There are plenty of natural obstacles which will keep your speed
down on the highways of Baja California. Cows, horses, donkeys, and goats are
frequent residents of the roadway, and they seem to consider
vehicles as intruders to be ignored! (I have even seen deer on
the road in the early morning hours - technically, the Peninsular
Pronghorn, an endangered species with some concentration in the
Vizcaino desert.)
A common style of driving along the highway is to straddle the
centerline of the road. This allows one to be more flexible in
avoiding potholes, the most common obstacle. A variation on
this technique is also frequently seen in the curving mountain
sections of the highway where vehicles will use both lanes when
between curves. You may also encounter vehicles dancing the
"Pothole Polka," a step that causes them to weave erratically
across the highway in an attempt to miss the potholes.
If animals are on or next to the road, or there is some other
obstacle to be aware of, drivers will frequently flash their
headlights at oncoming vehicles to give them some warning.
One minor "trick" to anticipating the frequency of animals
dining at the edge of the road during daylight hours is to
consider the recent frequency of rainfall. If there has been no
rainfall recently, there will be fewer animals dining at the
side of the road. However, if rain has recently fallen, then
the grasses will be especially lush at the sides of the
pavement, and the density of cows and horses enjoying this treat
will soar!
The animals which can be seen at the side of the road are the
easy-to-deal-with danger. The difficult, if not impossible,
situation is that where the animal suddenly appears from behind
a road cut or dense brush at the side of the road. All you can
do is recognize the potential problem when approaching such a
place and slow down. Most of the time nothing will occur, but
I've had two occasions on which animals have suddenly appeared
from hiding and caused a near-miss situation.
I can offer a personal warning about cows on the road between La
Paz and Cabo San Lucas. They are especially numerous, and in
many places "caught" between fences placed about 100 feet back
from the road on both sides (the fences are designed to keep the
animals on the side away from the road, but this does not seem
to work). In September of 1992, a friend and I were driving to
San Lucas early in the morning (about 7AM) and managed to strike
a cow at a low speed. All parties survived, but the car
suffered a bent hood which now just barely closes.
There were two cows by the road, one on the right and one on the
left. The cow on the right was sticking out into the road
slightly and I swung to the center to pass him/her - just then
the other cow decided to join its friend across the road and
dashed in front of the car - the car knocked the hind legs out
from under the cow and the very healthy animal landed on top of
the front of the hood, finally sliding off to the side. It then
scampered away into the brush.