EYWandBTV

Hello all,

We are planning a trip to Mexico beginning Feb 16, going from Mexico City airport by ADO bus to Puebla, stay a few days, then bus down to Oaxaca. A couple of questions about safety and disruptions:

For the trip on the autopista from Mex City airport to Puebla: there seem to be increasing attacks and robberies on commercial trucks, individual cars, and buses on this major highway, which also crosses the area of big pipelines which are being tapped by criminal gangs. What's the outlook for a safe, daytime ADO bus trip from the MC airport to Puebla?

Next question: at the moment (the last few days), highway 190 from Puebla to Oaxaca has been blockaded at the northern entrance of Oaxaca. Same question: any thoughts about how soon this will end? Do ADO buses usually find alternate routes into the city when these bloqueos happen?

Final question (yes, I'm squeezing in a third)...we're thinking of scratching Puebla and just flying to Oaxaca from the MC airport, but the teachers have blockaded the road from the Oaxaca airport into the centro. Outlook? Is it possible to find a taxi which can find a detour route into the city? After our stay in Oaxaca, our plan was to fly to MC and stay a few days. Hotels already reserved in all of the above places.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Fra_Diavolo

Following the same itinerary in nearly the same time frame. Let's hope for some luck.

EYWandBTV

Hi Fra, we've changed our plans. Here's our thinking, in case it might help you or other folks....

It's very difficult to get a handle on these Oaxacan developments at a distance, so take all my judgments with a grain of salt. They are based on some comments I received on another travel forum, from a long-time resident of Oaxaca, as well as reading a lot of news items in Mexican sources on the web and on Facebook group sites.

So as of now it looks like the teachers' blockades of city streets, the ADO bus station, and the road to the airport have ended. The union chapter leading these blockades is Seccion 22 of CNTE, the national teachers' union. (The CNTE has had huge political clout in the past but successive national governments have chipped away at its power, even jailing its president, Elba Esther Gordillo, for a time for corruption). So Seccion 22 has agreed to sit down for talks with some officials (they want back pay they claim they are entitled to, and also the reinstatement of teachers whose positions were eliminated). But these talks could break down at any time and the blockades pop back up again.

But I can't find any info on the blockade of highway 190 from Puebla to Oaxaca. This was not blockaded by the teachers but instead by leaders of the Triqui indigenous people. This is a new twist, I don't remember reading about this kind of bloqueo before. BTW, the star of the hit movie "Roma", Yalitza Aparicio, is I think Triqui and Mixtec.

So these blockades have been occurring more and more frequently since the big shutdown of Oaxaca for weeks in 2006, and different groups are following the successes of the teachers in their efforts. And why not? Ultimately the regional or national officials always give something to these groups, and there is no punishment imposed for disrupting traffic and imposing big economic costs on the city's businesses. So it's perfectly rational behavior, on their part. Which is why we are not going to run the risk of our original travel plan.

The new plan: Mexico City airport, express bus to Puebla (we've looked more closely at this stretch of highway and almost all robberies have attacked cargo trucks, not passenger buses, so we will take a chance). And then from Puebla we will go to Tlaxcala, a small city I've always wanted to see. Then to Mexico City, where I was able to extend our stay at the wonderful Red Tree House b&b in Condesa, from three nights to five.

Aqui esta el plan, we'll see if it works!

Fra_Diavolo

We're still planning on flying to and from Oaxaca, and will take out chances.

We've taken the bus on an earlier trip, and enjoyed it, but wanted to save time.

Thanks for the information.

limmy

EYWandBTV

Here's an update: there's a new group blockading the airport as of a day or two ago, called CIOAC, an association of farm workers. This seems to be the pattern--as one group succeeds in extracting payments and promises from the government, other groups join in to get something. There's a Facebook group called “Oaxaca Vial y Noticias al Instante, Bloqueos y Accidentes” focusing on highway and traffic disruption of all kinds, you may find it helpful:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3155...8794786302988/

Here are some comments on FB about the airport bloqueo (my rough translation):

“They are asking for something but they don’t know exactly what, they think that the blockade will achieve what they want--that is a lie, what they are doing is to be repudiated by society for blockading and not letting citizens go to work to bring sustenance to our families.”

“Don’t give them any money, do as AMLO [Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador] said, give the money directly to the people and our communities”

Let's hope all of this calms down soon.

limmy

EYWandBTV

Hi Limmy, these things are totally unpredictable. I had asked our hotel many days ago when the first bloqueo went up and they replied, quite honest god bless them, that they could not predict. From the little that I was able to glean from the web, it seems possible that you or your taxi could find other streets around the blockade but that's not clear, nor is it clear that the blockade would be in place late at night. You can see images of the current blockade, it consists of buses that have been commandeered and parked across the road. Ugh indeed. So we regretfully canceled our trip segment to Oaxaca and substituted Tlaxcala instead. We are in Mexico ten nights, have made reservations after the planned Oaxaca visit, and did not want those disrupted. If we had several weeks for our visit, we would not be worried, but alas we do not have that luxury.

limmy

Same here on not having the luxury of time. 8 nights for us. If our trip was a little longer I would have planned on using the bus instead of flying and we’d have more flexibility right now. So fingers crossed it is!

limmy

Fra_Diavolo

Thanks. We're arriving Saturday.

Fra_Diavolo

limmy

Fra_Diavolo

Thanks, Limmy.

Trip went great (though the heat lingered in Oaxaca). Just wanted to note we experienced no trouble on any leg of or trip, or the several day trips in and out of Oaxaca.

There is a chronic protest going on atg the southern end of the Zocalo -- some tired signs and, one day, a sort of press conference. No noise or harassment. While there is no guarantee that the problems listed above above will not return, for now the situation seems quiet. If you are planning a trip to Oaxaca, I would not hesitate.