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You can also catch long rides [[File:Tope-mexico.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Hitching at the exits of the cities when you travel on the highways. Many cities have speed bumps a tope (''tope''speedbump) where the highway begins at the edge of town. On smaller highways in more rural areas, there are often speed bumps at every little town, making it easy to move quickly with a number of shorter rides.]]
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{{Infobox Country
|country = of Mexico
|map = <map lat='23' lng='-102' zoom='4' view='0' float='right' />
|pop = 108,700,891
}}
'''Mexico''' is a country in [[North America]]. Despite its notoriety, hitchhiking in Mexico is not only possible but it can be a rather enjoyable experience. Due to its sheer size it's impossible to give a general hitchability rating for this country: the experiences vary from state to state. As anywhere, you can go fast on highways and very slow on small less trafficky roads.
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For more general info about moneyless travels in Mexico, see [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iqhpdy67vceKm6LBTsYQFU_wulqCb7Q-dPRooZxuU0U/mobilebasic?pli=1 this] handy document.
Peculiarity of Mexican hitchhiking are the ubiquitous pick-up trucks where you just jump in the back, hold onto your hat, kiss the wind and forget about communicating with the driver. Many people will offer you food and drinks, especially Coca Cola! On routes with poor public transportation, payment is sometimes expected and ordinary pickups magically turn into ''collectivos '' (shared taxis).
On the small roads, however, hitchhiking can sometimes be time-taking - waits and walks consuming – waiting times of 2-3 2–3 hours are not unheard of. Be prepared with patience, water and sun cream. Although in many places locals hitch to get home from the grocery store for instance, hitchhiking as a lifestyle or as a means of long-distance travel is not so common in Mexico and not everybody might immediately understand what you want. So, on the mountain paths for instance, your brain should be wired more to enjoy the magnificent views and eating the abundance of fruit the nature has on offer rather than making a lot of progress.
As for security, most hitchhikers never encounter any major problems. Mexico is an enormous country and experiences vary a lot from state to state. If you want to avoid risks, you can avoid the states close to the border with USA - Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua and Durango, i.e. take buses and collectivos when traveling north of the line between Tampico, San Luis Potosi and Mazatlan (the map). Apparently also the states of Guerrero, Michoacán and Veracruz can be risky.
If you go hitchhiking in Mexico, being able to speak and understand at least a bit of Spanish is nearly mandatory. Apart from touristic areas, most people you encounter do not speak English. If you know Spanish you can communicate way better with people and get a closer connection with them. Useful [[Spanish]] words are "ride" and "aventón", both meaning a lift. Near the [[Guatemala|Guatemalan]] border the word "jalón" is used. No one understands what hitchhiking or autostop means so say “busco/buscamos un ride” instead when looking for a ride.
Vegetarians/vegans: if you ask food carts or taco places if they have anything vegetarian, and they say no, look at the ingredients they've got in their work area and get creative! One vegetarian traveller´s favorite is tomato and avocado taco ([[Chinahitch]][http://hitchwiki.org/en/User:Chinahitch].
== Where to hitchhike? ==
Mexico also has many border control and military and police checkpoints (''retén'') in the middle of the highways throughout the country. These can be great for hitchhiking. It's usually good practice to ask the personnel for permission beforehand, and oftentimes they'll be asking all the drivers where they're going, so they can even let you know if someone's going to your destination.
You can also catch long rides at the exits of the cities when you travel on the highways. Many cities have speed bumps (''tope'') where the highway begins at the edge of town. Where there are police posts at the entrance or exits to towns, there are usually topes too. On smaller highways in more rural areas, there are often speed bumps at every little town, making it easy to move quickly with a number of shorter rides. Many of the larger, faster highways operate on a toll system. It's common for there to be a free road (''libre'') parallel to the paid one (''cuota''), the former being slower and easier to catch rides, but the latter much more likely for getting longer rides. The tollbooths (''caseta'') can be good placestoo, tooand the ones near to the cities can usually be reached by local transport. However, sometimes you have to stand about 100m past the tollboothitself (ask the attendants where you can stand), so traffic has often already picked up speed by the time they get to you, and it can be difficult for cars to pull over. Fortunately, there are often restrooms, gas stations, and stores just past the ''caseta'', so you can talk to drivers that stop there. Signs can come in really handy at tollbooths.
