# Best driving route mexico city to oaxaca



## marthavictoria1 (Sep 30, 2014)

Hello all, I need your valuable opinion once again. I have read on some threads some of you have done this drive before. Which is the best way...google maps has 2 routes; one taking the 160 and the other 150? Tolls are not a problem I would like to avoid protestors.


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## RickS (Aug 6, 2009)

With no knowledge as to where protestors might be on any given day, and if tolls are not an issue, I'd take 150D cuota without thinking twice about it.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

We just got a truck from Chiapas this morning they went through Puebla arco Norte Queretaro Leo Guadalajara. There was no protest anywhere.
We getting a bus from Oaxaca tomorrow , I will advise if they run into problems.

I do not know about the protests in DF.


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## marthavictoria1 (Sep 30, 2014)

Thank you


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

There is onl one logical way fro DF to Oaxaca City. The Mexico City-Puebla Autopista and beyond to the 136 Autopista turnoff to Oaxaca City. Simple and fast as long as the Oaxaca Autopista is not blocked. Tere are blockages today in Southern Mexico so don´tbe surprised if you are blocked here and thre especially during these deservedly tumultuous time in Mexico.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Watch the news re the roads to Oaxaca. The students and teachers are burning toll booths in Oaxaca as well as in Chiapas, the one I reported yesterday.
This morning our bus made it to cordoba and broke down at 3 in the morning ..but meanwhile there are riots in Guerrero Morelia, and burning of casetas in Oaxaca


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Our Oaxaca bus is supposed to arrive by noon today, will let you know if they ad problems going through. I would think that once the caseas are destroyed there would be very little else that can be done so the problem may go somewhere else.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I wonder why the burning of highway casetas has become such a popular way to protest the government.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

TV, Social Media, Newspaper. Best way to make the news.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> TV, Social Media, Newspaper. Best way to make the news.


I guess that negative publicity is better than none.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

The Oaxaca and many of the other "students" violently protesting are nothing more than local terrorist groups. I doubt they care at all about what really happened in Iguala. There are photos in the Mexican media today of the "students" in Oaxaca ... robbing Coca Cola trucks. I didn't realize until recently that the Marxists were so fond of one of the most visible symbols of capitalizm in Mexico - Coca Cola. The "students" are also hijacking and vandalizing local and long-distance busses, in Oaxaca and elsewhere - according to the media reports. The violence carried-out in the name of the 51 who apparently died in Iguala only serves to dishonor and cheapen the lives of those who died. But, I don't doubt the terrorists just don't care.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Well since we have a bus from Oaxaca that is supposed to arrive in Chapala today around noon we will hear if those stories are true or not, the prof is in the pudding. The press says a lot of things but if our bus arrives it will mean that the problems have been overblown if not I hope all the artisans on that bus will be safe .


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

citlali said:


> The press says a lot of things but if our bus arrives it will mean that the problems have been overblown if not I hope all the artisans on that bus will be safe .


Well, your visitors will know about their journey, not the journey of the others on the highway ahead or behind them.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Longford said:


> Well, your visitors will know about their journey, not the journey of the others on the highway ahead or behind them.


By your new way of seeing a situation as not ordained by what happened before or can happen after an event, as such, the US State Depts. Travel Advisories, sometimes not updated for 6 months to years, seem silly now to some of us who travel around the country. If you can see this clearly here why not elsewhere? :whoo:


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

AlanMexicali said:


> By your new way of seeing a situation as not ordained by what happened before or can happen after an event, as such, the US State Depts. Travel Advisories, sometimes not updated for 6 months to years, seem silly now to some of us who travel around the country. If you can see this clearly here why not elsewhere? :whoo:


It does seem a little inconsistent to argue one day for the value of State Department advisories and the next day note that what happens to one bus doesn't tell you what might happen to the preceding or following buses. But then,

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
- A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

AlanMexicali said:


> By your new way of seeing a situation as not ordained by what happened before or can happen after an event, as such, the US State Depts. Travel Advisories, sometimes not updated for 6 months to years, seem silly now to some of us who travel around the country. If you can see this clearly here why not elsewhere? :whoo:


I think that anyone who reads/follows the U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings or Advisories for Mexico (Mexico Travel Warning) would notice how frequent they change. Minimally, once a year. More often as situations/developments warrant. The most recent update? October 14, 2014. As for my "new way of seeing a situation," I don't understand what you're talking about.


