Highway Tales: Final Report (2 of 3)

My head was spinning with this stuff as I maneuvered through and around, and around, the spectacular mountains and valleys. And being sufficiently dizzy, crossed the isthmus of Tehuantepec and headed for the secluded beaches of Oaxaca.

The usually well-maintained highways of Mexico had begun to deteriorate during the last leg in Chiapas but here they almost died. The long desert-stretch from Juchitan on the southern coast, to the suddenly appearing mirage-like resort of Huatulco is a piece of s…, full of potholes and with no gas or services, or anything ‘cept cactus, for the whole 200 kilometer stretch.

As happens in these cases, I breathe in a quiet whistling sound through my lips, my needle on empty, I second gear it out of the ruts of the rotten road and then suddenly, onto the blacktop of this beach town, where the rich don’t need highways; they just fly in and rent

bicycles and taxis.

The run to Puerto Escondido is a bit better since this is a new, thriving tourist center, more middle-class and made to be reached by car. P.E. is still a quaint and lovely town with miles of great white sandy stretches of beach. Surfers flock here for the thrilling size of the waves. Swimming is, for the same reason, restricted to the few “tamer” spots.

Read all three parts of Highway Tales: Final Report
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

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