Advice on hitching down through Mexico, and Central and South America?

[up2eleven]

What would I need to know about doing this? Is it especially difficult? Is there a big stigma or unfriendliness regarding hitchhikers? Any general tips, advice, things to loom out for, things to know? Any help would be great.

I have a passport.

 

[iamwhatiam]

Im also curious too. This is exactly what I'm planning to do next month

 

[iamwhatiam]

not tryin to hijack your thread eleven, but i had another question to add:
I have an alice pack I'm bringing, but considering just bringing some supplies wrapped up in my sleepin bag and throwin that over my shoulder. My thought is, if people see me walking around with a nice backpack as opposed to just a bedroll - they might be more inclined to try and mug me (as it looks like I have more valuables)?

 

[Ronin Nemesis]

I want to know too ,cause I want to leave here!

 

[hobogestapo]

if you have things then they are more than likely to be nicer than what they have. look on the internet and see whats going on down there. its not a very nice place to be.

 

[zephyr23]

i have hitch in mexico and costa rica and i was fine it did help i bet that my girl is puerto rican and people where extremly nice to me and her. also the busses down their our dirt cheep. also when i was their i never flew a sign to get picked up i justed waved my head around. that what i saw most people do. their a lot of farmer that will pick u up. i also hitch my first motorcycle and atv. you will get a lot of that since they our street legal on highways. crazy right

 

[zephyr23]

i wont lie it can be crazy at times i met people who where robbed by the police when they where camping even though all beaches our public land. just be carefull i was also most robbed 3 times. also the back pack didnt really matter i got manny rides and i have a nice pack.

 

[zephyr23]

message me if anyone has any more question i can try and help as much as i can. also i can tell people about some cool farms to work at. that what i did. it cheep and a great way to experience the culture

 

[barefootinbabylon]

I hitched a lot while in Mexico (the Yucatan). We were trying to hitchhike out of this one city; I believe it was called Tiximin, and all the people we asked about where to try to catch out, told us to go to the police station - ALL OF THEM!! Me, being a paranoid Amerikan, was like, 'Aww, HELLL no, I ain't going to the police station!! We're trying to do something ILLEGAL here!!' But apparently, it's not at all illegal to hitchhike there; it was so that if the police happened to see hitchhikers hopping into a vehicle, they would try to write down the license number of the car, so if any hitchhikers turned up dead.... they would know who to blame. Of course, this isn't anything to dissuade you, by any means - everyone that we got a ride from was INCREDIBLY friendly, brought us to their homes, gave us food... Of course, there are benevolent saints of hitchhiking the world over who do this, but I found hitchin' in Mexico to be a HELL of a lot easier than, say, the U.$. And of course, there ARE jackasses in all parts of the world, as well...

I also had the same thoughts about 'packs and whatnot (i.e. if you have a 'nicer' pack, is it more likely to be stolen?). For this reason, I brought a scroungey, dirty, somewhat disgusting one, and was quite ashamed by all the fancy-schmancy Europeans kids with their fancy-schmancy 'packs. Potentially risking fate, we left our tent with allll our material belongings in it on a beach in El Cuyo, for almost a week, with no issues - I think the smaller towns are a hell of a lot friendlier, and people police themselves a hell of a lot more. Eh... I had a wonderful trip, so I had perhaps a false sense of security - either way, I wanna go back!! Get me outta this fascist-ass country!! Heheh... Best of luck on your travels, I'm jealous!

~ melissA

 

[gypsyjon]

What would I need to know about doing this? Is it especially difficult? Is there a big stigma or unfriendliness regarding hitchhikers? Any general tips, advice, things to loom out for, things to know? Any help would be great.

I have a passport.

I Rode my bike down to chiapas mexico in march i was heading north out of tuxilla guerrtiez and i saw white girl with her backpack and dawg, i passed her thinking i dont have room for girl her back pack and a dawg???? just a little bit up the road i stopped at the pemex station to fill up on gas, i was wondering about the girl and was thinking wow what a ballsy chick! so i turned around and went to go talk to her, so i i did she was a canadian and was traveling with some friends but ened up not wanting to see the same things ,she wanted to head up to masunta a alterantive beach town , thier was going to be some mexican circus jugglers thier and she wanted to check it out, she had been hitch hiking for a couple days so far and was sleeping or hiding behind the pemex stations at night with her dawg, said most men in mexico would ask if she had a boyfriend and she would always tellem yes and i going to visit him now and of coarse 5 min later would ask again............ i ended up giving her and a dawg a ride along ride 300 miles in 2 days we went up to masuta!!!!

