I suspect it may have something to do with the grade. You live in an up and down place that gets its share of hard rain, the road just washes down hill. I live on a sandy hill where a good rain can wash out a three foot deep hole in the road in one hour if it’s a true gully-washer. My road is blacktop but it washes out from the underside. Cobbles and a dirt base do not stand a chance.

Another reason for the poor condition of the roads is the trucks that travel upon them. Five ton, single-axle trucks tear up roads anywhere, especially when they are overloaded upwards to seven tons. Following one of these trucks in the hot summer, I actually saw the roadway bend from the weight.

Kwallek – Good observation – I said I didn’t know anything about roads – just whether they are smooth or full of cracks and holes

Joaquinx – Absolutely, even in smaller neighborhoods ferretería supply trucks with many tons of cement bags or block or rock cruise along bending the roadways.

After the “rainy season”, we have the same thing here…….unfortunately we didn’t have a rainy season much this year.

The roads between towns on the west coast are fine. The streets in my village, though, are teeth-jarringly bad. There was an old adage when I lived in Texas. Texas doesn’t repair its roads; it just lowers the speed limit. No need for any speed limit here.

When we lived in Teocelo for a year (three years ago), the main road between Teocelo and the turn off to Xico had been recently resurfaced and was a joy to drive. Within months it was starting to deteriorate, however. This is a very heavily traveled route with many many trucks and buses stressing the surface and driving way too fast and the whole area is subject to very heavy rains. That said, we still wondered why the road was deteriorating so quickly. Nine months later when we left the area, this road was a horror to drive… SAD.

jim and mindy

Jim & Mindy – We loved to take the ride on the scooter to Teocelo when the road was completed. As you and others have suggested the heavy vehicles, lots of traffic and the harshness of pelting rain took its toll so fast.

Have you been there lately – the town has become very unappealing with roads that look like an abandon highway.

Sorry to hear about that main street in Teocelo. It always was a mess with gigantic pot holes there was no way to avoid. Sounds like they just let it go and never tried to fix it. Being the only north-south artery down from of Jalapa that road through Teocelo really takes a beating with massive rigs carrying concrete block and other supplies to many towns to the south of Teocelo and the Perote area.

The main road through Carrizal in our present area has always been rough but now between the usual heavy traffic out to the hot springs and all the increased traffic from the new cement plant and many new businesses, it is quite a disaster area and a challenge to navigate.

It appears that the local businesses have no interest in improving the road as all those bumps and pop holes mean slower traffic by their places. Perhaps they think will be noticed more and get more business? We have seen this in Jalcomulco where the main couple of blocks though town where all the big tourist shops are was quite a serious mess but they left it that way over a year before “fixing” it. But the simple/crude patches they used for this job won’t last I am sure… they never do.

One fundamental problem in Mexico is the top-down govt. structure. Local govts. that might want to improve their infra-structure do NOT have the power to tax, and therefore nothing gets done.

One way around this is the FAENA system, in which each family in a village is obligated to send a “man” for so many days a year to work on some local necessity, be it a water system, road repair, school construction, etc. This is done here near Cordoba, where we have our pine forest in a village called Xaltenango.

A friend of mine in Minatitlán lives on a street that is dirt that turns to mud when it rains. Driving over the street is like riding a rollercoaster. I asked him if the city will repair it and he said that he liked it that way as it kept the traffic from speeding. Later he admitted that at one time he wanted it to be surfaced and was told that he had to go to Xalapa to demand paving. Since he needed to travel to Xalapa, he stopped in the agency (sorry, I don’t know the agency, but can find out if needed) and asked about the paving of the street. He was told that the street was paved! In order for them to change the status, he needed to petition them. The conversation dropped off into curse words that mentioned a number of state, federal, and local agencies needed to be petitioned in order to change the status and to get it paved. It remains unpaved today.

Look if you only have bad things to say about Monte Blanco then just to say it at all. Stop giving the place such bad publicity. I am from Monte Blanco and it is not our lack of knowledge in building roadways slimply the lack of money.

Dear Anonymous -

I would be remiss to not write the facts of the bad roadways here in this Blog. Some of the mission here is to make people aware of the good, bad, ugly and beautiful of our area.

There are some bad roads – those are the facts. Regardless of how they got that way or why they are not repaired.

I have said many good things about Monte Blanco and Teocelo over the years – there is a preponderance of positive information. Perhaps you need to read here more often or not at all?

The Calypso’s are very fond of Teocelo and that area including all the bamboo establishments – a few that have received a lot of business from people we have brought to the area as well as from ourselves (have you read my recent entry on our love for bamboo furniture?

You are way off base here and very narrow minded in the sense that you yourself admit there is a problem due to lack of money – I think there are some good observations about the damaged roadways here in the comments.

We live in close proximity to your area and like it very much. I stand on my comments.

Anyone who visits your area may very well encounter some damaged roadway – those are the facts and I have suggested it is sad because we always enjoy visiting the area.

You might note that just a couple of weeks ago I wrote, “Plan on visiting the pueblos of Indepencia and Monte Blanco if you visit our area. ” Here: http://www.vivaveracruz.com/blog/?p=1396 Fair and balanced reporting I would suggest.

Last time we were there some repairs had been made by the way. When and if it is a good road going through there I will report it.

Happy New Year