We decided to take the fast toll road to Oaxaca which cost us about $20 for only 250km. The toll roads here are very nice, wide, with at least two lanes of no traffic, however, there is a high price to pay. The alternatives can also drive one mad. Cruising around a blind corner there might be a little pueblo, and of course that means a TOPE. Aka: sleeping policeman, muerto, speed bump, shock wrecker and you have to immediately slow down, or swear and scream as you hit the tope and Lobo goes flying.
The only known place to RV camp in Oaxaca city is at San Felipe trailer park, which is actually a working maguey farm. Maguey is the plant used to make mescal, a cousin of tequila, and the owners of the property, a couple from California, let people camp around the farm. We found our spot just on the other side of the compost pile and after a few hours we were used to the sweet smell of rotting maguey. Unfortunately we had to use all our leveling blocks and even deflate the tires a bit to make it level enough to put up the roof and sleep. The nice thing about the camp is that it is outside the city on a hill so in front you can see all the lights at night, and just behind there are the beautiful hills of San Felipe for hiking, and well, biking for us. We had some great adventures getting our bikes up into the mountain, following a waterfall and river carrying our bikes, and then finding random trails and roads to ride back down. On one adventure we were racing the sunset to find our way out of the river to a “bike-able” path, and I laughed because we were both head down and pushing hard with our bikes on our backs bushwacking through dry desert brush just like an adventure race!
The city of Oaxaca is an amazing city, cultural center and UNESCO World Heritage Site. That means that because of its ecological wonders, complex history, cultural diversity and artisan community it needs to be protected for “outstanding universal value”. I am sure there are a million more reasons why Oaxaca is so special, but with only a few days to spend we came to know about a few special reasons to visit.
The famous “Zocaló”, or central square, of Oaxaca has been the site of many protests and renovations, but things looked peaceful and festive while we were there. The city is buzzing with visitors from all over the world. As we started touring some of the museums and shops we could hear many different languages being spoken. Shopping is a unique experience in Oaxaca because of all the beautiful art displayed in fabrics, wood and stone carvings, paintings and jewelry around the city. And we had a lot of fun going around and around to different shops and artists to find some “treasures” to bring back to our Casa in Sayulita. We took some photos of the many artists who work long, hard hours to perfect their craft and bring them to the city to show.
One of the highlights of Oaxaca City are the Churches. Each one was more elaborately adorned than the last, but each held a reverence all their own. The highlight of course was the Santo Domingo de Gúzman Church with a huge wood carved altar covered in gold leaf and ceiling decorated with a complex family tree of senior Gúzman. What is amazing about all the churches in Oaxaca is that when they were built the local people were asked to use their skills as artisans to create them, and in recent years there has been a surge in restoring many of the churches in the area and again the local artists are called. Even though the conquistadores did terrible things to the people in the area, and the government repressed many people here for decades, there is certainly a pride of workmanship, ownership, and loyalty to the church here that is translated through the gorgeous works of art all over the city. We took the time to walk through the national museum of art and history in the ex-Dominican convent and learned a lot about the ancient and modern cultures in the state of Oaxaca that we would take with us on many more days of adventure.
As a side note, for those who are interested in how we actually function on the road here’s a day in the life. After many miles of traveling and sight seeing and activity we woke up in the a.m. with full intentions of having a day exploring. But then again we had some nice internet access, access to some water for cleaning, a few things on the van that needed organizing and fixing and when breakfast turned into lunchtime we decided it was “day at the van”. Ahhhhhh.
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