Heading South.

Heading South. 07/11/2011

  After 2 days of idleness I am heading south to warmer weather. I have recovered from previous travels, my eyesight now fine.  Travelling alone for a while, my companion needs peace and tranquillity to proof read his script before the book goes to print.

   Living conditions are tough.

To make good progress I choose the major highways and head in a north easterly direction to Cuauhtemoc and Chihuahua.

  The north eastern corner of Mexico is flat plain, mostly huge cattle ranches or soft fruit orchards. I resisted an overnight stop in Cuauhtemoc as the town looked less than inviting and the accommodation was overpriced.  As the light was fading, I found an official camp site, and the approach was a dirt track through the hills. A long track too, I sniffed out a suitable opportunity before I got there! There was a light frost during the night but it soon warms up at sunrise. I decided to give Chihuahua a miss and head due south to Hidalgo del Parrel.  The cold north easterly wind made the ride a little miserable but heading south it is now behind me.

 The road was long and straight, much of it was above 6000 ft and once the peak of a long straight was crested you were greeted with another, and another. This is real cowboy country.

 Hidalgo del Parrel is a mellow town with a big place in Mexican history. This is where Pancho Villa was murdered in 1923; originally it was a mining town founded in1631. Here I stayed for 2 days; I found a cheap (£12.0) hotel and explored the town. Nothing too exciting to report, much work was in progress with road building and river reconstruction. There was a small market selling all the usual tat and consumable items, nothing touristy at all here. Due to the altitude the nights and mornings are cool, so I need to head for sea level for the warmth. Durango is the next town in the right direction, some 250 miles south of Hidalgo del Parrel. The long straight roads continue for most of the time, there were a few invigorating twisties up and around the peaks of the hills to make sure that comatose has not set in. By late afternoon I found a quiet free camp by a lake and decided not to do battle with the Cops and traffic of Durango. (I’m not paranoid.... honest, I just resent theft.) I was hoping that the 20 mph north easterly wind would reduce at dusk, but it did not, the tent flapped all night, which gave me more than enough time during the night to ponder as to why the radiator cooling fan is not running and allowing the engine to overheat in traffic. At sunrise it was too cold and windy to contemplate motorcycle repairs, so I headed for shelter from the elements to Durango.

  I have learnt that you should never miss an opportunity if it presents itself to you when you are on the road and the huge Wallmart sign towering above the city approach would make for a one stop shop to stock up on essential items and a spanner or two that my tool kit is missing. The car park also provided a suitable workshop and shelter, so I set to work to investigate my cooling fan problem. With my two wheel caravan dismantled I investigated the problem, a broken glass fuse was the culprit, visually it looked OK, and when I removed the fuse it fell to pieces. Just as well it was a reasonably quick fix as the car park attendant was showing signs of irritation at the workshop that I had made from the parking bay.

  With a running fan I found the historic centre of Durango, found a parking space and assessed the town centre. All seemed very cool; Lonely Planet listed a hotel just one minute from my current location so I paid for a night. (£12.00). The Hotel Plaza Cathedral from the outside was no more than a “hole in the wall” kind of place. Once inside, the castle like construction with a central hall and a labyrinth of stairways and arches gave a historic feel to the hotel. Unfortunately the central hall after midnight became the meeting place for what sounded like the entire population of Durango.

                                          

                                          Durango Historic Plaza, from the roof top.

 There was music and singing, loud voices and a television just to make sure that sleep was not an option. No point complaining, as I was out numbered so I used the time with teach myself Spanish on the computer. The course has a very irritating tune between every lesson and that was all I retained!!!!

                                         We were allowed to park the bikes inside the hotel.

   Durango back street market.

The following day Flid caught up with me, we had a board meeting on the roof top of the hotel and stayed another noisy night. Reading the minutes of the meeting, sea level and warmth was top priority so we headed for the west coast to the town of Mazatlan. We avoided the town as it is a holiday resort.

 The ride from Durango was toe scraping exercise around the never ending bends and curves as the road wound its way over the mountains to sea level.

    On the way to Mazatlan.

