Travel Never Ends

Kevin and Ruth – 77 countries and counting!

Nice to be on the road again!

We had a goal to leave the campground by 10am, but we really should have tried for 9am. Because we ended up leaving at 10:20am, but we still needed to stop for both propane and gasoline.

We never did see whoever was driving the Chinese plated campervan. They had left the campground before we did. Shame.

And after getting the fuel, we still needed to get out of the city!

Busy urban street with traffic, taxis, utility wires, and buildings under a bright blue sky
Oaxaca City traffic.

There are two main roads between Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido. The old free road is a very slow going twisty curvy road through the mountains that takes more than 7 hours. The new toll highway is much faster and only takes half that time! Despite all of our time spent in Mexico, we have never done the drive between Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido, or reverse. And we’ve always wanted do do the free road. With the new toll highway opening in 2024, there should be far less traffic on the free road.

A field of yellow wildflowers with mountains and a clear blue sky in the background
Flowers by the roadside.
Rural dirt road lined with trees and fields, with mountains and a blue sky in the background
We had to do a short detour on this dirt road.
Red car stopped on a rural road behind a municipal police vehicle and overturned truck, with trees and hills in the background.
Uh oh. I think this truck has a broken ball joint.
A small truck loaded with green crates pulls onto a rural roadside while a man guides it, with a bicycle warning sign and traffic cone nearby.
Reminds me of when that happened to us with our motorhome Sherman back in 2018.
Paved rural road leading through dry fields toward green mountain ranges under a blue sky with clouds
Heading towards the mountains.
Rural mountain road with a truck, dry grassland, and rugged hills beneath a bright blue sky
It was a beautiful day.

We stopped for lunch around 1:20, for about an hour.

Painted welcome arch reading “Bienvenidos” at the entrance to Tierra del Mezcal, with mountains and a cloudy sky in the background.
Entering the town of Villa Sola de Vega.
Mountain town street with shops, pedestrians, cars, and overhead utility wires under a cloudy sky
Going through town.
Panoramic mountain landscape with a valley town, agave plants, and cloudy blue sky
Beautiful scenery!
Smartphone displaying GPS navigation directions on a winding road, showing 25 km to a left turn on Route 131 near Oaxaca–Puerto.
It’s pretty slow going!

Through the mountains, you’re lucky to be going 40 or 50 km/h (25 or 30 mph). And there are no straight stretches or dual lanes, so it’s difficult to pass if you get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle. But we’re in no rush, so it was no problem.

Winding mountain road beside a rugged red rock cliff, with tall grasses, ferns, distant hills, and sunlit clouds.
Hard to believe this was the main highway two years ago!

It was almost 4pm by the time we got to our planned overnight spot at the town of San Pedro Juchatengo. We had to take a dirt road that became more and more narrow, but eventually ended near a stream. Perfect for a rig the size of Igor!

Dirt path winding through lush vegetation toward a green hillside under a blue sky
The road to our overnight spot.
Camper van parked on a rocky dirt path surrounded by dense green forest
Yep, this will do!

GPS 16.32968, -97.074915

Silver camper van parked on a dirt clearing beside a rocky stream in a wooded area
Parked beside the small river.
Person wading through a shallow, rocky river surrounded by trees and vegetation
We cooled off our feet in the river.

Then we got our chairs and sat beside the river until sunset. This location is actually near a sand a gravel operation, but by this hour everyone had gone home. We had a totally quiet night. No dogs barking, no roosters, no music! we had a great sleep! This morning, the backhoe and dumptruck arrived at about 7:50am, so our peace and quiet is gone. But it was a good one night stop.

Today, Puerto Escondido! Our destination is only 57 kms (35 miles) away as the crow flies, but it’s 122 kms (76 miles) on a very curvy mountain road. It will probably take three to four hours to get there!

Rocky river flowing through a lush wooded valley under a blue sky
The river.

Here’s a link to our map route from yesterday’s drive.

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And in Canada… check out the deals at Amazon.ca

karead7

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