Mexico Day 96: Into the red zone

Cerro Hermoso, Oaxaca to La Ventura, Guerrero //

The four of us are not quick starters in the morning.  However, with Heather & Adam’s a/c not working in their truck, we decide to get an earlier-than-usual start to the day’s drive with the hopes they can get at least an hour or two of driving in before the humidity really sets in.  At 8am we depart the small town of Cerro Hermoso and begin the 140 mile drive to our next destination.  

Following the coast back towards the US is a suggestion I made to Mark, Heather & Adam a month or more ago.  Mileage-wise it’s not the shortest route but after scouring maps it gave me the impression of being more straight-forward and less hectic than google’s suggested route of heading back towards and around Mexico City via a network of toll roads.  We’d all grown tired from the stress of driving on the toll roads and so everyone agreed to give the coastal route a shot.  With five hours of driving ahead of us today, we would get our first real taste of what driving a two-lane highway along the coast would be like.

In short, we traded tolls for topes (speed bumps) and traffic for potholes.

We’ve come to learn that driving in Mexico is an active affair no matter what kind of road you’re on.  Toll roads give the chance to move faster but the way people pass makes one feel as though an accident is imminent.  On the free highways there are villages, towns, topes, pedestrians, motorbikes, dogs, livestock, and potholes.  Speeding up to over 50mph can be downright reckless but more often that not is simply impossible.

We’re not phased too much by the road conditions today, we’ve become accustomed to them by now.  Instead, I’m toiling over the question of whether or not the states that lie ahead are safe to travel through.  According to the US State Department’s travel advisories, the proceeding three states that we’re about to move through are labeled as “do not travel to” states which are marked in red on their map of Mexico.  What the US government has determined as red states has long been a topic of conversation and frustration for us.  While we believe something probably happened within the state to deem it unsafe in that particular area, we find it hard to believe the entire state is unsafe to be in.  Further, in small type at the very bottom of the travel advisory webpage reads “last updated May 1, 2024”.  Information that is nearly a year old does not give me much confidence.  Instead, it’s just enough information to scare me without being anything solid to go off of.  To try and sort out my confusion about whether or not to pay attention to these travel warnings, I ask many others how they feel about them.  Everyone I ask shrugs it off saying they either don’t understand the map or that it doesn’t make any sense.  At this point I wish I didn’t even know about it because it certainly isn’t doing us any favors.

Since the US travel advisories don’t feel like a reliable source I lean on other options for information.  Between reading various Facebook groups that center around driving in Mexico and reading recent reviews of campsites on the iOverlander app, I can’t find a reason to avoid driving the coastal route through the red states of Guerrero, Michoacan, and Colima.  

Upon entering the state of Guerrero I begin looking for signs, anything that might indicate that this is not somewhere we want to be.  Two hours is spent on the road in Guerrero before arriving at our destination and the only thing of note is that there is more military presence.  Since we see military on the road all the time in Baja, this doesn’t necessarily give me pause.  And a major pro for Guerrero…so far their roads are in excellent condition.

Mid-day we arrive at a highly reviewed campground in the beach community of La Ventura.  Because of all the rave reviews I’m surprised to see only one other camper van.  Not only that but there are zero people on the premises to be found.  We wander around the grounds searching for a host when a European man wearing nothing but itty bitty shorts finally appears from inside one of the cabanas.  He speaks clear English and yet our communication is convoluted.  He’s aloof and a bit surprised by our presence.  We’re directed to a place to park nonetheless.  

After paying Victor our nightly fee, he hops inside the camper van that we had assumed was occupied by other campers, and leaves for the rest of the afternoon.  The grounds at La Tortuguita, including a restaurant, pool, grassy camp area, cabanas, and palm trees, are beautiful but we all agree that the place feels a little strange.  Proof positive that the people make the place and here was a seemingly deserted campground with an odd host.  Nonetheless, it was a place to park for the night that felt safe enough.  But without anything to draw us in, we would get back on the road and do it all over again tomorrow.

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