 The corners were often spoiled by slow moving articulated trucks; the adrenalin rush was recovered by risky overtaking between bends or on the inside of a bend on a long sweeping bend. The Mexican road builders certainly know how to build the perfect corner with a good angle of banking, the bike tyres have the entire surface used right to the very edge of the tyre. No need to be a “roundabout hero” to wear your tyres like a Grand Prix racer!

 Hoping to find a campsite or a free wild camp we searched in vain to find anything. The wild ranch landscape of the higher elevations has now been replaced with arable land and citrus fruit orchards that are all fenced. Hoping to find refuge in the hills we were denied the opportunity. We passed through several villages; the Saturday night pastime would appear to be the lighting of a roadside fire to burn rubbish of any kind including the Mexican air freshener, the car tyre. Nothing could be found, the rough road eventually ended in to a dirt track, and the light was fading fast. The poor light and dust made difficult riding, the edges of the road were either fenced orchards or watery swamp land. The dirt road terminated at a natural fishing harbour, there were several rough old boats tied up, this was clearly a working harbour/farm land judging by the traffic going in the opposite direction, cars, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians. We turned around and took the next available right turn that eventually led us to a sandy beach of the Pacific. The heat and humidity of sea level should make good nights sleep under the stars listening to the waves crashing on the beach after the two previous nights.

 At sunrise the Pelicans were riding the surf along with the Dolphins.

 The humidity made a damp start to the day; the morning sun soon warms and dries our camp. The Town of Tepic our next destination, we back track through the smouldering villages to the major highway to Tepic.

  At Tepic a suitable hotel was found to satisfy the requirements of personal appearance and social acceptability. Hotel owners will do there best to prevent guests from laundering their clothes. Cleverly you only get cold water at the tap and the sink has an odd sized plug hole. Bottle tops and plastic bags make a good plug, and you get the hot water from the shower head using the bin, and if the bin looks good, that makes a good bowl too!!! Nothing exciting to report on Tepic so we left next morning.

 Heading south not far from Tepic and short distance from the main road is the volcanic lake of Laguna Santa del Oro.

 Surrounded by steep forested mountains the Lagoon is said to be over 100 meters deep. Down the winding road to the lake side we found the Koala camping and RV Park.

 All was very quiet as this is the low season, the lake water was very clear and warm although early in the day we decided to camp here for the night. On entering the site we met a lad who showed us where we could camp, the cost reasonable. We scratched about for a suitable level spot; in the meantime Norman Nomates as we named him snatched a spot by the lake side. It looked as though he was setting up for a huge party, he had all the equipment, sound system, table and chairs, coolers and 2 tents. We opted for the flat green area nearby; we set up the tents and removed the luggage from the bikes. Our plan was to ride to the town of Tequila. All set up and almost ready to go Adolf the camp kommandant apprehended us with disapproval of our choice of camp. We were sent to the other side of the site. He upped the price a little and informed us that if we wanted to use the BBQ we would have to pay for the wood, he extended his generosity to a little extra time on the lake in a kayak, but that would cost as well. Time was wasted moving camp; we went on a lake sortie to see what else was around. Tequila trip abandoned, a lazy day planned, the diet had been a little on the lean side so maybe a day of self indulgence. There were various shops around the lake and a small village back up the mountain. A healthy fish supper should be good; we can cook it on our stoves. We bought all we needed but the fish as there was none to be bought. You would have thought that a lakeside shop would have a fish or two, but no. We were offered a makeshift fishing kit that consisted of an empty beer can, a length of fishing line and a lure to attract the catch of the day. A plan was hatched, two fishing lines were purchased and a twelve pack to get the sea legs for the fishing trip. Back at camp Adolf was busy; the Kayaks were on the waters edge with out the paddles. These were the items that would cost, two planks of wood were quietly removed from the store and we slipped out unnoticed on to the lake.

 Two fruitless hours out on the lake we returned empty handed with only a tin of sardines in brine as second best. Even the beer could not muster the necessary courage to open the sardines! We boiled vegetables and rice and made do with that. Norman sat alone that night on the waters edge a tax inspector or traffic warden probably! An extra early start was planned; we felt Adolf was screwing us, so we screwed him and left early unnoticed.