The Road to Oaxaca - According to April

Driving With Magnificence

It's really difficult being a passenger! The drive from San Agustinillo to Oaxaca City reminded me of a roller coaster ride, but without the g-force and fun. The roads are narrow, mostly cut through and into the sides of the mountains, with no guard rail in sight. Until this ride, I had not experienced car sickness, and when I was not navigating, I happily knitted and crocheted away the hours on the road. Not this ride. Most of the time I was hanging onto the H.S. handles for dear life, trying to keep my head from swaying from side to side, fighting nausea. If I wasn't trying to keep breakfast down, the scenery of pine forests and valleys would have been refreshing.

It seemed to take a very long time, and I didn't know exactly where we were on the map, because there were few signs along the twisted road, and we were probably averaging only 50 km/hr. I'm sure David got tired of being told to slow down, not to mention my threats of getting out, or worse, threatening to trade places with him.

After a few gruelling hours, we finally reached Miahuatlan, which on the maps looks to be barely half way to Oaxaca, but in reality is more than half way, likely due to the more winding roads of the first stomach-churning four hours. In the restroom at the gas station I met an American woman - she was trapped in the cubicle beside me, and was ever so grateful that I spoke English and could release her from the smelly prison by a coordinated push-pull effort on the door.

A few minutes later, we came to a complete stop, as a demonstration blocked the main road to Oaxaca. I suggested we stop for lunch, as it was after 2pm, but club-wielding demonstrators could not stop David when he is on a mission; he's just not hungry at that moment. He got out to further assess the situation, and talked to a rancher driving a small truck carrying a cow and another driver of a nuts and bolts truck. They rattled on in Spanish for a few minutes, and he returned and explained that the rancher knows another route around the demonstration, and the nuts and bolts truck and we were going to follow him. Upon turning our vehicles around, a van stopped beside us - a couple from BC, Canada, who would also join the convoy.

So there we were, the mexican nuts and bolts salesman in his truck, the couple from BC in their van, us, and a mexican cow-towing rancher on his way home leading the convoy.

The route turned into a mixed bag of dirt road, steep one-lane road winding around a mountain, shallow riverbeds to drive through, and uneven roads galore. In hindsight, it was fairly naive to think it would be a fifteen minute by-pass. We traversed long expanses of road with in what I would describe as wild west scenery, roads that were barely wide enough for one vehicle to traverse, and several little villages. One village seemed particularly deserted, until we saw that everyone was watching a local basketball game. They looked at us as we passed as if to ask "who invited the gringos?".

After twenty minutes or so, it occurred to me that this may not have been a good idea...it certainly wasn't what I would call "mother-approved" at the least. What if the two mexican drivers were leading us out to the middle of nowhere (which is where we were, let's face it) to rob the unsuspecting gringos?

The BC van in front of us sported a bumper sticker that read "Things get better with age - I'm approaching magnificence". I tried to get a picture of it, but the road was just too bumpy to get a good shot. We laughed a lot during the drive - this was "I can't believe this is happening" kind of humour. Here we were, off the map, literally, on the roughest roads, no stores, no hotels, no police stations, no hospitals or CAA, blindly following strangers in a foreign country. What if our car broke down? What if....

At last the rancher stopped, said something to the nuts and bolts driver, turned off, and we continued following the nuts and bolts driver. David explained that the rancher had turned to go home, and we were to follow Mr. Nuts and Bolts now. Like we had a choice... what if the nuts and bolts guy had a few screws loose?

Another five to ten minutes passed, and we reached the highway to Oaxaca. Mr. Nuts and Bolts drove away, and we stopped to talk to the BC couple, John and Mary, who are travelling with their dog and cat. We enjoyed a few laughs of relief, exchanged info, and carried on.

The rest of the route was fairly boring, but at least I wasn't car sick anymore.

Chloe's Notes: I sensed tension in the air, so I just kept a low profile and was rocked to sleep by a constant sway. When I woke up I was not at the beach anymore. I now have new terrain to explore!