Road logs are something
of a tradition in Mexico. Probably the best known are those that were written by David
Sanborn and later by Mexico Mike Nelson. These are a special benefit provided to
Sanborn’s insurance customers. Caravans also are heavy road log users.
The road logs you see here are a byproduct of our research trips to Mexico to visit
campgrounds covered in our book Traveler’s Guide to Mexican Camping.
Our logs are not nearly as detailed as those produced by Sanborn’s or most of the
caravan companies. This is both good and bad. We don’t want to give you a headache
trying to follow the log so simple is better, we also don’t want to make too much of
a production of the logging process. After all, we’re not charging for them.
Anyone driving Mexico’s roads can benefit from these logs. You will find the
following useful information:
- Road conditions at the time the route was driven.
- We log all Pemex stations and tell the types of fuel they sell. All fuel in Mexico is
sold by Pemex and the stations are sometimes not as plentiful as in the U.S. There are now
three types of fuel sold. Magna is the lead-free normal grade in green pumps. Premium is a
new lead-free grade with higher octane in red pumps, recently it has
become widely available too.
Diesel is in black pumps. One reason we log the Pemex stations is that they make good
checkpoints (most have a big sign with a number on it) because they are hard to miss and not too frequent. Another is that some have
truck parking and allow RVers to spend the night (permission is generally required).
- Toll road information. We frequently travel the toll roads. In the logs
we give toll stations locations and fees. This information is hard to find
and very useful when planning a trip. Usually tolls are charged as follows:
A car, van or pickup without duals on the rear is charged as an auto. A
vehicle with duals on the rear is charged the two axle rate. From there on
the rate is based upon the number of axles. A motorhome with a tow car
usually must pay both a toll for the motorhome (2 or 3 axles) and one for
the tow car. Cars with trailers and pickups pulling fifth-wheels sometimes
get a special rate, sometimes they must pay by the axle.
- Routes around and through the cities. Some of these logs will lead you around cities on
routes that work well for big rigs. Others don't and either take the scenic centro route
or stop at the ring roads. When we wrote these logs we were on a research trip, not a
project to log all the good routes in Mexico. Traveler's Guide to Mexican
Camping has more information about routes through and around major cities.
We think these road logs are interesting and so will others planning a Mexico driving trip.
If you are driving through Mexico and have the patience please send us a log in the same
format we use. We’ll put the ones we think are useful on the site.
Click
Here For Logs From Our Trip Of November 27, 2000 to January 29, 2001
Click Here For Logs From Our Trip of February 17, 2001 to March 30, 2001
Click Here For Logs From Our Trip of January 18, 2002 to February 16, 2002
