It’s hard to list the pleasures of El Rancho without sounding like a company hack touting for business however as no one will probably be following in our footsteps directly let me go all out and say it’s the best spot we’ve found in Mexico. It is a haven built in a rectangle in the countryside twenty minutes south of Oaxaca. Check out the wall:
And the front gate. Were there any doubt GANNET2 is parked outside! 
Inside the campground you get the services you might expect at a campground in the US with 15 amp shore power, individual toilet dumping spots, WiFi strong enough to watch videos, plus a swimming pool, recycled waste bins and all in a grassy park with shade trees. The approach road is a dusty mess with a narrow bridge on the road north to Oaxaca directly…
So the campground owners put a handy sign inside the gate advising big rigs to turn right to the village of El Tule to take the long way round to Oaxaca 30 minutes away.
It’s a compound of foreign travelers from all over. This year we have Brazilians, Poles, French British German Swiss and Canadian as well as a couple from Florida and a couple of other Americans, a revolving cast of characters.
Cali the caretaker is always on duty cleaning and sprucing the place up.
A Mexican Promaster in the background behind Cali, across from us we have yet to meet. They are from Mexico City I’m told and have a luxurious annex attached to their van with inflatable couches in the shade.
We got a spot that’s shady except in the middle of the day when we hang a sheet off our Moonshade awning. The cost for all this is $14 US per day with discounts for weekly or monthly stays. We may stay a month at a cost of $377 the equivalent of two days stay at Boyd’s campground on Stock Island. A week at the renovated KOA on Sugarloaf Key is a thousand bucks I heard. Mind boggling.
The German over lander next door I think is changing his oil (below)which is nothing compared to a Florida couple here for a month and counting, after their Ford Transit broke its transmission. Lucky for Greg and his wife they rent apartments here and there’s a mechanic nearby! I find these vehicles far too large for my taste:
I’m still hoping we can get our recalcitrant winch sorted out. Our lifesaver on the front bumper is reduced to impotent clicking. We shall see. So far the dashboard a/c blower is still working but if that gives out again (and Bruce thinks it will) this would be a good place to seek a repair. El Rancho is where you can stay while things get done. Last year an English couple had their shower compartment rebuilt during their stay. Neal and Pam are currently in Guatemala and we hope to catch up to them down the road.
Sometimes you need a haven from the road and this is a known spot. People here have driven Asia Africa and South America to meet at this crossroad. Our journey which may seem out there to people in the States is barely a blip on what our neighbors have done, most of them younger and traveling on tight budgets. Driving Mexico is not scary among travelers here. Risk is measured differently. We even saw a caravan of a dozen Canadian and US huge RV rigs pass through.
Rusty loves it. There are no leash laws, no dogs ready to pounce and ambush him. He wanders around snoozing under our neighbors trucks. He’s such a gentle soul he gets smiles and pets everywhere he goes. He shifts from shade to sunshine, gravel to grass.
Can you imagine being stuck for a month waiting for a repair? Greg is a Palm Beach native and is still in good spirits. Rusty likes hanging out with him. He has no desire to go outside the gates and is reluctant to get in the van when we take off for day trips as he fears we won’t be back. One day that will be the case.
Places like El Rancho are valuable not simply as rest areas or as repair stops. They allow travelers to meet or meet again, to share stories and encouragement. Heinz is a young German traveling in a Canadian registered Dodge SUV and has been for the past three years. He wants to go to Patagonia for the wild hiking and Argentina for the grilled meats he tasted once and dreams of again. If you saw this minivan would you imagine it was going to Argentina?
At El Rancho your vehicle isn’t what matters. You can be on the road any way you want. We love our home on wheels but in many respects buying a car for the trip is a great way to go, especially for younger travelers.
Babette and Jean shipped their truck camper from France to Uruguay at the start of the Covid pandemic. They left a couple of days ago bound for a storage center for their truck and a summer at home in Paris. They’ll be back in the Fall traveling north to see the United States.
Connie and Larry from Washington have left too. Larry is a boat builder at heart and we talked into the night about his trimarans and rowing shells and the comparisons between vans and boats. They went as far as Belize and will be home north of Tacoma for the summer. Ironically they live half an hour from our sailing friends Anna and Ian whom we visited this summer.
The list goes on. We plan to stay a couple of weeks but temperatures are rising on the tropical Yucatán peninsula while at El Rancho we have cold nights and bright sunny days and as you can see we have all facilities and lots of tourist attractions and on and on.
