Getting there is some fraction of the fun!

Another winter trip has come and gone as we needed to return to Ontario and Liz's teaching job by the end of January again this year. The few extra weeks we had in Mexico last year as she took a year off to settle her dad's estate were a real treat compared to returning in the January dark and cold.  I guess I should start at the beginning....

 We left Port Hope on the morning of Sunday, November 4th with a very full '99 Quest Minivan.  Among many other things we had a mini-fridge, 4 plastic chairs, a large telescope and tripod, and oh yeah, a queen size sofa-bed with mattress, storage box, cushions, and frame.  I needed to put the two mattress sections in thick trash bags and such the air out with a shop vac just to get them to stuff in. If customs wanted them open they would never go back in.  We made a drop-off in Cambridge of some work equipment in the dawn light and made the ambassador bridge border early in the day shift.  We look pretty innocent (a cute dog helps that) so we were allowed in the USA without much delay.  From Detroit through Toledo and south through Ohio the road is fast and long, with all the usual rhythms of cross-country freeway driving unchanged.  Gas, sandwiches, radio, and the occasional dog walk at a rest area punctuated the 1600 kM to the familiar cheap motel zone of West Memphis, Arkansas, where we landed at the Delux Inn (only the best for us!) for the night. They spent the money saved on the extra "E" on the sign making our stay particularly restful, I'm sure.  For dinner we had Mexican food, not to prepare us for Mexico but because after crossing the border the northern form of Mexican food would not be available.  

Our 2012 route south on Google Maps

I needed to UPS some monitoring equipment to my client in Colorado so we got to that errand in Little Rock on Monday morning and continued through Texas, choosing the slightly less boring (more trees) route through Houston which has worked well for us lately.  We got through Houston without trouble and to a la Quinta in Corpus Christie for a subsidized room on my LQ points and a $45 dinner.  The van was doing fine, as were Daisy and the rest of us, with over half the distance behind us.  We could have crossed the border Tuesday by noon if we had chosen that goal but this being Tuesday, November 6th in the USA on a leap year there was an election going on. Maybe you've heard of it.  So we took our time, did some USA shopping at Target, Best Buy and Harbor Freight Tools, and landed another subsidized LQ room in Pharr, TX, where I stayed up late to watch the election returns come in. 

Joshua Trees and Sierra Madre in northern Mexico

Tired, but pleased, Wednesday morning, we made a last minute dollar store stop, filled the tank with $3.29 Texas gas, and headed to the long, new Pharr-Reynosa bridge over the Rio Grande trickle and to the kingdom of the Mexican border officials.  We were smiled upon, paid our (ever-increasing, but not unreasonable) fees, and were turned loose on the roads of Tamuliapas and Nuevo Laredo states well before noon on Wednesday.  It is always a bit unnerving to merge into crazy border-town Mexico traffic for the first time but before long I was jockeying for left-lane position with the taxis and trucks like I'd never left. As is now our habit, we went inland but stayed away from Monterrey, the 3rd largest megalopolis inn Mexico after Mexico City and Guadelahara, by heading south on mostly 2-lane roads through China, Linares,and the spectacular canyon road through Intrubide to join the main 4-lane south of Monterrey and Saltillo, saving 50 kM, time ( I think), traffic stress, and substantial tolls. On the 4-lane we cruised to our now-usual hotel stop in Santa Maria Del Rio, past San Luis Potosi, and ate in the carving-adorned (the owner is the wood-carver) restaurant attached. There are a few odd creations in the courtyard.  Also the all-night sound of trucks struggling up and down the hill. So far, so good, no van issues, etc, 780 kM into Mexico, and about 4000 from Port Hope. 

