With just twenty km to go a sign points the way to a campsite and restaurant. Sounds like one of those ideal places so you venture there. Two or three km down a crappy dirt road you finally turn back when the road becomes mud. It probably isn’t much further but it is possible to be closed. You make it back to the main road in the last of the daylight.
Another few km later you find a hotel. An expensive hotel. It’s not going to happen. But you can camp at the restaurant next door for fifty pesos. Sadly you are too late for dinner though.
The question which now remains.. tent or hammock. The hammock is tempting but shall you risk the mosquitos?
San Gabriel Mixtepec.: Over the mountains
Wednesday September 12, 2007, 67 km (42 miles) – Total so far: 3,775 km (2,346 miles)
You awake with hands and arms covered in red spots. Bites? But from what? You look diseased. Breakfast consists of coffee and a bun. You will have to wait until you get to town before getting any real food.
19 km later you roll into town and find Sofia booked into the hostel opposite Zapotepa beach just south of town. This really is the best area to stay. Lots of foreigners about too. It gets hot in the day but the evening is a cold wet thunderstorm. You sit with Sofia on the beach watching the lighting until one particularly close strike temporarily blinds you both and you decide to head back to the hostel.
But all that was yesterday. This is today.
Yesterday you awoke with your arms covered in little red spots. Today the rest of you is now covered. You were bitten to all fuck last night. Your hands and feet are the worst. Don’t stay in the dorm room of the hostel in this town. You have been warned.
It really is difficult to decide how to get to Oaxaca city. After speaking to the very nice and funny lady at the tourist information office yesterday you have a lot of information but are still indecisive. In the end you decide on the sissy route, the 131 directly north to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido. Sofia will stay another day here, then tomorrow ride to Puerto Angel and take a but from there north on the 175. The 175 has the best scenery. It also has a 3000 metre climb. You’ve done it before and you will need to do it again before this trip is over. But for now the sissy route looks like a nicer easier ride.
You don’t leave until after one and there is a lot of climbing today. It rains hard. You find shelter in a, um, shelter. The rain eases up and you continue on your way. Not far to San Gabriel Mixtepec now where apparently a hotel exists. It rains hard before you can make it there though. You get into town and find a couple nice restaurants on the north side of town to wait out the rest of the rain. It is still early but maybe not early enough to make it to the next town an hour’s drive away. How many kilometers is it? Many kilometers.
There is a hotel in town. But it doesn’t exist. The building exists. The sign exists. But when you go to ask apparently it doesn’t. There is some kind of unofficial hotel almost opposite the non-existing hotel so you stay there for cheap enough. It’s not much but at least they have hot water in the shower.
To the summit.: Just before San Pedro
Thursday September 13, 2007, 101 km (63 miles) – Total so far: 3,876 km (2,408 miles)
You set the alarm for a quarter to seven and although it does wake you you decide to remain semi conscious in the nice warm bed. Tortas make a nice breakfast. You enjoy some very nice local coffee too.
It is 19 km to the next town, Santa Rosa. There’s not much there but you could probably pitch a tent there or at the restaurants a few km before and after town. The road keeps heading up until you reach the summit 37 km later. It rains hard and there is nowhere to hide. You continue on until a few km after the summit you come to El Vidrio. There’s not much there but you find a restaurant to shelter out some of this rain. Apparently there is a hotel in town but you’ll be damned if you saw it.
The views up would be nice if they weren’t clouded by, um, clouds. The rain doesn’t seem to ease up at all here so you press on. Not far down the mountain the rain stops and you cruise in luxury. You hit a stone and your front tire immediately goes flat. The tube is fucked. The tire is fucked. The rim is fucked. Luckily you picked up a spare tire yesterday and of course you now have a few spare tubes. The rim is fine as long as you don’t mind a clunk, clunk, clunk, every time you use the front brake. Looks like you have a few things to replace in Oaxaca.
Thirty km down in the valley is San Pedro. It is a descent enough sized town with a hotel. But it’s not on your map. From there it is a grueling 34 km up hill to almost the summit. It gets dark. It gets very dark. Energy levels drop and you start walking. Well you still are going two thirds of your pedaling speed. Besides, after riding in wet cycling shorts all day your inner thighs are red raw.
You find a restaurant. It is open but no one’s about. Barking dogs soon wake the owners though and dinner is served. They even let you sleep inside for the night. Dinner costs thirty pesos with a free hammock. They don’t have any change and you only just have enough so give the rest over anyway. It’s not much of a tip but they are grateful and it makes you feel like less of a sponge.
Oaxaca: Danny: TV personality
Friday September 14, 2007, 121 km (75 miles) – Total so far: 3,997 km (2,484 miles)
The hammock is small. Too small. It is cold up on that mountain too. You don’t sleep much. It’s another two km uphill and then seventeen all the way downhill to Vega. The road is mostly fine but best not attempted at night as potholes and such do exist. Yesterday’s troubles mean that it is difficult to use the front break. A dog suddenly jumps out and attacks on a rough section of road. Not fun.
Vega is a descent enough sized town with TWO hotels. After that it’s another dozen km uphill. You have no energy. You even attempt hitchhiking. But fret not as this is the last real long section of uphill. Then back downhill again. Then up and down again. There is another large looking town but it’s not on the road so you skip it. There are a few more towns now with places to eat but you don’t see any more hotels until after 85 km coming into a large town not far before the 131 joins up with the 175. You try to find food but it proves too difficult. Really.
Traffic increases a lot now. For the last two days it was virtually nil. Now it is plentiful. Buses overtake very closely and blow their horns when they have the world to maneuver around. Something hits you. Someone threw bread at you from a bus. On the 175 the road is wide with wide shoulders. But the shoulders are crap and often used for parking making them more of a hazard than anything else. Cars expect you to use them even though they are crap and get aggressive when you don’t.
It rains. A bus is at least two meters away but drives through a puddle splashing water all over you. Probably calculated. You get into town and find a hotel. Sofia will get here tomorrow so you tell her to meet you at nine tomorrow. You hang out and drink beer. They are doing promotions for Victoria beer and you are filmed saying “La Victoria se mia.” Or something like that. They give you a bracelet which doesn’t fit.
Mitla.: Need a good rim job
Monday September 17, 2007, 48 km (30 miles) – Total so far: 4,045 km (2,513 miles)
Oaxaca city is nice. Saturday day is wasted wandering about the market trying to find a bike shop for some new rims. All without success. You head out Saturday night with a couple of new friends. It is independence day and there’s a big fiesta in town. It’s a fun, hazy night.
On Sunday everything is free. You take the bus to Monte Alban which is nice and then visit Santo Demengo Cathedral, monastery and