MATIAS ROMERO, Mexico (AP) — Migrants from Central America complained of foul smells, snakes and dim lighting in the lot where organizers recommended they camp overnight in southern Mexico, and some occupied a nearby abandoned hotel that had been damaged by an earthquake.

Thousands of migrants arrived in the town of Matias Romero after an exhausting 40-mile (65-kilometer) trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, where they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. After nightfall, the group decided they would leave at 5 a.m. Friday toward the coastal state of Veracruz, with their destination either the town of Donaji or Sayula de Aleman.

Cesar Caraca, a 26-year-old Honduran migrant, said he killed a poisonous coral snake in the brush near the site at the entrance to Matias Romero where they had set up camp.