Truvelo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 19:42
Did you book the car in advance?
Very much so. It's the first part of our planning that's gone seriously awry. Hopefully, the one that we've booked from Europcar for tomorrow & Friday turns up without incident.
Truvelo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 19:42
On several occasions I've turned up and they were out of cars of the size I ordered so I was upgraded to a car the next size up.
I've had that experience a few times in the past, most notably in South Africa & the USA. The best one was probably the time when I got a phenomenal upgrade at Cape Town Airport, when they gave me one that was about 4 grades over what I'd paid for!
Truvelo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 19:42To be told there are no cars if you did reserve one in advance is unacceptable.
I couldn't agree more. There's really no excuse for a car hire company to run out of cars, when there are no extenuating circumstances, such as bad weather or a terrorist incident.
Truvelo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 19:42
To be told there are no cars if you did reserve one in advance is unacceptable.
I couldn't agree more. There's really no excuse for a car hire company to run out of cars, when there are no extenuating circumstances, such as bad weather or a terrorist incident.
It happened to me once at San Francisco and I kicked up a stink and they finally found me a Ford Crown Victoria which I suspect was the managers car. It was more like navigating a barge than driving a car. Still it got me down from Crater Lake Oregon in the snow. https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicle ... ictoria-lx
Truvelo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 19:42
To be told there are no cars if you did reserve one in advance is unacceptable.
I couldn't agree more. There's really no excuse for a car hire company to run out of cars, when there are no extenuating circumstances, such as bad weather or a terrorist incident.
It happened to me once at San Francisco and I kicked up a stink and they finally found me a Ford Crown Victoria which I suspect was the managers car. It was more like navigating a barge than driving a car. Still it got me down from Crater Lake Oregon in the snow. https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicle ... ictoria-lx
I've had several Crown Vic's and the related Mercury Grand Marquis as rental cars. I like driving white ones as they look like police cruisers. They are long and the engines are big at 4.6 litres but they only pump out something like 220 horses.
One of my favourite rental cars was this I had in 2010. Brand new and I was the first person to hire it. I bet the rental company weren't happy when I returned it just over a week later with an extra 2000 miles on the clock. Considering it was new I don't understand why the number plate was wonky.
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How would you like your grade separations, Sir? Big and complex.
Truvelo wrote: ↑Thu Jan 05, 2023 20:10
I bet the rental company weren't happy when I returned it just over a week later with an extra 2000 miles on the clock.
In 2018, I gave the guy at the Avis desk in Durban Airport a bit of a shock. I returned a car (after a 4 week hire) with an additional 8,400 kms on the clock. The poor car had pretty much done a full (Durban - Cape Town - Northern Kruger - Durban) circuit of South Africa!!
1 : Mexican Driving : The difference between urban and rural driving habits is just incredible. In the towns, the driving is polite & courteous, with people respecting things like stop signs, zebra crossings & traffic lights. However, once they're out on the open roads, they drive like absolute maniacs. It's really quite disconcerting when you're already doing about 10 km/h over the speed limit, and you keep on seeing headlights roaring up into your rear view mirror. Then, they just proceed to just sail past you over the solid yellow line, at speeds that would not be out of place on a German autobahn!
2 : Mexican Roads : I've been staying in Baja California Sur, and I fervently hope that the roads here are not a reflection of the roads in the rest of Mexico. I've driven 700 kms in the last couple of days (mostly on MX1), and it's been educational!! For want of a better term, the rural roads are just atrocious. For starters, they're incredibly narrow, with no runoff or shoulder whatsoever. There are random potholes dotted all over the place, there is next to no signage warning you of sharp corners, and some of the blind summits are just epic. Some of the engineering on these roads is akin to what we would associate with 'heritage roads', such as some of the more remote roads in northern Scotland.
3 : It's been a bit of a shock to see so many police & military checkpoints on the roads, both in the towns and in the countryside. Seemingly, it's all to do with trying to stop the drugs gangs.
4 : Despite coming here to see some whales, we failed to see any. We managed to see some dolphins, sea lions, condors & eagles, and that's not too bad.
Looks like the roads there are what I experienced in southern Italy. No one observes the rules, red light means go and stop lines means force your way out onto the main road forcing traffic to stop to let you out. The checkpoints seems similar to those in the southern USA where there are numerous checkpoints on roads heading north up to 100 miles from the border to check for illegals. I get stopped at most of them as I have a non US passport.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir? Big and complex.
Truvelo wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 23:39
Looks like the roads there are what I experienced in southern Italy. No one observes the rules, red light means go and stop lines means force your way out onto the main road forcing traffic to stop to let you out.
Very similar mentality in the driving. It reminded me of the Greek Islands, but worse. You know it's bad when you're just glad to get out of the car alive and in one piece!
