Tolls to pay

       

Rosa was road ready and in better condition after all the tender love and care the night before. We were mentally prepared for the horrible roads that we had encountered previously to continue as we headed to Oaxaca. 

If you don't speak Spanish, you might read Oaxaca as ox-a-ca or something similar. We did until we arrived. It is actually pronounced wa-ha-ca. 

We took the periferique road east around Mexico City towards Peublo. The toll roads cost us a small fortune, but they were fabulous! At one stage, Sol described the road as delicious! We had paid for tolled roads in the past and, to be fair, they should have paid us to drive on them. The verdant fields we were driving through were a stark contrast to the bellowing smoke stacks and industrial wastelands that were forever crawling forth from the mega city. 

A picture of the delicious road.

        

Most tolled roads here, you pay when you are about to get on, something we had grown accustomed to after paying 20-30 tolls this way. Mostly costing 25-70 pesos. 

After 4 hours of delicious roads with nearly no traffic we expected to pay the usual way. We went to go through the next toll and they asked us for a ticket. Sorry... What ticket? it became clear very quickly we didn't have what they were asking for!  We had missed a machine that dispensed tickets at the beginning of the highway...... We were directed by a policeman to park near the toll booth. We were asked to pay 380 pesos as what seems to be a maximum fine for losing your ticket on this road. We showed our previous toll from that morning trying to prove where we had joined the delicious road and after some negotiations we were able to have the previous toll deducted from the fine reducing the damage to just 320 pesos.  Phew! Sorted...

Skye took over driving in the afternoon, same as the day before. After a morning of nice roads we expected the same in the afternoon. As we got higher in the mountains, the roads got more winding and the two lane highway became a dual carriage way. This was particularly dangerous as oncoming cars saw fit to over take slower trucks on blind corners. The views were beautiful but we thought it would be the last views we would see given the risky driving around us!

        

Some of the view:

        

We got closer to Oaxaca, and were a little bit worn down but the overly enthusiastic drivers and the constant monouvering. Thinking we had seen the last of it, we didn't realize we were just about to go off road... literally. We had chosen our final destination through the driving travel app iOverlander. The place was hidden just north of the city of Oaxaca. We drove for 2km on dirt roads and topes (of course) and finally found the place. 

        

After paying 200 pesos per night in the rock climbing place and snobby place, we were surprised to be charged 300 for a campsite with no power and no showers!! As there were no other visitors, we were able to negotiate showers at no additional cost. We declined on the extra 300 pesos basic breakfast option, choosing to have a protien bar from our own stash. 

 It is actually a very pretty stop, but there are lots of mangy street dogs, lots of mozzies and bugs which made the stay less than comfortable. The saving grace however is the aloe plant (sábila), ubiquitous in these regions, which we put to work on Sol's angry looking sunburn. Aaahhhh.  

View from our camp:

     

Pic from near our campsite:

                                  

One more day of driving and we are at the beach!