Viva la Mexico!

[Liteitup]

Just returned from a 3 week/3600 mile trip in Mexico. We crossed at Presidio and spent the first night at an Airbnb in Cuauhtémoc, just outside Chihuahua. From there we traveled to Creel and explored the Copper Canyon area. Depending on what article you read, CC is 1 1/2 to 3 times the size of the Grand canyon.



 
As always, pictures don't tell the true story.

From there we travelled to Batopilas, at the bottom of the canyon. Temps started in the 40's in Creel and reached 102 in the bottom of the canyon. And I was sick, couldn't keep a thing down. I showered and went to bed around 4pm. Slept till 6:30 am. At breakfast I again couldn't eat without puking. Then I found the miracle cure...peach juice in a can! I immediately feel better. Unfortunately, no pics of this area.

On the way to Parral we find roadside food and I eat like a starving man.



Next night is in Parral. $50 Airbnb. Nothing significant.

Then Durango. We stayed in a hotel in the Cento section, right around the corner from one of the main plazas. We stayed 2 nights here, just resting and exploring.

Durango on the plaza, Saturday before Palm Sunday.



I learned in Spain last year that plazas are my place of Zen. One of the first things I saw on this one was a little boy chasing a soap bubble almost as big as he was. Huge grin on his face. Then the bubble hit the ground and disappeared, I halfway expected tears. Nope, he immediately starts turning looking for another. Grin still on his face. I knew right then I was in the right place.

Rooftop cafe in Durango

 


One more plaza pic


And now....
Espinazo del Diablo, Spine of the devil. Supposed most dangerous road in Mexico. The reason we're here.

[Ray]

Thanks for the inspiration(!). Great photos.

[TriangleRider]

Great write up!

[Grumpy Goat]

Wonderful. I would love to go one of these days. Must alert Donna to this thread.

[Liteitup]

I can't say enough good things about this road. Imagine the very best parts of the Pig Trail over and over. With almost zero traffic.


Somewhere around here I hit a rock, big rock. Nothing happens till we're leaving Cuidad, then the TPMS/RDS lights up yellow, then immediately red. We google tires and find a shop. 300 pesos and about thirty minutes later, we're on the road again. This includes removing wheel from bike, tire from rim, interior repair with a patch, and reinstall. All done on a piece of cardboard in the dirt.

Toll road in the distance. We didn't ride this but it supposedly has the second highest suspension bridge in the world and a passel of tunnels. And the reason the libre (free road) has so little traffic.


Somewhere along the way we pulled into a roadside eatery.


In the middle of nowhere we point and gesture and order lunch. The older lady grabs a ball of masa, presses it into a tortilla right in front of us and cooks it on this.

and I end up with this

It's amazing! Best gordito I've ever had. Only gordito I've ever had, but still. It was excellent and couldn't have been fresher. I don't recall the price, but it was stupid cheap.

Finally we roll into Mazatlán. We've got a couple of days here to wait on the ferry to Baja.

The view from our hotel rooftop bar.

[Liteitup]

Watch at your on risk. Almost five minutes of endless curves with zero editing.
https://youtu.be/Fj4T0xb2ESQ?si=Wg-WmEwzCtvKjdUP

Not even the best part, just the shortest vid I had of this awesome road.

[Liteitup]

Mazatlán, pretty cool town. We're waiting on the ferry to take us to La Paz.

Our hotel, Freeman Best Western.


Lots of this


A plaza. Imagine that!


Somebody spent a lot of time on this. That's my only comment.



Big church.



Food safety is of utmost concern. Raw chicken. You can't really see it, but it's at least iced down. 

[Liteitup]

Random pics of Mazatlán.



Watched these guys for a while. Guy on the right caught a couple of fish maybe as big as his hand. Maybe. Other two got skunked. This was just ouside our hotel.








This seemed to be the locals beach. Honestly, they seemed to be having a better time than most of the tourists. (Except us)

[Liteitup]

The ferry.





The ferry wasn't terrible. Mostly because we ponied up for a cabin. Loading was an hours long affair. Load cars for a while, then trucks. Finally our turn, nothing to it. Then on the ferry and wait while they load more trucks. And more trucks. We got there to load around 2pm, think we departed around 6pm. The journey is overnight. All night.

[Grumpy Goat]

Amazing report and photos. Now I need to go!

[Liteitup]

So what brought this all about? In late January/early February my buddy Steve called to ask if I wanted to go on a cheap tour of Morocco. I don't have anything against Morocco, but if I'm spending overseas money I'm going to the Alps or such. At least at this point. I countered with Copper Canyon in Mexico. A day or so later he calls back. "What if we add the Spine of the Devil and Baja?"
Let me think (and watch a couple of you tube videos), Hell yeah, let's go!
Steve raced the Baja 1000 three times in the 80's as part of the Lamb Honda of Dallas team and wants to return. We've travelled to the Hill country and most recently Arkansas in small groups and know we're mostly compatible.