 

[iamwhatiam]

alright! so, if anyone is really seriously down for it...i'm wanting to leave sometime around christmas. take a bus to ensenada to avoid the toilet bowl that is tijuana for now and then start walkin/hitchin down to la paz to catch the ferry over. got the passport, but i'll have almost no money, so rice and beans and tortillas and fruit trees are gonna be the staple. i don't know much spanish yet, but i got by pretty good in costa rica before with bodygestures and broken spanish lol .....I play guitar, and want to avoid most of the bigger cities for now and do more camping in wilderness areas if posisble. I'm pretty easy to get along with, just don't be an asshole or piss me off when i'm drunk and we should be fine Also, I won't have a set itenerary so if we get tired of each other or want to part ways at some point thats fine. Am looking for someone to travel thru baja with at least, and then whatever happens happens. 8083487475 ~keith

 

[Nemo]

HoboGestapo is right, we'll all have to tread VERY very carefully with the current events going on down there.

Glad this thread came about.. I've got sort of a bucket list going and one of the first places I've got in mind of going to is Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
Reason being: I'd like to visit an Ayahuasca Shamanic resort which is free and experience Di-methyl Tryptamine. Chimbre is the resort.
Or maybe a more natural rustic trip instead of the resort.
Haven't decided on that bit.

I've also wanted to visit Puerto Vallarta as well so I'll hit that along the way. I've spoken to real estate agents on the area of Puerto Vallarta so I may buckle down there and get a job at a resort or something. rent for a two bedroom is around 2000 pesos which is roughly 149 USD and that's a balcony with a view of a mountain 15 minutes from the coast line

I strongly recommend pirating some rosetta stone mexican-spanish.. at least get to know the basics.
Or, go and steal a mexican-spanish pocket guide phrase book from your local book store.

I've got a good friend originally from a mountainous valley of Mexico named Jose Bautista, he goes every December and is familiar with quite a few places so I'll speak to him and get back to you all with the dangerous places that he knows of that are unfriendly to "outsiders" and also what to stay away form etc.

Don't take anything that you can't hide that you do not wish to lose... because odds are, you will. But that's not just Mexico, that's everywhere.

iamwhatiam, maybe we could meet up and travel together.

Also, anyone who needs a basic spanish learning textbook, hit me up I bought three from the Salvation Army and they're not too over-sized or heavy. They're pretty legit and helpful.
that's all i got!

 

[suzie fox]

if any of you make it down to costa rica, let me know, i am always looking for fellow hitchhikers and mucho aventura!!

 

[barefootinbabylon]

Haha.... I'll hopefully be there in a year or so... :\ You live down there?

 

[suzie fox]

i´m new here...but i love it here! i want to see all of central america though, and south too! i have all the time in the world, so i think i´ll stay here, at least a while.

 

[gypsyjon]

Hey suzie tell us a little about costa rica!! how long u been there??,doyou work? and what fun things youve done so far!!!

 

[Earth]

My boy REVS had this notion in his head that he was going to drive to the southern most point of South America with this big like F-450 panal truck about 20 years ago. This was after him and Cost drove to Alaska - from Brooklyn NY - which if I recalll him saying was no big deal...

What stopped him from driving to South America was the good ole Panama Canal - turns out that back then - his truck needed to be shipped in a container across the canal - and oh year, that will be two thousand dollars please - which in the early ninties was an astounding sum of money for anyone.
So, needless to say - he never pulled it iff....

I don't know how it works as far as hitching across the canal, but it sounds like down there the games got a price, and you've got to pay if you want to play (because the games got a price)

I know, those are lyrics from a Flipper song, but I felt it was appropriate here...,

 

[barefootinbabylon]

Hehehe... Yeah, there are a surprising number of people who have that idea in their head of doing Central America --> S.A., but don't have any idea about the Darrien Gap (i.e. Panama Canal). I read this one kid's online blog of how he lucked into a free boat ride into Colombia (he essentially had noooo money during his travels, except what was given to him - I believe he's gotten into TESL now). However, for those of us that AREN'T that lucky, it seems to be planes from P.C. into either Colombia or Ecuador; there MIGHT be boats that you can 'charter,' or something of that nature, but... yep. Panama Canal's definitely one thing that I've heard it's a bit more difficult to hitch...

Namaste, Blessed Be,
~ melissA

 

[Deleted member 363]

^ya, you may want to avoid the darien gap. It is one of the most dangerous places in the world.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Eastern_Panama

 

[suzie fox]

i have been living in the teensy tiny farming community of mastatal in the costa rican mountain range...the jungle...helping out on a farm, helping out these costa rican cowboys with spurs on their rubber boots...it's a really beautiful time, i love all of the tico's smiles. this will be my new home. i want to do some hitchhiking around here once a good traveling partner presents themselves. i don't know anything about squats around here, but i will find some. i came here to learn, learn, learn. i never went to highschool but this is my college. i am learning a lot of spanish (but not enough), geography, agriculture, many things...i want to learn everything that i can about self-sufficiency and alternative energy because i am searching for the perfect place to build a treehouse / playhouse. maybe that perfect spot will be in costa rica? it's pretty damn beautiful here. but i will keep traveling until i do find it.