Puerto Escondido – Oaxaca : 426 km

We set off today at the leisurely hour of eleven, without stopping to look back; beaches have been done before. We decided to look for a cash machine on the way rather than going to the one that we knew was there, which turned out to be a bad decision, as we arrived in Oaxaca with ten pesos between us. Luckily we had a full tank from the day before, and this lasted us for the whole journey. We had decided already that rather than taking the motorway along the coast, and then up to Oaxaca, we were going to take a much smaller road directly there. We had no illusions that it would be decent quality, but it was a short enough distance that we thought it would be worthwhile. Our experience so far has always been that the less 'established' the road, the better the views, and we were proven right today.

What we hadn't realised (our map isn't that detailed) was how high we would climb. We were crossing one of Mexico's biggest mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre, and before long the climate had completely changed. After about an hour it was cold, relatively to what we are used to, and we were cruising through lush green valleys. Clearly this was a part of Mexico where there is rain. It soon became apparent that neither money nor petrol was on the agenda, so we were lucky to have filled up previously. It was also so hilly that the sensor in our petrol tank got plain confused, and could vary by up to a quarter of a tank depending on the angle of the car. This caused a few worried moments, but we were fairly confident that we'd make it.

At about lunch time we arrived at a town where we thought there was a very slight possibility of a cash point, so we stopped. After spending a few minutes just wandering round and looking at San Gabriel, we found a couple of shops with western union signs, so we went in and asked. It became obvious as we stepped in, and stood in a silent room as all eyes turned to us, that not many foreigners pass through this little town. We asked about ATMs and were told that this shop was “Only for mexicans”, and that the nearest was in Puerto Escondido, of 3 hours down the road towards Oaxaca. Dejected, we went to find some food, and after finding all the restaurants shut, settled for a small hut selling tortas (big hot sandwiches), where they went out to buy pretty much everything they needed to make them just after we ordered.

We left San Gabriel and kept on climbing, and the views got steadily more impressive. At one point we even stopped and climbed a hill by the side of the road to take a photo. It turned out that there was a tree in the way, and we ended up getting bitten by termites, but it would have been worth it. We finally got into the clouds. This was an interesting experience, since visibility dropped to just in front of the bonnet of the car, and we were glad that the road wasn't too long when we were forced to spend an hour driving at about 15 mph. After that we started rapidly dropping down, and eventually came to a relatively flat bit of land about forty minutes out of Oaxaca. Here, on the home straight, we saw the worst example of driving so far. Someone tried to overtake two cars, including ours, and two lorries. The only problem with this was that there was a taxi coming the other way, which had to slam on the brakes to avoid a crash. Hopefully that won't happen again.

We arrived in Oaxaca, sat in traffic for half an hour, and found the same hotel the Jamie is staying at. We're spending tomorrow here too, which means that we have a proper nights rest, and also a proper night out. It seems like a long time since I've been staying in one place.

Related posts:

1. Acapulco – Puerto Escondido : 426 km
2. Oaxaca — ? : ? km
3. Oaxaca – Veracruz : Dodge Dynasty Delight
4. Hotel – El Tajin – Puebla Mexico D.F
5. Zacatepec – Oaxaca