I guess it´s been about 2 weeks and 2 days now since I left
Oakland. I say Ì guess` since it is a little hard to
keep track of what day it is when you aren´t working.
The mileage on the trip odometer is now about 3200 miles. It´s
been an eventful week+ since the last entry at Creel. We travelled
to the town of Batopilas from there, which is at the bottom of one
of the canyons. Batopilas is about 90 miles from Creel, the
first 50 miles paved and the following 40 miles are dirt. Not
just any dirt either, most of the elevation drop into the canyon is
through the dirt section, and it drops about a vertical mile, most
of it in one dramatic set of switchbacks that can be viewed at
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/meetings/Mexico2005.php
Batopilas is an old silver mining town with a lot of character.
We had originally intended to go for one night but ended up staying
two. In general we are starting to find that you can´t
ride all morning to a new place, see it in an afternoon and then leave
the following morning after really experiencing a place. It´s
sort of like getting a Eurorail pass and trying to do a city a day.
You may see a lot of things but the experience will be very shallow
and fleeting. Even a day is really too little, but at least
we get to meet a few people and chill out and get a feel for the pace
of life in a town. And believe me, the pace is quite slow down
here. The days are so hot that people tend to get a few things
done in the morning, take a siesta in the afternoon, and then life
starts to pick back up again in the late afternoon and evening.
Copper Canyon really offers a lot, despite being relatively unknown
to Americans. It is much larger than the Grand Canyon, and quite
a few sections of it are accessible. There is a trail that runs
into the area going from Los Mochis on the coast to Chihuahua inland,
and there are several cooils towns to stop at along the way.
Creel seems to be the hub for Copper Canyon. out of creel there
is a ton of mountain biking, a nearby hotspring that we didn´t
have time to visit, Tarahumara villages, lots of 4wd and dirt bike
roads, and just some amazing scenery. The ride down to Batopilas
was incredible, and at times really scary. It was my first technical
dirt experience, and at times didn´t go so well (but no one
fell off a cliff so I guess it´s alright). We first tried
to find Cascada Curare, paid out 15 pesos and were pointed towards
a dirt road. The road quickly deteriorated to a track that was
hard to follow, crossed several dry river beds, and then turned into
a single track that eventually became impassible because of all the
boulders. I dropped my bike for the first time getting it turned
around at the end of the usable part of the trail. Dick got
his a bit stuck over the side of the trail trying to get his around.
Eric faired well here, but later dropped his bike into a ditch on
the side of the scary switchbacks going down into the canyon (about
2/3 of the way down the photo at the top of the Horizons Unlimited
website photo linked to above). His bike suffered a little damage
but Eric was fine. On our second day in Batopilas we visited
a mission called Satevo, and just past it a little cemetary, which
was a good day to visit as it was Nov 2, Dia de los Muertos, the Day
of the Dead. Many of the graves were decorated with flowers
and candles. We heard about a hard way out of the area that
would allow us to get back to the coast without going through Creel,
and tried a little road up into the hills to see if that was it.
I didn´t get far, the hill got steep fast and was covered with
rocks bigger than my fist. I dropped the bike once trying to
get the bike turned around (Dick came around the corner just in time
to see that one), then once trying to get it down this steep little
pitch, breaking the mirror. I was not having fun at this point
and Dick tried to get it down the pitch, which he did, dropping it
in the last couple feet. My poor bike isn´t looking so
shiny anymore. We ended up taking the standard route back to
Creel, which was fine with me for 2 reasons, the ease, and, well,
my Tevas weren´t in my luggage when we got to Batopilas.
This was a little less dramatic way to lose my Tevas then my prior
pair:
http://www.spench.com/trips/burma/tevas.html
I think I left the Tevas out front of the hotel while I was packing
the bike. Unfortunately no one had picked them up and brought
them in as they were not there when I returned. I bought a 180
peso pair of Air Sport sandals a couple days ago in Mazatlan.
From Creel we headed to El Divisidero, which has about the best view
of the cabin. We stayed at a fine little hotel just past there,
where they also make bread and brew apple wine. We had some
of both. The following day was spent following the brand-new,
not yet on any map roads between San Rafael and Bahauchivo, and then
down a more established road to Urique, at the bottom of the canyon.
