September 4, 2023. Our hosts took us early to a beautiful breakfast in Oaxaca at the Merced market. We had bread, juice, hot chocolate and enchiladas. If I had known how unsettling the upcoming trip was going to be I would not have eaten so much.
At 9, the the priest Alejandro Solavide and his two bodyguards from the Federal Police stopped at the house to pick us up. The two bodyguards ( and guns) took the front seats and the two priests and I squeezed in the back our SUV and headed south on the Panamerican highway to the southeast. I know the route until Mitla, but then we started climbing into the mountains. The drivers seemed intent to push the absolute limits of the vehicle for speed taking the tight turns as fast as possible. Despite having placed an anti-emetic patch on my skin, I got queasy and had to ask them to give us a break after an hour. After an other hour we stopped at the highest point of the sourney at a chapel for the Virgen de Soledad.
After another hour and a half we came to a little roadside restaurant where ladies cooked on a large comal heated with firewood.
I felt much better after lunch and our highway was now down to the flat,hot, coastal level. We were able to get to our hotel in Ixtepec fairly quickly and very happy for a shower and rest.
At 6 pm our driver stopped by the hotel and took us to the refugee center, Hermanos en el Camino (brothers on the path) which has just celebrated 20 years since being founded to offer hospitality to refugees making their way north.
At the end of this dirt road is a remarkable refugee camp that can handle up to 700 people, but has about 200 people now.
Refugees come any way that they can, walking, bus, and in the past, on top of the train known as “The Beast”. The train access has been shut down. Up until las week many people tried to walk through the Darien Gap, a sweltering marshland , river and mountains between Colombia and Panama. We hear today that access to the Gap has been shut down. People were dying trying to make it through there, often drowning in the river or getting very sick on the river water.
Fr Solavide has received awards and support from around the world for his organizations’s work here in Ixtepe. He’s heading ot Bertlin to a conference on displacement in just a couple days.
After touring the center we had a meal of the Salvadoran dish, pupusas, made by residents of that country.
Today we will have much more time to explore the Center and get to know residents.
I hate going fast on mountain roads.