Protest

Our trip to Zihuatanejo took a little longer than usual for a couple of reasons. First, at the Nueva Italia tollbooth, students had shut down travel in both directions in protest of some upcoming school closures. A couple of cars coming the other direction tried to maneuver their way around the blockade which is why there is a row of students on the left side physically blocking the road. The Federal Police were on the scene, but kept to themselves for the first half hour of the protest. Then one of the officers walked over to the crowd in front of our row of cars and instantly we were on our way once again.

Further down the cuota (toll road) our fuel went from a quarter tank to can't-run-the-car empty in the space of about 10 km. Luckily we had picked up our friend Carlos in Patzcuaro. He remembered a group of roadside restaurants just down the road where he was certain they sold gas. He flagged down a passing motorist and was off in the back of a pickup truck. Soon he returned with a 20 liter container of gasoline, which easily got us to the next fuel station. The consensus was that the last batch of gas we purchased was watered down, which caused the rapid decline in distance able to be traveled once the engine started drawing mostly water.

Even with all the excitement we rolled into Zihua only an hour later than originally planned and now have a couple of good Mexican travel stories to share.