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## manuel dexterity (Oct 2, 2014)

By the time a State Dept. warning is issued, whatever provoked the warning may be long in the past. Then they only thing they accomplished was to convince people from traveling to the area. 

The swine flu nonsense a few years back is a great example. The way it was portrayed you would have thought people on the street were dropping dead in their tracks.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

Longford said:


> The Oaxaca and many of the other "students" violently protesting are nothing more than local terrorist groups. I doubt they care at all about what really happened in Iguala. There are photos in the Mexican media today of the "students" in Oaxaca ... robbing Coca Cola trucks. I didn't realize until recently that the Marxists were so fond of one of the most visible symbols of capitalizm in Mexico - Coca Cola. The "students" are also hijacking and vandalizing local and long-distance busses, in Oaxaca and elsewhere - according to the media reports. The violence carried-out in the name of the 51 who apparently died in Iguala only serves to dishonor and cheapen the lives of those who died. But, I don't doubt the terrorists just don't care.


Given that truth is one of the first casualties of war, I don't think we can presume to know the identity behind the bandanas. Are they so-called anarchists? Are they _agents provocateurs_ trying to divert public sentiment away from the justified outrage about the ever worsening enmeshment of organized crime/narcos with government and law enforcement? I am not sure of anything other than that deep and genuine change is needed. Otherwise it will be like the saying in Guatemala (which I heard there during one of the coups d'état): El mismo circo, otro payaso. Same circus, different clown.

I heard an interview today with a journalist from Iguala (anonymous for safety reasons) who indicated at least some of the looting in Iguala was by the Federal Municipal Police, who were called in when it became clear that the local police were deeply involved in organized crime. 

If the focus becomes increasingly on the actions of a minority who are looting and burning, rather than on the deeper, entrenched criminality and impunity of the carteles and their allies in various governments and law enforcement agencies, then those who died in Iguala will surely have died in vain.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Isla Verde;5738386]I wonder why the burning of highway casetas has become such a popular way to protest the government.[/QUOTE]_

I can answer that without a second thought. 

As Dr. Martin Leuther King taught us in Alabama in the 1960s, the population in general is apathetic toward revolutionary social movements until something happens that interrupts their economic well-being or personal mobility. People in general don´t really give damn about the plight of the minority African Americans in Alabama or the indigenous in Guerrero Oaxaa and Chiapas until their personal lives are inconvenienced. 

I have lived this all my life and undrstand this fundamentally.

When Dr.King came to Birmingham in the 1960s, the city had just changed charters and had progressed from the old city commission system to a more represantative city council system and the new city administration begged Dr. King to put off his Birmingham crusade until they could get their new act together and change the city for the better. Dr. King refused and today we can see why he did so.

We have lived in Chiapas and traveled about Southern Mexico for some eight years now and understand the racist policies that plague that región. The indigenous victims of blatant racism there seem to have caught widespread attention.by impeding traffic flow on certain autoipstas. iI worked to change things in Birmingham and should work in Guerrero as well.

Go for it.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Longford said:


> Well, your visitors will know about their journey, not the journey of the others on the highway ahead or behind them.





TundraGreen said:


> It does seem a little inconsistent to argue one day for the value of State Department advisories and the next day note that what happens to one bus doesn't tell you what might happen to the preceding or following buses. But then,
> 
> Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
> - A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.


