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|capital = [[Mexico City]]

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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).

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].

You can hitchhike pretty much everywhere, even on the highway (although pretty much no one stops at such high speeds). In general, asking at gas stations (''gasolinera'') or even traffic lights (''semáforo''), especially on bus stops and the like, can get you far pretty easily. Sometimes it is better to be among the cars, in the traffic lights, and directly ask rides from people who have open windows. Sometimes you can just jump in the back of a pick-up without even telling where you are going and just tap in the window when you want to get off.

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 places too, and the ones near to the cities can usually be reached by local transport. However, sometimes you have to stand about 100m past the tollbooth itself (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.

It is even less recommendable than in other countries to take drugs or weapons with you, especially as of 2010 since the Mexican government, backed by the US DEA who are actually present in Mexico (!!) have decided to crack down on narco and weapon trafficking. Therefore you likely will be checked at one of the numerous check points, especially in the north as you near the US border. But it's also good to know that the soldiers hardly ever search all the way through a large back-pack, unless you answer their questions really bad. If the vehicle you're riding in does get stopped just stay calm, show your passport, say the magic words "''turista''" ("tourist") and "''de paseo nada más''" ("just passing"), and if they ask to see your stuff open you bag and show them that it's all clothes and stuff.

One of the great things of hitchhiking in Mexico is that even if you travel alone, you rarely have to hitch-hike alone, because hitchhiking is such a common activity among locals - joining locals hitching will not only add to the fun, but also your safety. This is especially handy as in certain areas - like in the North, around [[Chihuahua (City)|Chihuahua]] - men might take you for a prostitute (even if you have a large bag and totally look like a foreigner).

:''It may be extremely easy to hitch in mainland Mexico, but in the Baja California peninsula, it's a completely different story! In [[Baja California]], there is only one road, the HWY 1, which isn't hell to hitchhike on but requires a lot of patience: there are often large distances in between cities (which are barely even cities, rather a few ranches and cactus farms) and even larger distances between petrol stations (example: El Rosario is the last one before Guerrero Negro, about 360 km further down in [[Baja California Sur]]). Getting stuck in the middle of the desert is NOT fun, and many people can only take you from town to town as it is local traffic or gringos doing one of the many races down in the Baja. Also, unless you are planning on staying in Baja and going back up towards the USA-Mexico border, you should hitchhike from [[Mexicali]] south. If you plan on heading to mainland Mexico from the Baja, you must take a ferry in either [[La Paz (Baja California Sur)|La Paz]] or [[Cabo San Lucas]] towards [[Mazatlán]], which costs about 80$ USD."

"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

[[fr:Mexique]]

[[ru:Мексика]]