Driving in Mexico

Mayra, David, nephew Israel and I went to a small town called Tenango del Aire for lunch yesterday. It is located on the other side of the highway to Puebla, between Chalco and Amecameca. After eating, we returned home, only to discover that it had rained considerably, and the highway was partially flooded about a half mile from the bridge across the highway (and about 3 miles from our house). As we were making our way across the expanse of water (some of which actually came through the back door and got the kids feet wet), a group of people began blocking the main road in both directions.

Their beef was that as cars would go past and make waves, the water would come into their homes. I'm sure that was inconvenient, but blocking a major road was not the answer! We returned to Chalco, found a restaurant, and had dessert. Our thinking was to wait it out...we were, after all, very close to home. After some coffee, cheesecake and two Sudukos, we tried again. No dice. The road was still blocked, and we found ourselves, once again, in a parking lot. We managed to back out of that mess, and finally found a road that went way around the area. Finally, we managed to find the Mexico-Puebla highway again, and headed home.

But I neglected to consider how this road blockage would effect the highway on the other side, and we once again found ourselves in traffic. To make a LONG story short, we finally made it home around 11:30 p.m. It took us, literally, 5 hours (counting dessert time) to travel what should have been around 5 miles. Just want to pull your hair out sometimes!