Truvelo wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 23:39
The checkpoints seems similar to those in the southern USA where there are numerous checkpoints on roads heading north up to 100 miles from the border to check for illegals. I get stopped at most of them as I have a non US passport.
A similar setup to the ones in the States, but with added giant X-Ray machines & a bit of extra menace. A few soldiers dressed like RoboCop always adds to the quality of one's day ...
mistral wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 21:26
4 : Despite coming here to see some whales, we failed to see any. We managed to see some dolphins, sea lions, condors & eagles, and that's not too bad.
The headland at the University of Santa Barbara, California, Coal Oil Point. You are at the right time of year. A boat called Condor Express from Santa Barbara harbour is the classic spotters trip.
Before I leave Mexico, just a few random observations.
1 : I'm really surprised as to how expensive it is. When I do comparisons of different countries, I tend to start in supermarkets, with 'international' items such as a can of Coke or a Mars bar. That tends to give one a proper feel for how much things should cost.
Pricewise, Mexico is very much a 'First World' country. Everything from food & drink prices to the cost of eating out, a taxi fare & renting a car is on par with what you'd expect to pay in Western Europe, Japan or the United States. That really did come as a bit of a shock.
2 : It's January 9th, and all the festive lights are still up. Is taking them down on Epiphany a particularly Western European tradition?
3 : My Spanish really isn't too bad, but I speak fairly classic Castellano (plus very decent Catalan), which doesn't seem to have been too much use here. 400 years of separation seems to have had the same effect on Spanish as it has had on English. Mexican Spanish & American English may not yet be outright different languages, but they are both well on the way to becoming so.
4 : I always get a little bemused by places that are nice and warm during the day, but get bitterly cold at night. I can understand the phenomenon in the middle of a desert, where there are no discernible clouds. However, here by the seaside, there have been clouds and daytime highs of about 24°. Within a couple of hours of sunset, there have been several nights when it has got seriously nippy ... I'm guessing it has gone into mid single figures. I presume that it has something to do with being January, and the weakness of the sun, but is there more to it than that?
P.S. As for the whales, we're doing a boat tour out into the Golden Gate on Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll get to see some there.
Last January, mistral wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 21:26
1 : In the towns, the driving is polite & courteous, with people respecting things like stop signs, zebra crossings & traffic lights.
I've just been in Cabo San Lucas, at the bottom of Baja California Sur, and I have to say that I was astonished by the politeness of the drivers. Not only were the drivers stopping at all the zebra crossings, but they were doing things that most Latin American drivers never do, like using their indicators & observing the (mostly 30 km/h) speed limits.
Last January, mistral wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 21:26
4 : Despite coming here to see some whales, we failed to see any. We managed to see some dolphins, sea lions, condors & eagles, and that's not too bad.
This time, I did manage to see some (8 Humpback & 4 Grey) whales, as well as a few dolphins. I didn't see any condors in Mexico this time around, but I did get to see some of them a couple of weeks ago in Peru; they're just incredible birds!!
mistral wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 16:15
Before I leave Mexico, just a few random observations.
1 : I'm really surprised as to how expensive it is. When I do comparisons of different countries, I tend to start in supermarkets, with 'international' items such as a can of Coke or a Mars bar. That tends to give one a proper feel for how much things should cost.
Pricewise, Mexico is very much a 'First World' country. Everything from food & drink prices to the cost of eating out, a taxi fare & renting a car is on par with what you'd expect to pay in Western Europe, Japan or the United States. That really did come as a bit of a shock.
The middle east (Egypt / Jordan / Syria*) is like that - I came away with the impression though that there was a tourist price and a local price.
I was pleasantly surprised by my first trip to Florida by the high standard of the driving compared with Ohio and New York. I mentioned this to a fellow I met in the bar, as one does, and his opinion that was done to the number of illegal immigrants in the state. They couldn't risk being pulled over for speeding or bad driving and public transport was almost non existent.
mistral wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 16:15
Before I leave Mexico, just a few random observations.
1 : I'm really surprised as to how expensive it is. When I do comparisons of different countries, I tend to start in supermarkets, with 'international' items such as a can of Coke or a Mars bar. That tends to give one a proper feel for how much things should cost.
Pricewise, Mexico is very much a 'First World' country. Everything from food & drink prices to the cost of eating out, a taxi fare & renting a car is on par with what you'd expect to pay in Western Europe, Japan or the United States. That really did come as a bit of a shock.
The middle east (Egypt / Jordan / Syria*) is like that - I came away with the impression though that there was a tourist price and a local price.
*pre civil war.
Cuba actually has separate currencies for locals and tourists, so tourists effectively pay x10 for everything.
.
