Silver Linings and Lofty Pursuits

We said goodbye to Zihuatenejo and the beach life in the Pacific coast of Guerrero, heading to the highlands silver mining town of Taxco in the same state.

We quickly found ourselves driving through mountain roads similar to the Logan Pass (also called the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Park, Montana), without the snow.

This however was the Sierra Madre range; also very high but with lush tropical vegetation. The road seemed to be nothing but switchbacks and after 2 hours we had barely gone 80 km!  At times it seemed we were in a tunnel but it was only that the vegetation had engulfed the rock cliff faces and the roadway.

Soon enough we left the high mountains and even though the roads were still windy, we could drive a speed closer to 80 kph. No wonder it takes 6.5 hours to go 450 km!

Daunting to look across a wide valley and see a cut across the mountain face at the your elevation and realise "that's our road, in about 30 minutes"

After we had cleared the highest passes and were winding through forested highlands, we noticed an increase in military presence in many of the towns we drove through.

Usually we were waved through with a smile; sometimes a quizzical 'what the hell is that?' gawk; and occasionally that dismissive brush of the hand that says 'on your way, gringo'.


In the small town of Teloloapan however, in the space of about 5 blocks -which was the full length of the town- we actually drove through five checkpoints. Two were official: State and Federal police.   The three others were cobbled together 'local militias' with squirrel rifles and machetes. In addition there was a military unit of special forces types just hanging around by the road, looking menacing.

The militias were passing-the-hat for money to support their cause and everyone seemed to be getting along and supporting each other,  I dare you to not throw a coin into the can with the A-Team watching and cleaning their grenade launchers in the shade.  No pictures of this one kids, discretion being the better part of valour.

That night Brad checked out the newsfeeds and found that we had inadvertently driven through a recent hotspot for cartel activity. Being neither a drug dealer nor a landowner at odds with the former, we were never in any danger, but it does serve as a reminder to read the occasional newspaper.

Having been on the road since 8 AM, we pulled into the city of Taxco at rush hour and were absolutely amazed at how the city was built. This was a town for mountain goats!

Everything was built on a hill either going up or down! We realised that the hotel we had booked was built on one of the highest points overlooking the city. Here we go again, I thought! The road up to the hotel was steep but driveable and after a few switchbacks, we were at the Montetaxco Hotel.

This beautiful hotel was about 70 years old- so relatively new in that Taxco was founded in the 1500s- but still full of colonial charm. It had a small cable car gondola that went from the hotel, over the top of the city center, and into the valley below.  The cable system looked to be from the 1500s though, so we went silver shopping instead.

One of the main reasons for heading to Taxco was to buy a few gifts for Christmas.  Typically, the doorman at the hotel had a friend who was a jeweller who lived close by.  I know, sketchy, right?

We were however, pleasantly surprised to meet a lovely couple who built and sold jewellery from their home, exported product to Chicago, and spoke very good English.

Afterwards we walked up the last block of the hill to the hotel.  Even that small distance and we were winded.  Not a surprise for Brad but... me? I realised later that we were actually at 6,300'.

Our suite at the Montetaxco

After a lovely meal in the restaurant we slept like babies. I think Brad's head never even touched the pillow and he was asleep.  It became clear that one night in this beautiful hotel was not enough.  The next morning was Friday and we looked into staying the weekend.  Our bargain Thursday rate went up 4 times for the weekend, so we made a note to check it out on the way home in the spring. C'est la vie.  Such bargains are few and far between I'm afraid.

The Montetaxco's courtyard and pool overlooking Taxco

With much regret we left Taxco bound for Oaxaca.  According to Google Maps Oaxaca was an eight hour drive.  Accurate but for a few minor pitfalls.

Issue one was a missed turn in the large and very smoggy center of Puebla. When we were to have turned onto the ring road bypassing the city there were several city police cars, lights on, with a line of cars pulled over. One of the cops waved us on... we thought. I realised in the commotion that we had missed our turn.

Approaching the modern city of Puebla

After a perfectly legal u-turn we were stopped by a motorcycle cop who informed us in broken English that we had not stopped for the roadblock way back at the ring road: infracion! Soon his apparent boss showed up to stress the gravity of the situation and outlined a disaster scenario.  When we did not appear to be sufficiently shaken he called in El Voce, by cell phone. (cryptic reference to the English speaking ransom negotiator, The Voice, in the Denzel Washington movie Man On Fire.)

The opening ticket cost was 1,800 pesos or about $100 USD. Yes, this was a shakedown people! Brad handled it so well. He just kept telling them he needed to see an official ticket and we would follow them to the police station to pay it, and we wanted to talk to the tourist police, etc. The senior man on-site was standing by the window of our car as the Indy 500 raced past close enough to kick rocks against his boots.  When fatigue became evident (not everyone can barter with a retard for long under those circumstances) Brad pulled a 50 peso bill out of our registration folder and handed it to the guy. I guess for a motorcycle cop $2 was better than the ignominy of being killed by a speeder while soliciting a bribe!

On the road to Oaxaca we passed awe inspiring volcanoes

Slow down number 2 happened shortly thereafter with another turn made too quickly, (I was flustered after being pencil whipped by the cop, OK) putting us into a very poor barrio. We wandered through neighbourhoods that looked more like a garbage dump in a pasture. Finally we found our way back to the correct road without getting robbed. In the terror of it all I told Brad that, even though I needed to pee desperately I would wait until we were far away from Puebla!

After all of that, slow down number 3 came when we were almost to Oaxaca City. While getting directions to our next hotel from the couple who owned the place, we had heard that there may be blockades (bloqueos) near Oaxaca City. When in doubt, 'follow the locals' they had told us.

As we were driving down a four lane freeway into town, suddenly there are cars coming towards us on our side of the highway.  The cars in front of us seemed to cower and turned to charge us as well.  What kind of a freeway is this? Narrowly avoiding impact we simply turned to follow the leaders: off the road, into the ditch, through the barb wire gate, and into the pasture. This is nuts!

Hats off to our new coaches, whom we hadn't even met yet.  We followed the pack -cars, trucks, semis, even motorcycles- through a tiny village and right back onto the freeway further down the road. Just before dark we arrived in El Tule in the suburbs of Oaxaca City.



The Overlander Oasis in El Thule had been highly recommended by our friends Manfred and Karin while we were in Lo de Marcos.  It was owned and operated by a lovely couple from Kamloops, BC and would be our home until a very sad farewell a week later!  Next post we'll cover our wonderful stay in Oaxaca.

Hasta luego: B&L