We left the lagoon camp about 9 am and headed through the town of Puerto Escondido. There is a huge beach there and it was all set up with hundreds of umbrellas and chairs waiting for the day. It is Sunday so the beach was likely to be pretty busy. Just after the town we turned on to Mexico’s newest highway, that they call their super highway. It was a pretty smooth road that we could get up to the speed limit, which was actually 110 kph. I generally set the truck to only do 90 though. The road was curvy and worked its way up into the mountains. The forests here are a bit devoid of leaves for the most part. It does not feel like winter here, but it may be due to the dry season. The temperatures still showed in the 90’s as we headed up the hill.
Way up in the mountains, about 90 minutes into our drive, we noticed a warning at KM 71 marker to watch out for landslides. The couple from Quebec back in Cholupa had noted that one of the roads they took had tons of dangerous rock slides. I guess that was the road we were on. At KM 71 and beyond the road was narrowed to one lane in many places with tons of debris on the road. At one point the road became dirt as we climbed over an area that had been completely covered.
We continued up the road as it went through tunnels and around rock slides until at some point the GPS map instructed us to exit. So we exited. And the road was brand new. And it was cement. And it was steep and narrow. But the GPS said, so we went. I think I had asked it to skip toll roads, and even though we had gone through one toll booth, this one skipped the second. It also could have been because the day before the locals had blocked the highway in some sort of protest, so it might have been that reroute (Kathy found this news snipped, which had been resolved the day prior).
The new road climbed up into a town and then further up into the hills. And I hit a hidden speed bump as I was watching the overhead lines. I had to stop and replace the darn eye bolt on the back again. I can get it done in about 10 minutes now, but it was my last spare, so I noted to Kathy that we needed to stop at Home Depot when we got to Oaxaca.
The road was kind of beautiful as it wound up the ridge and over a pass. It was just as steep on the down side and I had my full exhaust brake on, in 1st gear, and intermittently in and out of 4WD to keep the speed down. At one point I could smell the brakes again, but we kept onward. We passed through a little town that seemed deserted on a Sunday, but as we rounded a corner we found the whole town at the center church attending some kind of presentation. The people were smiling and waving as we passed.
We made it into Oaxaca and routed to the Home Depot. They had plenty of the eye bolts, so I picked up 6 of them as well as 4 eye screws. I am finally going to add some additional tie-down points to this camper. When I get back to the states, I am going to fabricate some additional ones for the inner side of the bed and will create a slide platform so it will not move when we drive the bumpy roads. I would love to be able to build one of those composite campers to sit on a flatbed, but that is not in the picture at this time.
We walked to the local town last night (El Tule) and had some Sushi. The Google Translate tool is really nice and we decided to see if it could translate the decorations they used. The paper lights had writing on them that said “skewered” and the little tabs on the other decorations said “fortune”. Two signs that had asian writing on the top with english on the bottom actually said what the english did. The world is getting smaller with languages. The town has a huge tree in the courtyard of the church. It cost to go in and look around, but we just took pictures through the fence.
The campground we are staying in is really nice. There are about 2 dozen campers here from all over the world. They have restrooms and showers, a pool, a kitchen, fire pits, playland, and grass for the dogs. It’s a very nice place. To our left a couple from Brazil have been traveling off and on for 20 years and recently had their van (that they built) shipped from Montevideo to Vera Cruz. They completed the Central America portion over the past 4 months and are working their way north now. Their plan is to get to the Arctic Ocean via Tuktoyaktuk in July and then cross Canada and head down the east coast of the USA to Florida where his brother lives. They hope to ship to Europe after that and then travel down to Africa, then to Asia and ship their van from Singapore to Australia. He is 75 and she is 72.
To our right a young couple from Canada is camping in his 98 Land Cruiser 200 series with a James Baroud Roof Top Tent wedge tent. He has spent the past 6 winters down here in Mexico and loves the Land Cruiser for its prowess in the bush. He is a videographer and works back in Canada in the summers and on the road in the winters.
I have managed to create some sort of tie-down for the camper that changes the rear ties from 2 to 5 points, in hopes that will settle the thing down. We are resting the remainder of the day, watching the storm roll in, and will head out early in the morning on our way back North. Mom is doing well after her first surgery and I spoke to dad today and he is looking forward to coming home soon.