Monday. The road to Oaxaca

Up at 7am and load up the rig. A quick breakfast and we’re on our way out of town. So long to San Miguel de Allede, a beautiful town!

We’re heading to Oaxaca today. About an eight hour drive and it starts with some very dense fog and a rural, Mexican monday morning rush hour. Lots of kids in catholic school uniforms, tractors heading to and from the fields, lost dogs, wandering buses and the occasional armored personel carrier. Yes, the military, or paramilitary are everywhere. I feel rather safe, I must admit. But I guess it’s all relative. I feel safe now, compared to Friday morning when I’ll be fling a little Italian shit box around canyon road with no real clue where I’m going. Except for Conrad’s expert navigation, of course. And we got a taste for that today as he steered us out of town. Not bad actually. Really pretty good. Even with the four back seat drivers barking orders and opinions. Yes, the interpersonal dynamics of five adults in a Range Rover for eight hours a day are starting to manifest themselves. There’s a lot of commentary on everything from one’s choice of reading material to one’s choice of snack. There’s the aforementioned Conrad, navigator for the day and all around optimist. Peter the fastest smoker on earth. The poor guy has to have a cig everytime we stop and he only gets about 1 minute to finish them each time. He’s a fast inhaler. That can’t be relaxing. Then there’s big Bill Mertz who knows way too much about the puesdo celebs in US magazine. And of course, the lovely Christine, who due to her size is doomed to sit in the middle seat for at least another 1000 miles. Oh, and I can’t forget to comment on myself. I’m certainly showing my cranky side, cramped in the back seat tring to fight of car sickeness. I’ve got the wrist bands going, the ginger gum and the pills. Nothings working and I might just have to demonstate for my car mates that I’m not kidding. They think I’m just manuvering for the front seat. I’m about to prove them wrong. Gotta go!