To begin I don’t know if this applies everywhere here but the following rules also applied in Costa Rico. Gringos often end up in collisions because they apply their set of rules in a whole other game.

RULE: We can avoid being rear ended at stop signs and red lights by observing traffic. If there’s no car coming Mexicans don’t stop for stop signs or red light, because there’s no point to stopping.

RULE: This really messes everybody up. When making a left turn, indicate that and pull far to the right to allow traffic behind you to pass and once the way is clear then turn left . We of course bear left expecting cars behind us to pass to our right. Mexicans of course don’t know that and will continue trying to pass on the left even while we are turning left.

Consider this a public safety message.

Im just north of Manzanillo and been here since November. I will disagree on the free for all though, drivers are considerate and patient,we rarely hear a horn unless it’s greeting someone.

25 years ago while in my honeymoon, we rented an air cooled bug. Drove an hour into Cancun along the Mayan coast. I thought the locals were quite considerate, Would I do this today? Probably not.

Again, only observed the west coastal roads. There are many villages that straddle the highway and invariably that’s where Topes’ are placed. Those a very significant speed bumps that if you don’t slow to 20kph the suspension of the vehicle will be destroyed. Topes’ are traffic calmers giving pedestrians, dogs, horses,burros,goats,cattle,mules a fighting chance of a safe crossing. Many bicycle riders will ride facing traffic as it gives them a chance to escape. Most of what we call inviolate rules are considered advisory here. Generally it works quite well. I have learned the most useful vehicle here is a motor bike, usually 125cc, and those can transport a mother with four kids, or two workmen and an extension ladder. Police enforcement of rules is from what I observe nonexistent.

Very bad to be in a place run by gangs. I think that’s a problem facing many big cities down here. Thankfully this is a small place run by only one gang and they have rules. One of those being a ban on cocaine, whodathunk that. Word is the Don know how bad that stuff is and doesn’t want his grandchildren exposed to it. Apparently sometime in the not too distant past coke was being peddled out of a small bar and it wasn’t just closed down it was obliterated brick by brick in one day and the owners disappeared.