Oaxaca to San Jose del Pacifico, Oax.

Andy: We finally made it out on the road at a sensible hour.
Following our rest day in Oaxaca we were fresh and ready to get up
early. We managed to roll out of our hostel at about 7:20 am and
spent the next 45 minutes not getting lost as we headed out of town.
While we were on busy 4 lane highways they had wide and fairly good
shoulders without too many busses and taxis bllocking the way as they
stopped along the roadside. Soon we were on relatively untrafficked
roads as we headed down a valley for about 60 miles. We knew we had a
big climb coming and had figured that we would stay the night in a
town before the climb but we got there so early that we thought that
we would just see how far we could get. We figured that if we were in
the mountains the camping would be easy if nothing else came
available. We had also just eaten a great bbq chicken lunch and one
of the other customers said that there was a nice hotel in the
mountains that was reasonably priced so we figured that we might find
it. We started our climb at about 4 pm and it continued for a long
time for probably over one-thousand meters. Early on in the climb we
came upon a long string of traffic backed up behind a roadblock so,
having bikes, we just rode to the front. We asked what was going on
and were told that the local indigenous people were blocking the road
until somebody came to talk to them about their demands. There was a
big crowd of folks at the roadblock and big rocks in the road. I
asked very politely if we could pass and the man smiled and waved us
by. Out of respect we walked our bikes over the hundred yards between
the two roadblocks (in each direction) then we simply rode on. The
good part about it is that we had practically no traffic coming behind
us since the road was blocked to all except locals. We climbed from
scrubby desert up into piney forests over th course of 6 or 7 miles.
When we got the the top there were many small communities of craftsmen
and exceptionally clean roadsides. Many people cheered us on or gave
us big thumbs up. As a sidenote you may have noticed a lot of trash in
the pictures we have taken on the road. Usually the worst places have
signs that say, "Don't throw trash." We saw new levels of that,
complete with lots of slogans and pictures of pigs. It didn't seem to
make any difference in the beginning but, by the time we reached the
top, things were exceptionally clean. As we reached the top we saw
clouds pouring over the crest. Soon we were in the clouds and we rode
in and out of them for a while. Eventually, as we were pretty tired
but totally jazzed about the beauty and serenity of the misty
mountains, we came upon a sign for the hotel the man at lunch told us
about. The place was beautiful and offered quite reasonable cabins
and food (http://www.sanjosedelpacifico.com). It is still extremely
foggy outside but we are dry and comfortable in our little wooden (not
concrete!) room. Our neigbors are a pair of young lawyers on their
way back to Oaxaca from the beach. They waited at the roadblock and
eventually turned around and came back here to spend the night. Our
elevation here, it turns out, is 2700 meters (8850 feet) above seal
level. We should have a nice go of it tomorrow on our way to the
ocean. No chain or derailleur problems today.

distance today: 132 km
total: 1014 km