It's a distance of 369 kms (229 miles), and we had thought about taking the free road and breaking it into a two day drive, but due to a variety of reasons we chose to take the toll road and do it all in one shot.
In order to stick with our goal of arriving at 2:00pm, we needed to leave Oaxaca Campground at 7:00am. This also made sense because the first part of our drive was directly through the middle of the city of Oaxaca itself and we would hopefully have lighter traffic.
We hit the road right on schedule.
Traffic was still pretty heavy, even at 7:24am.
There are some oddball intersections in Oaxaca where the oncoming traffic switches to the opposite side of the road.
It was 8:00am by the time we made it to the toll road on the opposite side of the city.
Not much traffic on this section.
Odd place for a chapel.
Straight stretch.
We made a quick stop for a pee break at one of the toll booths, and another break at a fuel stop along the way.
Bridge repair work.
Hmm. Wonder if Sherman could make it up that road?!
Tall bridge to go over.
Lots of cactus in this section.
We stopped for lunch at around noon. When we went to set off again, Garth's parking brake wouldn't release. The parking brake on his unit is notorious for problems, so he knew how to get himself mobile again, but it took an extra half an hour or so.
Federal Police checkpoint (currently unused) on the way to Puebla.
Goats at the side of the road.
Coming into Puebla, you have the option of the lower free road, or the elevated toll road. Ruth and I have always done the free road and there has never been a problem getting through. But this time, there was an accident on the lower section, and it put us behind by another half an hour or so.
We pulled into Trailer Park Las Americas at about 3:00pm. A few other rigs here, but still lots of room for our group of eight. I'll show you some photos another day.
Yesterday's drive, 369 kms (229 miles).
Nice view of the Popocatépetl volcano at dusk.
And the 16th century Catholic parish church built atop the Tlachihualtepetl pyramid.
We're going to stay here for a week. The weather forecast is perfect, with highs of 26C (79F) and lows of 10C (50F) and blue sunny skies.
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The toll road looked modern and smooth. Made for smooth sailing. Great shot of the puff of smoke at the top of the volcano. Enjoy the visit and the predicted nice weather.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is pretty modern and for the most part this one was smooth but they aren't always that way.
DeleteThere have been quite a few more puffs of smoke since our first evening here, in fact it has been quite active lately.
The volcano always puts on a show!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does, and it sure isn't disappointing us at the moment. We think this has been the most active that we have seen Popocatépetl.
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