== Signs ==
If you get stuck on the road at night, you can ask to be dropped off at any PEMEX (the only gasoline company of Mexico). If you talk directly to the people in charge, they will tell you what's the safest spot to sleep at. Many gas stations also have free showers and you don't need to be a truck driver to use them.
When you're inside of a town, it's better to go to the fire station. The firemen are very friendly and they are used to host broke travelers from exotic places.
If you ask in churches, you should try to find the priest, explain your situation and ask for a place to stay. Usually, however, they direct you to the police (who, in turn, might direct you back to the church).
Bus stations are safe and open 24 hours as there are buses round the clock and there is a security guy. Of course, you will have to sleep with one eye open but it’s a somewhat safe place to spend the night.
The municipal police is always friendly and you can just ask them where to spend the night. They might assign you a nice well-guarded spot outside in front of the town hall (Palacio Municipal) for instance. It’s not a bed but it is a place to stay, with a roof!
If you're traveling through the West Coast it might be difficult to find a free camping site at the popular beaches. However, almost every beach town has a '''turtle camp''' where you can camp for free. You might be asked to do some work in exchange, like counting and liberating baby turtles!!!
:''In 10 months and tens of thousands of km covered by thumb, my only "bad" experience was between Pto. Angel and [[Oaxaca (City)|Oaxaca City]] (a notorious drug route, as I later learned). The driver asked me to drive and once I was behind the wheel informed me that the van was full of Colombia's finest. I nearly shat myself, but the experience turned out to be quite interesting, as we were forced to make several detours to avoid police checkpoints, taking me through beautiful and remote parts of the [[Oaxaca|Oaxacan]] mountains I otherwise never would have discovered. Be careful not to get set up. A very, very, rare occurance, but one that can happen.''
:''I traveled for 8 months in Mexico, all by thumb. I came down Baja California, hitched a sailboat from La Paz to Mazatlán, steamed over to [[Veracruz (City)|Veracruz]] for the carnival, went up and around the Yucatán, then down into [[Chiapas]], Guatemala, and then back to Veracruz, across to all the big central cities, and down the Pacific coast to Oaxaca and Guatemala once more. I got picked up by plenty of self-proclaimed drug dealers. Whatever. Lovely country. --[[User:Chael777|Chael777]]''
:''The small less trafficky roads, in the mountains and in Chiapas for instance, can test your patience. If you are coming from south (Guatemala) people might be afraid to pick you up because there are so many checkpoints. Even the ones who do stop ask if you have problems with authorities, if you are smuggling drugs or if you have a passport."--[[User:Astikain|Astikain]] ([[User talk:Astikain|talk]]) 15:59, 4 June 2013 (CEST)
"I hitchhiked for two months through the mainland and had a great experience. People are very friendly and willing to help. The biggest thing is getting outside the city. The good thing about the big highways is you are more likely to get a long ride, the bad thing it can be rough to have someone pull over. The small villages are easier to get rides but tend to be short."-Jason
== Cities ==
* [[Acapulco]]
* [[Arriaga]]
* [[Ciudad Valles]]
* [[Guadalajara]]
* [[Guanajuato (city)| Guanajuato]]
* [[Mexico City]] (capital)
* [[Oaxaca (City)|Oaxaca]]
* [[Palenque]]
* [[Poza Rica]]
* [[AcapulcoPuebla (city)|Puebla]]* [[GuadalajaraQuerétaro (city)| Querétaro]]* [[San Cristóbal]] de las Casas]]* [[San Luis Potosí (city)| San Luis Potosí]]* [[Tehuantepec]]* [[Toluca]]* [[Tuxtla]]* [[Xalapa (City)|Xalapa]]
== Gallery ==
[[es:México]]
[[fr:Mexique]]
[[ru:Мексика]]
[[trash:Mexico]]
[[nomad:Mexico]]
