Fastest way to drive from Zihuatanejo to Mazatlan

A lot has transpired since the Canadian Rainbirds misadventure.

Mex 200 is ruled by the SSP, rurales, and autodefensas these days. It is calm and quiet. Maybe more so than many other main highways in the country.

But eye-candy is eye-candy.

That is one good looking jeep. Next time you pass the corralon federal between Lazaro and Zihuatanejo take a look through the fence. About eight rows back is the clone (?) of your Jeepster. It has about an inch of dirt on it. Pilar spotted it, I didn't. Her dad confirmed it to be suspiciously similar to your rig. That corralon is the closest one to Caleta de Campos.

The sighting goes back to last autumn. Right after hurricane season.

I understand that an event like that makes you think. On the other hand, that happened something more than two years ago, if I am correct. Not exactly a weekly occurrence.

My preferred route is to follow the Coast road North of Las Varas rather than Hiway 200. Going that way you don't hardly encounter a quota until you are North of San Blas, and you completely bypass Tepic. I have no numbers on the toll for the last leg to Mazatlan, but I don't believe it is near the number you list. I presume you went through Compostela and Tepic. I confess I like the Coast route simply for the experience, not to save time.

Usually, yes....Mex 200 through Puerto Vallarta, Guayabitos, Las Varas, Compostela and Tepic. But we've also gone "the back way" to San Blas, north of Las Varas, which does have some nice scenery along the coast. Certainly not the "fast way" to Mazatlán, though. We've never had any problems or delays going through Tepic, but that section of road from Las Varas to Tepic can be very slow, behind smoke-belching trucks and buses.
We once took a Pacifico bus from Guayabitos to Tepic. During the whole winding route.....narrow, no shoulders, sharp turns, scary drop-offs, etc.... the driver kept up a running conversation with a young woman who sat on the step beside the driver, showing him photos from her album. He would lean over to see them, holding the steering wheel with his other hand. Wasn't funny at the time.

From Uruapan north through say Sahuayo is smack dead eye center in the middle of CJNG cartel land. Murders, kidnappings, carjacking, highway robbery. I will go to Patzcuaro, or Morelia and maybe the new cutoff from Patz to Mex 15-D but I would not deviate if I were riding in a Checker (cab) dressed as Jed Clampett.

I must have, and mean REALLY have done something wrong the three times I was forced to deviate through Morelia from Tecoman. Whatever I did wrong forced the clocks to jump ahead more than two hours and levered the sun toward the horizon. From 14-D north to my pueblito is little more than an hour. From the entronque of 14-D to Zihatanejo how much time is involved? I sure would like to know where that time went. I truly dislike choosing whether I take the periferico west or east through Morelia. The Patz.-Mex 15-D shortcut sure sounds good.

Two issues on the coast road: From Maruata to the northern of the 3 "X" pueblos there are about a dozen topes carefully positioned in the shade of trees. I say carefully because both sides of the highway have shade trees (you didn't want them to do all that hot asphalt work in the sun, did you?)

Also your map route does not utilize the toll road from the entronque of Mex 14-D and 200. Take the exit. Get on the toll road southbound (toward the ocean). That will shave more than a half hour off posted travel time. Tolls are like 80 pesos.

Also SCT has softened a lot of curves on Mex 200 between Las Varas and Tepic. Widened the roadway in places to accommodate a shoulder for a semi-passing lane. You've got to remember Mex 14-D is mostly 2-lane and the PFP does not want passing con raya continua. I've seen a lot of flashing red and blue lights because someone didn't believe the signs. You get stuck behind a 40 kh truck with a PFP behind you and it's a s-l-o-w climb to Zirahuen.

But the second point on the coast road is beware of traylors de varilla. Flat bed trucks hauling rebar cut curves so 2 oncoming vehicles cutting curves are bound to have an impending coincidence.

Also, entering Puerto Vallarta from the south, suicide taxis are bound to roar from hotel entrances (exits) fifty feet in front of you. Use care coming down that arroyo grandote.

There is no alternative to missing highly risky driving adventure on this route. Or any other. My advice is to leave early and beware. It's not robbers or Norman Bates' Mexican brother-in-law you should worry about. Rather an eight foot tall shiny KenMex grille.

We're getting very esoteric here, but I'll keep this going:
"North from Uruapan" for us usually means Mex. 37 through Paracho, Cheran, (which was the first town in Michoacán to get rid of its police and set-up citizen-manned roadblocks a few years ago), Carapan, Purepero and then meet up with 15D to Guadalajara.
Sahuayo is 'way out of the way, but we've done that drive too - Zamora over to Sahuayo and then around the southern shore of Lake Chapala.
Other than going off on real secondary roads up into the hill towns, which we wouldn't do, I don't think main roads in Michoacán are any more dangerous than main roads in any other state. This past October, we drove along Chapala's north shore, through Ocotlan and La Barca, (known for its many narcofosas), etc.
Not sure I understand your "forced to deviate through Morelia from Tecoman" note. Morelia's a long, long way from Tecoman.
As for safety, we had a very close call in October in Baja Sur, south of Ciudad Constitucion. Mex 1 was only two lanes in that section. We were going uphill at 80 kmh, driving toward a fairly sharp curve to the left, with a steep drop-off of several hundred feet on our right, protected by only a rickety-looking guard rail. Toward us, coming downhill and trying to hug the centreline on what was, for him, a fairly sharp downhill curve to the right, was a large truck - not an 18 wheeler, but the next smaller size. Halfway through the curve, just as the truck passed me, a complete wheel assembly - a truck tire mounted on its wheel- came sliding toward me, at the same speed as the truck was travelling, sliding flat along the highway, right in the centre of my lane. My kneejerk reaction was to swerve a few feet to the right.....just missing the sliding wheel assembly...then immediately swerve back to the right, to avoid going into, and over the guard rail and down the hillside. The entire episode took perhaps one or two seconds. Neither of us stopped, and I doubt the trucker knew what had happened until he arrived at his destination short one wheel.
When I stopped shaking, I figured that the wheel assembly had probably been a spare, mounted in one of those racks under the rear of the truck. Obviously, it had come loose while going through the corner. That's the only way to explain why it was sliding towards me flat, rather than upright and rolling. Either way, if I had hit the wheel, it would have been game over for us.
Every year we say "No more driving to Mexico. Next time we fly." We'll say the same thing come the fall - and probably hit the road again.