Backroads Oaxaca

Our trip through Oaxaca state to the coast was long, but always interesting!

We missed the exit to the road we wanted to take, then cut over a country road a little further up to make it back. We were stuck in a little town having a festival, trying to drive around stopped cars and cows for over an hour.

Outside the town we drove on a dirt road that took us through fields, then through a little village.

This is not a place that gets cars with out of state license plates though it often. There really is no traffic other than locals on these dirt roads. We became a bit worried when we started driving though fields of plant that looked like marijuana (we decided it wasn't, but weren't really sure and didn't want to stop). We really shouldn't be here!

After getting confused at one of the many forks in the road, we asked a man with a donkey and cart which way to the highway. He didn't know what the highway number was, so we used the name of a nearby town instead - that worked. Asking for directions has been a big joke throughout our travels so far - most people wave their arms around and tell you to go "up" and even with a native Mexican driving our car and talking to them, we have no idea where to go and ask a series of other people who give similar answers until we eventually figure it out or find a more educated person. If you need to find your way around, find someone who looks to be middle or upper class and educated. You will save a lot of time! I'm not saying this to be mean, but it is reality here.

Silvia spotted a sign put up in the village (take a look and read the translation). She had been taking lots of fotos today!

We made it to the highway (2 lanes of course) and drove through the mountains. We drove behind buses and trucks through town with lots of makeshift speed bumps (topes in Spanish), through forests that changed dramatically depending on our elevation, through bright sun, and through fog. We stopped at a little roadside restaurant for lunch and continued on, making it to Puerto Escondito in the late afternoon.

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Part of trip: Guanajuato México and beyond

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