Mexico

Most utility poles = octagonal concrete, often w/ engravings on the side

Colombia: ALTO stop signs + cacti → Mexico; PARE → Colombia.

Short plates, large design variety, front plates required

Typical lines: solid white outer + single unbroken yellow middle (broken single / double yellow also common)

Small cylindrical white bollards w/ black base (sometimes yellow reflector; flat version exists) - unique to Mexico

Road shields: national = curvy w/ 'MEXICO' on top; state = straight borders w/ state initials

Directional signs w/ a distinctly large all-caps white font; km markers white w/ black font + outline; noticeably thick arrows on signs

Cacti of many species everywhere

Stop signs say 'ALTO'

Guatemala: Octagonal poles + Mexican shields → Mexico.

Costa Rica: Plates + landscape decide.

Panama: Plates + landscape decide.

Puerto Rico: PARE → never Mexico.

Yellow accents on kerbs & bridge barriers quite common

Wide cylindrical black or white rooftop water tanks (Tinacos)

OXXO & Pemex = the big gas-station brands (OXXO exists abroad too, rarer)

Nahuatl place names: lots of 'x' and 'tl', suffixes -tlan/-ec

Circular electricity counters on buildings

Usa: Language decides.

Guatemala: Combine with other clues.

Dominican Republic: Combine with other clues.

Philippines: Continent obvious.

US car brands popular - lots of pickup trucks

One of very few Latin American countries w/ Gen2 coverage

Brazil: Spanish + ALTO → Mexico; Portuguese → Brazil.

Gen3 cars: white w/ stubby coiled antenna OR white w/ visible back + long red brake light (rarely just a sliver where the antenna sits); Gen4 cars often show a front - most common blue, white w/ blue stripe, or black

The stubby coiled antenna also appears in US national parks - ALTO/Spanish decides.

Usa: ALTO stop signs + Spanish → Mexico; STOP signs + English → USA.

Area codes: first digit = region (map); postal codes at the bottom of street signs - ordered alphabetically by state name (map)

Every state has unique plate designs - the most useful ones are learnable through the blur (infographic)

Vegetation by region:

Landscapes: red fields → Zacatecas (+S-Durango); Monterrey ringed by tall mountains; stunted-pine rocky mountains → W-Chihuahua/Durango; extremely dark fields → Guanajuato; reddish hills w/ boulders → N-Baja; blindingly white soil → Quintana Roo (Gen3 only); red fields in dense tropical forest → N-Campeche

Architecture: red brick → west of CDMX (Jalisco/Michoacán/Guanajuato/Aguascalientes); white concrete blocks → around CDMX & east; mud brick → Durango + desert states; northern Mexico = US-bungalow style w/ pastel colours, gates, front yards, Spanish-colonial orange tiles; thatched roofs → Yucatán + E-SLP; light rock walls → Yucatán state

State infrastructure metas:

Jalisco bollards sometimes carry a crown + 'Jalisco' text - no other Mexican bollard has writing

Bollards w/ a red band near the top - unique to Nayarit (one exception: Federal Hwy 190 on the Oaxaca-Chiapas border)

Remember the Hwy-190 exception before locking Nayarit.

City lamp metas: Aguascalientes = yellow lamps; Cuernavaca = black rectangular head + green-painted pole bottoms (faded in Gen4); Santiago de Querétaro = black edges + white middle; Cancún = five-bulb 'dice' lamp; Matamoros = ring-bulb; Hermosillo = zig-zag arm; Chihuahua city = white pole strip w/ street name

Spotlights:

Special cars: yellow-hood car → La Malinche volcano (Tlaxcala); white truck w/ visible mirrors → Cofre de Perote NP; red car w/ black roof → La Seca (Sinaloa)