In the courtyard at the Puesta del Sol, S.Maria del Rio

We had a bit of a navigational meltdown getting through Queretaro in the morning, missing a left and at one point circling around to the northwest part of the city near a university, but on finally getting off and reversing course we were able to get back on good old 57 south and eventually to the Arco Norte toll route that swings way wide, north, and east of Mexico City, connecting to the highway around Puebla and the toll road to Oaxaca.  The Arco Norte is still too new to have any services on it so woe be to those with a sub-half full gas tank but we know that now. The road to Oaxaca is another spectacular road to see, over tall dramatic bridges, over high passes, past grand distant vistas, generally smooth and fast. I am always reminded  as I get beyond the flats of the midwest and Texas, and start seeing distant mountains and long valleys, how much I miss the broad views of the open spaces of the west.  From my mailbox in central Oregon I could sometimes see Mt Adams, over 200 kM away in Washington state. It is about 830 kM to Oaxaca (if you don't screw up) but pretty much all fast except past Queretaro and Puebla, so we were easily to Oaxaca and finding our free lodging at a friend's daughter's apartment before dark.  A sunset drink on the roof and we were off on foot through the charming streets of the old colonial capital for a nice dinner, sharing stories of life in Oaxaca and the trip south. Unfortunately Mara (the daughter) is heading North this year but we arranged to stay again on the way back in January, picking up some of her goods to haul back to Toronto in a much emptier minivan. 

We decided to take advantage of the free (for the price of dinner) lodging in Oaxaca and spend Friday in the city catching our breath and some culture, and letting the dashed highway lines fade from our retinas. Mara's apartment is near the downtown, so very convenient to the museums. A bit more of a stretch to the mercado in the south of downtown, but a packed Avenida Crespo bus got us conveniently close with our purchased bedding.  By the way, this minivan is now about to burst, although the settling of the contents over 5000 kM did allow these things to fit in some cracks. 

Early Saturday we were on the narrow, twisty road to Puerto Escondido, over two sets of mountains. It is just 260 kM but really does take about 6 hours, between the curves, the hills, the slow trucks, the towns, and the groups of pilgrims to Juquilla, biking and running on the narrow road with their support trucks crawling along. Juquilla is the site of a modern miracle, a plastic doll of the virgin having survived a church burning down.  The slow road to Puerto may be out of use in a few years, as they are building a new toll road to Oaxaca now.  They have a lot of mountain road-building to go but the drive will probably go to a couple hours rather than six.  As nice as it would be to get to and from Oaxaca quicker, we worry that the resulting growth will change Puerto Escondido in many ways.  Hopefully our little neighborhood and beach will still be recognizable.

For the first time in five years our first stop in Puerto Escondido would not be at Derek and Christine's house...they were on Long Island, cleaning up the home they own and rent out there from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  Their place (and Derek's mom's and brother's places) were all pretty much OK but there was no power and scarce gas for a while. With hurricane Carlotta making a direct hit on Puerto Escondido last summer -- and tearing off part of their palapa roof -- they managed to have both their houses in the paths hurricanes in five months.  They had planned their visit north well before the storm, and had they not delayed it a couple days they could have been in Sandy as well.  Our first stop in Puerto turned out to be to Dan's Cafe, for some quick internet contact and some tasty fish tacos, a weekend special at Dan's.

We were finally unloading the Quest at the casa by early afternoon.  The first order of business, however, was checking out Liz's new studio.  We had seen the excavation start before we left last February, and Derek had kept us supplied with pictures (and questions, and requests for money) over the months as it grew from paper to concrete, but it is another thing entirely (or a whole 'nother thing, as some say) to see it before you in real life.  But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

Our Derek-arranged house-sitter, Clay, had moved on, but had left a welcome cold case of beer in the fridge so the afternoon sun wasn't too hard to take as we unloaded everything into piles in the apartments, on the terrace, in the bodega, into the studio, and so on.  We had decided to move onto the second floor, with the better views and wrap-around deck, where we had never lived before. We had things well enough sorted and stowed to even make a first walk down to the beach for a quick dip in the warm pacific waters before a sunset drink.  5000+ kM from home, it was time to relax. Or so we thought. It turns out that owning a spare house does make for a bit of work. But we made it there just fine, happy to be 'home'. 

From La Punta, (the point) downhill from the casa, rocks, waves, surfers.. the usual.

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