Exactly. If, for example, you and I and our friends and their family and friends etc. drive their Mexican plated vehicles to anyplace they are visiting and nothing is ever reported by them then what are SDTA really stating? The odds of encountering even a slight problem for the whole population is miniscule at any given moment? Or it is a calculated risk to be a foreigner travelling in Mexico? Or are foreign plates a risk?

What good is a usually outdated warning if problems and events don´t happen as routinely as they might be interpreted as happening in some locations.

Longford. The USSDTA hasn´t changed for this state in 2 1/2 years, Word for word. I imagine that is normal in about 25 of the 32 states also that they post about.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Talk about thread drift, some of the last several posts seem odd to me:

1. I haven't seen mention of a U.S. Department of State Travel Warning in any of the Iguala-related comments posted in the past month in a half - until this afternoon, here. If there has been such references, someone please point us to it, link it, so we can have a look at it ... since it's now become such an _issue_. If there's been a discussion of those warning notices elsewhere on the forum which have a bearing on the discussion or a point someone wants to make ... go head and link the discussion so that we can look at the comments in the context which they may have been made.

2. Now we're bringing Swine Flu into the Iguala discussion. Fine with me. Don't see the relevance, but ... Anyhow, some may, or may not recall that Mexico declared and widely publicized a _national emergency_ back in 2009. If other countries chose to advise their citizens traveling to Mexico that Mexico viewed the situation as being so grave ... I don't understand how these countries can be criticized for doing so. Hindsight often provides 20/20 vision ... when convenient. Did Mexico over-react to the situation? That's for others to judge.



> MEXICO CITY — (April 25, 2009) President Felipe Calderon declared a national emergency Saturday, *authorizing federal officials to quarantine the sick, shut down public events and businesses, and take other measures to contain the virus’ spread*.
> 
> “Although this is a *grave, serious problem*, we’re going to beat it,” Calderon said Saturday. * Many in this crowded capital of 20 million are holing up or fleeing town *as Mexico braces for what the World Health Organization warns could explode into a deadly global flu epidemic. *Schools and universities remain closed, and people are being asked to avoid movie theaters, concerts and other mass gatherings*.


 (bold emphasis added)

Source: Mexico declares national emergency - Houston Chronicle


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

manuel dexterity said:


> By the time a State Dept. warning is issued, whatever provoked the warning may be long in the past. Then they only thing they accomplished was to convince people from traveling to the area.
> 
> The swine flu nonsense a few years back is a great example. The way it was portrayed you would have thought people on the street were dropping dead in their tracks.


Swine flu was real in the Imperial Valley, California, 450 cases confirmed and about 16 deaths, Mexicali 116 cases confirmed, about 8 deaths, San Diego county 550 cases confirmed about 14 deaths according to local newspapers and local TV news.

Where they pulling our legs?

Mexico City went to great and costly lengths to stop it´s spread and closed down the place for a week and it did succeed. 

The US side of the Mexico - California border did nothing and they got 550 and 450 confirmed cases. Mexicali only 116 confirmed cases.

I salute Mexico for taking it seriously.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

AlanMexicali said:


> Longford. The USSDTA hasn´t changed for this state in 2 1/2 years, Word for word. I imagine that is normal in about 25 of the 32 states also that they post about.


I'll take your word for SLP, because I'm not going to go back 2.5 years searching for copies of these reports. I don't work for the U.S. Department of State, but if you think the reports should be updated you can probably communicate your suggestions to the nearest Consular office. I believe the reports, read together with other sources of travel invormation, help to better prepare travelers for their visit to Mexico.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Longford said:


> I'll take your word for SLP, because I'm not going to go back 2.5 years searching for copies of these reports. I don't work for the U.S. Department of State, but if you think the reports should be updated you can probably communicate your suggestions to the nearest Consular office. I believe the reports, read together with other sources of travel invormation, help to better prepare travelers for their visit to Mexico.