This town was littler than Batopilas and maybe a little cooler, as
the steep canyon walls kept it shaded much of the day.
The following day was spent riding from Urique to El Fuerte, and was
a full 8 hour day of riding. However in the first 7 hours we
probably covered under 100 miles, spending an incredible amount of
time in first and second gear negotiating steep mountain roads.
Whoever built this road decided to go for a direct route regardless
of what was in the way, rather than just following one of the rivers
down to the ocean. We got to El Fuerte at sunset, tired but
pleased to find a very cool little town with a lot going on.
The place is old, going back to 1565, and the mission and a few other
buildings look like they are almost that old. It was a pleasant
surprise and we found a fine little hotel where we could pull the
bikes into the inside courtyard, something we try to find in every
town.
The following day was spend riding to Culican, a city of little appeal,
and the following day to Mazatlan. This is a beach resort town,
and expectations were somewhat low. The north end is trendy
and most of the hotels would be out of our price range. Fortunately
the Old Town has been recently renovated and was very nice.
It had a very European feel with narrow streets and a lot of Spanish
architecture. There were a few squares surrounded by cafes serving
local seafood. Unfortunately the food wasn´t that well
prepared, I guess because they just assume the tourists wouldn´t
be coming back regardless of the quality. Our second day in
Mazatlan was Bike Day. I spent about 6 hours in the hot and
humid weather replacing my chain, sprockets, rear brake pads, washing
the bike, filling the remarkably dry battery, and cleaning the air
filter. I put on a 15 tooth front sprocket to replace the stock
16 tooth sprocket to give me more low end torque on those dirt roads
and city streets. Many thanks to the Hotel Central for lending
me a crescent wrench because the one in the tool kit was just a wee
bit too small.
So wouldn´t you know that as soon as I get the proper sprocket
for slow riding on the bike we had a day on the highways getting here
to the town of Tequila. This was an impromptu addition to the itinerary
as soon as we learned of it´s existence. Since we hit
some traffic coming this way, we got on the toll highway, and soon
learned our lesson about taking these roads. The first toll
was 41 pesos (US$4.10) for each motorcycle, a few miles down the road
the next toll was 93 pesos each, and then very few miles later it
was 101 pesos EACH! About $25 US to ride maybe 50 miles of roads.
The worst part was after paying the $10 toll we got stuck in road
construction traffic, and passed those half dollar miles at about
15 miles per hour. Disgusted we got off the toll road and took
the Libre road the rest of the way to Tequila, arriving right at sunset.
The first thing you have to do in Tequila, after securing your room,
is to, of course, go have a shot of Tequila. We were steered to the
El Meson, where they have a house brand of tequila. 6 shots
of tequila, 4 margaritas, and a big dinner for 3 came out to US$10
each. I highly recomend this place. This morning we took a tour
of the Cofradia distillery on the edge of town. It was an interesting
tour and we got to try their various products atthe end of the tour,
including some flavored tequila liquors they are experimenting with,
one had honey and anise, another coffee and a third almonds.
The triple distilled anejo tequila was probably the best, but I like
the Reposado was good too. After the tour I did my laundry in
the hotel room sink and got my boots shined at the shoe shine stand
in front of the mission, my first shoe shine! After this me
and my shiny boots came to the internet cafe to write down all these
experience, which seems rather lengthy now that I´m through
it. And already I´m rembering things I forgot to write
down like Dick´s close encounter with the road-hogging Mercedes
Army troop carrier on the way to Batopilas, and Fritz in Batopilas.
Perhaps this is just as well, don´t want to be too verbose (or
scare various family members!). This terminal doesn´t
have USB so no pictures this time, I will try to upload a few in the
coming days. We will be heading back to the coast from here,
and southward until we get past Mexico City, and then cross towards
the Carribean coast and the Yucatan Peninsula to check out Pelenque
and other Mayan ruins. We think we may head into Belize to get
to Guatemala, as the Pan American out of Chiòpis state got
severely damaged in the recent rains. We´ll figure this
out along the way, people have been really friendly and helpful in
pointing out places to go and places not to go. Well, until
later...
Thursday November 10, 2005 - 02:35pm (PST)
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