There's really no way to explain this precisely, but driving in Mexico is different from driving in the States. Mexicans don't follow roadsigns or rules except in the vaguest sort of way -- they respond to the behavior of other drivers. At an intersection with four-way stop signs, a Mexican driver, if he or she thinks there's time, will scoot through on the cross street ahead of you without stopping at all -- you are expected to expect this and react accordingly.
Anything is permitted between drivers as long as it makes sense. It's more like navigating a crowded sidewalk as a pedestrian than driving on streets and highways north of the border. In other words, it doesn't work if people aren't instinctively respectful of other people's space and right of way.
I came to enjoy driving in Mexico very much -- it was always an adventure and always interesting, because it required you to pay attention to other drivers, to imagine what they were thinking. It was disturbing to drive in Las Vegas afterwards. I found it almost impossible to imagine what other drivers were thinking -- because they usually weren't thinking at all. Cell phones are a big part of the problem here -- in Mexico it's illegal to drive while talking on a cell phone, and people, at least in Baja California, don't do it. Not, I suspect, because it's against the law, but because it's not sensible. In general, drivers in the States rely on lanes and signs and signals to avoid collisions with other cars. In Mexico, you have to rely on a careful anticipation of how others are going to behave -- and sometimes of how livestock are going to behave.
On a related note, streets signs are posted very spottily in Mexican towns, even in big towns like La Paz. You can't navigate by them, even with a reliable map. This requires stopping often to ask directions -- an occasion for a social interaction that is almost always pleasant. Why put up street signs when you can have a friendly interchange with a human being who will tell you how to get where you're going, and the best way to get there?
Once we got caught in a maze of street construction in Loreto. There were policemen posted at all the intersections with detours. When you asked one how to get to Mexico 1, he would point vaguely in a certain direction -- "That way." Eventually, that way would lead you to another policemen, who would tell you to go "up there." At last you'd find yourself back on a familiar street, heading for Mexico 1. Why complicate things with elaborate directions, much less with temporary signs, when there are enough officers around to give you the part of the puzzle you need at any given moment?
It should be noted that the police in Mexico do enforce the driving laws. Contrary to popular belief they don't target tourists, but they don't give them a pass, either. Noting the presence of police is part of the acute environmental awareness necessary for driving in Mexico.
For previous Baja California trip reports, go here.
[Photos © 2007 Harry Rossi]