The mid Oct. update you mentioned was preceded by, I believe, a mid Jan. 2014 update. 9 months apart this year.


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## manuel dexterity (Oct 2, 2014)

AlanMexicali said:


> Swine flu was real in the Imperial Valley, California, 450 cases confirmed and about 16 deaths, Mexicali 116 cases confirmed, about 8 deaths, San Diego county 550 cases confirmed about 14 deaths according to local newspapers and local TV news.
> 
> Where they pulling our legs?
> 
> ...


Those numbers differ greatly from the ones I have seen or remember. Would you have a cite for those numbers? There were less confirmed cases and deaths attributed to swine flu than those of a normal flu season. The whole thing was completely blown out of proportion.

Hysteria over swine flu is the real danger, some say - CNN.com

Swine Flu Cases Overestimated? - CBS News

Los casos confirmados y sospechosos de gripe porcina en el mundo

World Health Organisation exaggerated swine flu, says Shelley Salpeter

Howard Kurtz - Swine Flu Outbreak Pales Compared With Media Frenzy Surrounding It

Simon Jenkins: Swine flu? A panic stoked in order to posture and spend | Comment is free | The Guardian


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Your posted articles are from March to May 2009 when, I think, the outbeak first occured.



Pandemia de gripe A (H1N1) de 2009-2010 en Estados Unidos - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre


"Last updated: April 27, 2010

Confirmed the date known human disease cases (EE. UU., April 27, 2009).
The pandemic influenza A (H1N1), which began in 2009, entered the United States on March 28 of that year. This was the second country to report cases of influenza A in the Americas.

In the northern spring of 2009, an outbreak of a new strain of influenza (also known in the US as swine flu), infected for the first time several people in Mexico and the US states of California and Texas.

On July 12, 2009, Secretary of the Department of Health, Kathleen Sebelius said the vaccine against swine flu (H1N1) would be available in the US from October of the same year, a time which is predicted could significantly increase the number of people infected by the virus.1

At November 19, 2009, cases of influenza A (H1N1) had spread in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in the offices of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, United States Virgin Islands , and the Northern Mariana Islands, with more than 90,000 confirmed cases and 2,100 deaths in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the depencias Guam, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. On October 23, 2009, President Barack Obama authorized more resources flu when he declared national emergency sanitaria."


http://iris.paho.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3494/fep002737.pdf?sequence=1


Up until Sept. 2009

"Since the beginning of the pandemic have passed 145 days in history (April 18 - September
09), which would be summarized thus:
• 18 / April: US officially reported 2 cases of swine flu
A H1N1.
• 27 / April: WHO announces Pandemic Level 4 (proven human transmission
a person from an animal virus or human-animal reassortant virus
able to cause "community-level outbreaks"). 9 This alert phase was applied
for Mexico.
• 29 / April: The alert goes up to Level 5 (spread of the virus from person to person
at least two countries in one WHO region).
• 30 / April: More than 225 cases and 8 deaths in Mexico and the United States and 26
cases in 7 countries of Europe. The disease spreads rapidly.
• 19 / May: WHO reports 9,885 cases and 79 deaths in 27 countries on 4 continents.
The growth is exponential.
• 14 / May: 27 countries in the Americas with 95% of all cases and all
deceased.
• 11 / June: WHO raises alert to level 6, after many discussions
about the severity of the disease and mortality and impact
As you may have this. Pandemic phase is characterized by the criteria
defined in Phase 5, accompanied by community level outbreaks
in at least one other country in a different region.
• 22 / June: There are more than 52,000 cases in 99 countries on 5 continents. There are
41,901 (80%) confirmed in 27 countries of the Americas and 226 death cases.
From the moment they stop counting individual cases.
• 17 / July: It is impossible to confirm cases; monitoring the disease
is performed based on qualitative indicators."


