Robert Wilkins of Ocean City, NJ, asks:

In your last post from the ATW crew #4, they stated that they paid $2.41 for fuel. WOW! What an expensive fuel-up! I have heard of cruisers using "fuel brokers" around the World. Could you have saved money using this system?

Dan Streech responds:

I do think that the use of a broker would have reduced the price of the fuel that we purchased in Acapulco. For example, the fuel that we purchased in Panama was shown on the pump to be about $1.35 per gallon (although priced in Panama $ per liter) but our Panama agent's price was $1.00 per gallon.

I think that we got taken on the fuel in Acapulco, but also, it is generally known by people cruising in Mexico that fuel prices there have risen dramatically over the last year. Since Mexico is a net oil exporter, the prices have obviously been manipulated by the Mexican government.

A broker in Acapulco could probably have saved us the "visitor's fee" and maybe another 40 cents per gallon.

Another point is regarding the use of a credit card. Once the card comes out, they just roll their eyes with disappointment. We paid a 6% fee in Acapulco to use the American Express card. We paid cash in Panama, but would have had to pay a 5% fee if we had used the credit card.

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