My main issue at this time: I've never been away from home longer than 10 days at a time. And I'm not sure anybody can put up with me for three weeks on the road.

[maxredline]

Looks nice. No bike shots, what, what? lol.

[Liteitup]

Looks nice. No bike shots, what, what? lol.

Well, there were no RS's on this journey.

[Eck]

Thanks for sharing - looked like a wonderful time, except for some “Montezuma’s revenge”!

[Liteitup]

La Paz, we arrive just after daybreak. More hurry up and wait. And of course the trailer rig blocking us can't release it's airbrakes. Actually, it doesn't take too long, we're just ready to go.
La Paz appears to be where the well-to-do go to play. Lots of marinas with huge gates. We just pass through, but the shops seem to be very upscale.
Southern Baja does not impress. We just left some of the best riding I've ever done and now we're on one of the straightest roads ever. And it drones on forever. And ever.
And then, just before Loreto, we come across a great set of twisties. And then we pop out to this.


Mountains on one side, bluest water I've ever seen on the other. This is more like it. I'm not a beach/water person, but this is gorgeous. And nonstop.

[Grumpy Goat]

More amazing photos and report. So envious.

[Liteitup]

After a stay in a very nice Airbnb, we depart Loreto. Side note, if you haven't checked out Airbnb in a while, you should. They now include all fees (except tax) in the price. No more thinking you got a deal, only to see the price double at checkout.

Going north, we stop in Mulege for breakfast.




Now we start back across the peninsula, headed for Guerrero Negro on the Pacific side. But first, St Ignacio. As we cross Baja we pass several towns that I can only describe as oases. Palm trees and all. Think of the album cover of Hotel California and then jumbo size it. St Ignacio is the largest of these. 




Unfortunately, for me at least, there was a carnival set up in the plaza. Not sure exactly why, but I felt cheated. Too commercial, too carney like. I think otherwise I would have really liked this town.
It is Good Friday.
And apparently Semana Santa




Next up, Guerrero Negro for a rest day and whale watching.

[Liteitup]

Guerrero Negro considers itself the salt capital of the world. And a whale sanctuary. You have to go through the salt part to get to the boats. We're at the end of whale watching season and only one company is still doing tours. We supposedly get the last two seats.




I only have video of whales. If you thought watching me going around curves was boring... you haven't seen whale videos. Honestly the whole thing was sort of cool, and we actually did see whales. But there were no "glamour" shots and the video is BORING.
On the way out we stopped at a huge salt pile. We're told we can take a crystal home, but don't eat it. I decided pretty quickly I didn't really need to add a salt crystal to my useless junk heap at home.

This section is picture poor, so random food pics from Guerrero Negro.





And a mural

[Liteitup]

Now we're headed back into the desert towards San Felipe, back on the Sea of Cortez side.




On the way, we stop at the dry lake at Chapala. You may have heard of it from "On Any Sunday", with Malcolm Smith hauling butt across it.




Not very many pics of San Felipe. I didn't care for this town at all. It seemed more like a dirty part of America where people came to raise hell and do things they wouldn't do at home. Side by sides running down main street playing music at intense volume. It also doesn't help that this is where Airbnb let us down. Electrical problems, the other people staying there tell us there was a fire yesterday, just not good. But we endeavor to persevere, and survive.

Early morning just outside San Felipe.


Oh yeah, the neighbors across the highway played music till all hours of the night. Maybe from their side by side. Pretty sure they're deaf by now.

[Liteitup]

Around here is where we started changing plans. Originally we were to cross back into the US and travel to Phoenix and from there catch the US Devil's highway on our way home. But we're having too much fun on the curvy roads and 85 degrees sounds a lot better than 100+, so I call and explain/apologize and we carry on.
After we return to the mainland, we turn south and follow the coastline of the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Penasco. This area has major construction going on. Huge hi-rise buildings and fancy resorts. Think Cancun to Tulum, except in the desert instead of the jungle. No pictures of this section, today was about making miles. 469 of them. We finish at our Airbnb in Magdalene de Kino. We're pretty beat up at this point.

A good night's sleep and we're ready to go. My riding partner won't admit it, but he's ready to be home. He has a newish girlfriend and they're missing each other.
We stop in Huepac.



And then Baviacora.



We had a gourmet lunch on the plaza. Hot dogs and fries.

From here the road turns to absolute crap. It's plenty twisty and has differing elevations, but the potholes. We've run into sections like this before, but this one seems unending. Any kind of speed is impossible. Miles of it.
Still, the views are awesome.

Not all the road is that bad, we run across sections like this.


Next up, renting a room without using words. Well, we used plenty of words but neither side had any idea what the other was saying.