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## manuel dexterity (Oct 2, 2014)

The CBS article was published in October, 2009. Now, I would really like to see where the numbers you posted about deaths in your area came from.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

:focus:

I don't know how the Moderators can do it effectively, but maybe the portions of this "highway to Oaxaca" discussion thread which has veered-off into the Iguala discussion (including my own comments  ) can be moved over to that Iguala discussion ... since they seem to have little to do with the OPs question here. Not that the comments aren't interesting, but to preserve the integrity/purpose of the original discussion?


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

manuel dexterity said:


> The CBS article was published in October, 2009. Now, I would really like to see where the numbers you posted about deaths in your area came from.


I can´t. I remember local Mexicali/El Centro Ca./Yuma Az. TV news that year, 2009, keeping up on the story and did get a vaccination when it became available there.


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## manuel dexterity (Oct 2, 2014)

AlanMexicali said:


> I can´t. I remember local Mexicali TV news that year, 2009, and local newspapers keeping up on the story and did get a vacination when it became available there.


With all due respect, you can remember such precise numbers from reading or watching news reports 5 years ago? I am impressed.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

manuel dexterity said:


> With all due respect, you can remember such precise numbers from reading or watching news reports 5 years ago? I am impressed.


I remember things that interest me and was an engineer all my career and numbers always stuck with me for along time. They might not be accurate but are the numbers that came to me quickly. I don´t remember a thing they said about it in TJ.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

To play the devil's advocate, potential public health threats create a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If not taken seriously and there are bad outcomes, it's Public Health's fault for not being proactive and doing something to prevent it. If it is taken seriously and an EFFECTIVE preventive measure is implemented (such as a massive vaccination campaign), and being effective it prevents widespread illness, then it was overblown hype. 

H1N1 was a particularly nasty flu bug, with the unusual characteristic that many of the deaths it caused were in young, otherwise healthy people. Most flu strains are more dangerous for the elderly and infirm. Regarding flu shots in general, when Ontario implemented free shots several years ago, a higher percentage of people started getting them and the incidence of flu in general, and especially of hospitalizations and deaths from influenza dropped significantly.

Then there were those who claimed that the H1N1 virus was specifically bioengineered to allow the pharmaceutical companies to make more money. ¿!?! And that governments were in cahoots with them, which really makes no sense for the governments which bought these vaccines and paid for the health workers to administer them. Run for the hills - and don't forget your tinfoil hat! :tinfoil3:


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## manuel dexterity (Oct 2, 2014)

Well I am not a health professional but I do know that the AH1N1 strain, better known as swine flu, still exists and receives very little attention in the press. I also recall that its mortality rate was deemed to be overblown and that many deaths initially attributed to the disease were later proven to have been the result of another condition.

The biggest problem I had with the whole situation and what makes it relevant to the this discussion was the media driven hysteria and the highly exaggerated reports of deaths in this country which took a heavy toll on the economy, especially the tourism sector. 

Flu shots have been offered gratis here in Mexico for years as many of us that live here are aware of. In fact starting last month, health workers have been going door to door, setting up booths outside supermarkets, inside malls and government buildings offering the free vaccine.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

manuel dexterity said:


> Well I am not a health professional but I do know that the AH1N1 strain, better known as swine flu, still exists and receives very little attention in the press. I also recall that its mortality rate was deemed to be overblown and that many deaths initially attributed to the disease were later proven to have been the result of another condition.
> 
> The biggest problem I had with the whole situation and what makes it relevant to the this discussion was the media driven hysteria and the highly exaggerated reports of deaths in this country which took a heavy toll on the economy, especially the tourism sector.
> 
> Flu shots have been offered gratis here in Mexico for years as many of us that live here are aware of. In fact starting last month, health workers have been going door to door, setting up booths outside supermarkets, inside malls and government buildings offering the free vaccine.


I would recommend FLUARIX 
Much better results


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## marthavictoria1 (Sep 30, 2014)

Thank you for the history lesson.Can we keep us posted on the burning of the casetas in Oaxaca?


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