It’s all getting pretty crappy right now. The living conditions suck, sure, but I’m more concerned about my car. We took off from Oaxaca, and the drive down here to Puerto Angel was just horrible. We climbed up from Oaxaca, which is about 6000 feet, to 9300 feet high mountains, back down here to sea level. I don’t know how we did it, because at the beginning of the trip, we noticed something clicking. After a couple hours of clicking, we figured out that it’s probably the rear driveshaft u-joint that is worn out and cracking under pressure. So we drove down as much as we could on neutral, and found out that turning right put more pressure on the u-joint so I sped up to the right turns. On some slopes, we were going perhaps 10 miles an hour, barely climbing. We went into thick fog with maybe 150 feet of visibility but soon came out of it. It started raining, too, but that stopped after 10-20 minutes. On the way down, it was so steep that my brakes started to go. I had brakes on full and it barely engaged. We let it rest on the side near some indigenous people’s houses for about 20-30 minutes and it was fine after that. The U-Joints seem like they’ll hold for now, as long as we’re down here at sea level. I won’t be pushing it anytime soon.
But with a lot of luck, we made it. We had taken off at 11AM and arrived here around 6:30PM. I had some shrimp in hot sauce (a diablo), which resembled what Koreans put in their soup. It wasn’t bad. Bjorn and Bill here were gracious enough to pay for my meal, which I really appreciated.
The mountains were really beautiful. I wish I could have really just sat back in my car and enjoyed the view. There was a church up in the highest point of the mountains, where it’s littered with houses in random spots. I do believe that Mexico has one of the best scenaries I’ve ever seen. Jungles, mountains, and beaches you name it. Food is cheap and delicious, people are friendly and courteous, and women are beautiful.
And I saw something pretty interesting today: a man with two wrapped up babies in a wheelbarrow.
Right now, I’m just really worried about the U-Joint. It’s old and it’s a mercedes, so not too many people know how to repair them around here. I sure hope to god that the next town will provide more help than this one has. At least I get to sleep for $60 pesos in this room with mosquito netting.
I did meet another tourist today, from Australia named Fiona. She seems like an older, pretty happy go lucky type, but definitely a traveler. Spent about 3 months in Africa-Middle East, and 6 months in Europe, just traveling, some 9 and 10 years ago. I asked her where her next destination is and it turns out that she’s also wanting to go to Palenque and San Cristobal. So we’ll go together, more than likely, after the car is fixed. I asked her if she wants to join me to go to South America, and she said she will, but I seriously doubt I’ll see her past Guatemala. We’ll see…
Yesterday was interesting. I made my way from Tehuacan to Oaxaca, after a very good night’s sleep. The night before was really grueling, so I crashed till about 10AM. It’s nice to be on your own schedule a little while. Anyway, after having one of the better breakfasts I’ve had for about 30 pesos, I took off to Oaxaca. Got there pretty late. Monte Alban was the first ruin I’ve ever seen in my life and I was amazed. The ticket was only about $45 pesos. I asked the first guy with blond hair if he speaks English, and that’s how I met Bjorn. Bjorn’s a Swedish guy who had spent some time in Yucatan when he was young. He introduced Bill to me later on, an Indian dude. Both worked for a company in Oregon that laid them off recently. I met Teresa later on. She had spent one college semester some 10 years ago in Oaxaca and knew quite a bit of Spanish. They had flown into Mexico City, and were on the way down south from Oaxaca. I offered them a ride for tomorrow, and they later agreed to it. We all went down to the town square, had a nice dinner, and Teresa paid for mine, saying, welcome to Oaxaca. Later that night, we stayed up talking on the roof of our hostel.