That night we spent in La Jungla Campground located in the Nanciyaga Ecological Reserve in the Mexican state of Veracruz. While there, we meet Robert from Australia in his Sportsmobile camper van. We had great time together talking by the campfire. Robert has been traveling in Central America and Mexico for many years.

The plan for the day was to reach Oaxaca. I wanted to take the shortest route through the Sierra Juárez Mountains and see the villages populated by Zapotec and Mixtec Indians. My Mexican road atlas showed that it is possible to cross the mountains, but based on OpenStreetMap—on the screen of our new baliosOPC—there was no road in the direction we wanted to go. The same road atlas misled us in Baja before. This time we did not trust it and decided to drive the main road around the mountains. After driving 550 miles / 885 km in 12 hours, we reached Santa Maria del Tule in Oaxaca. At 10 in the evening, we were greeted my Calvin and Leanne, our hosts from the Overlander Oasis. This is where we planned to spend the next two nights to explore places around Oaxaca.

Overlander Oasis run by Canadians is a tiny camping located close to the Pan American highway. It is a place where many overlanders stop by. Here, we meet Waz and Iwona, the Australian and Polish couple who travel Americas in their Mitsubishi Pajero. They are heading to the bottom of South America. We also have such plans, but in a little bit more distant future.