Sunday, February 13. 2005
Base camp two
Just outside Oaxaca we headed the expedition vehicle up into the Sierra Juarez mountains, named after one of Mexico’s most famous leaders who was born in these parts. Twisting almost unceasingly, we bounced along the patchwork quilt road surface, climbing ever higher until we eventually topped out at a little over 9600 feet. As we began the equally tortuous decent, the transition from the more arid Pacific side into the humid Gulf coast climate was unmistakable, with exquisite flowering trees and lush ferns crowding the road and natural springs gushing out every few miles.
After three hours though we’d reached our objective, the site of Monte Flor, a recognised archaeological site but one on which little information is available. We needed to check it out principally because it is the nearest one known remotely in the area in which we think the “Dead City” could actually be. Although on a different river entirely, we needed to rule out the possibility that our French naturalist had at some stage become disorientated but as it turned out, this site is definitely not the one we’re looking for. There is nothing at all to be seen, hence the lack of information and what it is, is a natural spring feeding a large pool in which votive offerings have probably been found. It functions today as a bathroom for the amiable locals and although there is another community museum, as is the trend, it was closed. But with it safely eliminated, we moved on to the city of Tuxtepec for the night.
Which was more than enough as it’s very industrial with a huge brewery and sugar refinery and the air is thick with their pollutants. Deciding to decamp the next day, after a few wrong turns that quite literally saw us wind up in the middle of cultivated fields, we headed for Loma Bonita. Around here, the difference between a secondary road and a farmers track is marginal at the best of times ! Loma Bonita is a very pleasant Mexican town, only 20 or so miles away but so very different in character.
It has a very passable hotel, internet access and as we’re the only ‘gringos’ in town, so we’ve even created a little bit of a stir with the local denizens. It’s only a few miles away from the Obispo river too and we’ve now established base camp two here while we start to travel around and begin comparing our French naturalists story with what’s really here today. So next we’ll go not just off the beaten path but into some very unmapped territory altogether and no doubt, we’ll have to start cutting a new path of our own.
After more than two years of research, we’re so very close to the “Dead City” we can almost hear it calling to us.
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