Heading down the ultramodern autopista we had to find a quick place to stop for the night, because the sun was about to go down.

Nancy's infallible instincts took us off at a little unmarked dirt road that seemed to lead to a village. We followed it and were uncertain whether to go into the village or just plop down our tent nearer to the autopiista. We kept going toward the village because she was hoping for a beer :-)

What we found was amazing. Before we'd been there for five minutes the entire village had joined us and was studying us. There were at least a dozen young children, and there we were chatting with the whole community as the sun went down.

We thought we'd wandered into a hidden village in Guatemala or something, with the one dirt road leading from the autopista to the village. It turned out that this village was founded maybe 40 years ago by people from the mountains of the southern state of Oaxaca who came looking for land. When they founded it (and until 12 years ago, when the autopista was put in) it was three long hours' walk to get there from Tierra Colorada.

The amazing thing is that they're a seemingly isolated people group - "refugees" from Oaxaca, a little disconnected island of people in the middle of Guerrero state. The older people still speak the mountain language, and all speak with an uncharacteristic accent for the region, setting them off further from their neighbors.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »

Well, we're in Tierra Colorada this afternoon, just 25 miles or so north of Acapulco, but we wonder if we'll get out of here this afternoon. It's really hot.

We had our longest and hottest day so far, 58 miles, leaving Taxco and heading into the desert south of Iguala, finally stopping in a cactus field somewhere south of Iguala. It was so hot in the afternoon that we'd ride 10 minutes and rest for 30 and have a coke or something.

Yesterday and today we got on the toll road, or autopista for the first time, and it's got nice wide shoulders--but you leave Mexico. No more little towns to mosey through. Just miles and miles of asphalt. It's a good way to get places but a bad way to see Mexico.

Maybe today Acapulco, maybe mañana.

We like the backroads so much we decided to branch out and try a road we knew little about. Even the locals did not know about the road we chose to go to Taxco. Well to make a long story short, we climbed for a half a day on this steep road. We took a break at a new church where this wonderful bell was ringing. We got invited up to the bell steeple but this very old Mexican man, who was older than dirt as well as being the bell ringer. It was Ash Wednesday and we got a lesson on ringing three huge bells with two ropes.

After an hour's break we continued down the road until the asphalt road turned to dirt, and then to a poor dirt road through agricultural fields. We knew we were lost but we being the adventurers we are continued until the sunset. We set up camp at an abandoned schoolhouse in a little agricultural village way up in the hills.

We woke up to an orcherstra of sounds: Pigs on the bass. sheep on the percussion, birds on the clarinet and chickens and roosters as the oboes. The sun rose around pea fields planted all around us and the far mountains appeared as a painted background. Wow, what a way to wake up.

We made it up another 5 miles of the dirt road to a real highway and worked our way to today's destination, Coatepec.

We rode around Zitacuaro, a good-sized city of 50,000 or so looking for a laundromat, and we found them, but they were all closed because it was Sunday. So we asked for a place to clean by hand and were referred to the public “lavadero,” the place where the poor folks with no water in their houses go to clean.

Usually when we look for something we ask directions, go a little ways, ask again, and so on. We never completely understand the answer. When we got close, a kind, portly man named Luis walked us right over to the lavadero. It was sheltered from the strong sun with a wooden roof held up by concrete posts, nestled in the side of a hill. Spring water was piped directly from the side of the hill. The center compartment is a big basin for the fresh water. On each side is a work area made out of cement, with rough pebbles lining the bottom. The basin is slanted in and has a drain. We took the fresh water from the basin with our cooking pan and soaked our clothes and used laundry detergent and scrubbed against the rough surface until our clothes seemed cleaner. It was a LOT easier than washing in a hotel sink, like we usually do. But we could have used quite a lot of professional instruction!

As we washed we talked with Luis, who invited us to camp at his in-laws’ home. As it was late in the afternoon, and since getting to know people and their lifestyle is our first objective, we happily accepted. More in my next post :-)