We got up eary to get going. With no ill effects from our “steak” we hit the road for what was to be a short day to Oxaca. Oxaca is a very historic city and we planned on spending a little time looking around and sightseeing. We rolled down hwy 200 about an hour and half till we got to road 181. This headed inland away from the coast and it started climbing right away. This thing was so twistie with super crappy pavement we we averaging about 40 clicks(less than 30) an hour. There were pot holes the size of basketballs. broken pavement everywhere and it beat the hell out of us. We rode for 8 hours and went less than 250 miles. Again due to bad pavement, towns,topes,trucks and buses. And Topes are getting soo damn old. I am working on an entire blog devoted to them!! The only redeeming thing was the scenery was awesome. The road climbed to about 6500 feet then went down to 1500 feet. Only to climb again to 7000 feet.
The road was very busy with big buses and people seemingly going everywhere. It took us forever to get through that road. I can’t imagine how long it takes on a bus. There was a few towns here and there but mostly trees and vistas. After decending the second time we had a nice ride into Oxtaca. We comented that it was the first time we had used 4 gear and up in over 5 hours!! At one point we were following a Policia pickup and as they all do they have some dudes riding in the back with guns. Well I’m following him and the dude is resting his gun on the tailgate and its business end was pointed right at me. Everytime he would go over a topes. Which is every 2–3 miles the gun would bouce on the tailgate at about head height!!! I must have told myself a zillion times “he has the saftey on…”
Oxaca (Wahaca)is a cool city with very narrow streets and lots of historic chuches. This one we checked out was unreal. It took a hundred years to build it. There was a wedding or something going on so we couldn’t go inside. We poked our heads in the door and the choir was in full bloom with the organ backing them up. It is hard to explain the sound coming from them. Lets just say both Dan and I had goose bumps on our arms. If you look closely at the picture of the ceiling you’ll see that those are all faces carved and painted in the stone. also the Gold everywhere was mind bending. We vowed to come back in the morning and have a better look around. We cruised into the town square and had a bite. The square was alive with venders, music and all kinds of people just hangin around. We pulled up a chair and watched it all going on. It was then we decided to stay another day in Oxaca and scope it out a bit more. There are some Ruins nearby and we’re going to ride up and hike around them tomorrow.
Thats about it, Cheers.
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