out of signal, in the most fatalist case, but there is an emergency system on the road called Angeles Verdes, they travel back and forth on the roads stopping for people who might need help, that something you don't know unless you live here.

Also, make sure the rental terms and deductible with the rental company, squeeze them all possible information and make sure the car plates or register don't expire during your trip, that happened to me once. Be very picky about them.

I found some extra handy info here: http://www.mexperience.com/guide/essentials/toll_road_charges.htm

Driving from Cancun to let say, your first major stop in Chiapas would be Palenque, it's about 1200 miles one way, through Merida, Campeche, turning in Escarcega, turning south to Emiliano Zapata and ending in Palenque, I wont mention distances from Palenque to others sites, because there are many things around it that it's hard for me to know how far you want to go. So, sometimes at this point is worth it to see how important is the car for yourself, because you might travel at night and enjoy the day fresh as a lettuce.

The dangers of driving are basically the same as driving in a narrow road at some points, if you drink and drive you will have troubles as well as any other place. Something cool to do is to get your spanish dictionary or map road and find the meanings of signs or be familiar with the name of the towns where you should be either passing by or stopping.

As for my personal experience, I never had or have met someone who have had an incident driving into this particular route, but that doesn't mean we have everything for granted. I found very dangerous to see people from some remote chiapas towns walking at night in the middle of the road when you pass throught their towns or in some towns in Yucatan when you have children running to you trying to get a soda or some pesos at day time, they were trying to see inside and grab something and there is no one saying they are not suppose to do that, so...

If you rent a vehicle: your insurance will not be valid once you leave a paved roadway; keep this in mind.