Mexico Day 89: Back in motion

El Rancho RV Park to Oaxaca View campground, El Tule //

It’s nearly two o’clock in the afternoon by the time we are packed up and ready to depart El Ranch RV Park. Something Mark ate fought back overnight causing him to spend much of the morning in bed. Luckily our plan for the day only involved traveling a handful of miles and by mid-day Mark is feeling ready and eager to get going.

Our loose plan for the day was to self-tour some nearby ruins, stop for pizza at a highly recommended restaurant after that, and then make our way to a backyard campground back near the town of El Tule. With the heat of the day pushing towards ninety degrees, and the comfort and safety of Heather & Adam’s two corgis front of mind, we decide to forego our visit to the ruins for Duke & Annie would have had to remain in the truck while we toured the grounds. I’m already sweating while standing in the shade before ever leaving the RV park so this change of plans is fine by me. Instead we make our way fifteen minutes out of town to a rural neighborhood where pizza awaits.

After a short ways down a dusty, narrow dirt road we arrive at an unassuming driveway that is home to a little restaurant called Sin Cauce. The design and landscaping of this little establishment is beautiful and offers a welcoming outdoor patio. The four of us gather around a table adjacent to the indoor/outdoor kitchen and accompanying wood-fired oven and giddily look over the menu. While mediocre pizza isn’t hard to find in Mexico, good pizza is rare. The first-hand recommendation that got us here along with promising photos on Google has our hopes sky high. When our four pizzas arrive we salivate at the sight before our eyes. In a matter of moments, we’re all confident in declaring this to be the best pizza in Mexico. While Oaxaca has delivered some memorable authentic dishes, it’s the non-Mexican fare that has made all four of us quite happy these last couple of weeks. The variety of food offerings here has been a nice change of pace.

Satisfied & satiated, we got back in our trucks and made the ten minute drive to a property owned by two German expats. Sabine & Stefan offer camping in their backyard with beautiful views of Oaxaca city in the distance. We tuck our trucks into the back corner, making for a full yard of about seven rigs, us being the only Americans among a variety of Europeans. The view is beautiful but shade is lacking and for that reason alone we are glad we chose El Rancho for our little two-week sabbatical from the road. Both Stefan and Sabine inquire about our route in the coming days and offer recommendations of places they love to camp. First-hand knowledge like this makes the $10/night camping fee worth it alone.

Thanks to a proper food coma I can feel us all shutting down early. The sun has barely set by the time we tuck inside our camper for the night. It was a simple but successful day. We got the momentum to get moving again and tomorrow we’ll be good and ready to log some miles. We’re finally headed for the coast, but first, one last stop in the mountains.

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