Into the Tropics

So, on Wednesday 11th May, we bid good riddance to Gomez Palacio and made our way south to Dorango, where we spent a very pleasant afternoon and overnight stay.

Dorango is a lovely city, quite the opposite from the one we had just left. Apart from anything else it's a world heritage sight, or at least the cathedral is and the cathedral is a delightful piece of 19th century baroque architecture, unlike many catholic ecclesiastical buildings. It's actually quite

Durango Cathedral at night

restrained but it is beautiful (sorry pic is sideways on but couldn't work out how to turn it around). We stayed in a very old and gloriously shabby hotel which was immediately opposite the cathedral. It is probably a 19th century building, constructed around a central quadrangle with stone columns, old tiles on the floor, and stone and tilework steps. All the rooms had original wooden shutters and the place was gently falling apart.

Sue on hotel balcony, overlooking cathedral

Cowboy country, Durango

Old colonial hotel at Durango

The main pedestrian thoroughfare called the Constitucion is a delight, it passes from one park to another park via a park in the middle and has a lovely, lively feel to it. A lot of Western films were made in and around Durango and it does have a bit of a Hollywood feel to it, there is a similar walk of fame and bronze statues of movie stars like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne.

We left Durango on Thursday morning and made our way south to Mazatlan on the Pacific coast. The road from Durango to Mazatlan comes down through the Sierra Madre where it loses many thousands of feet via a series of tunnels and quite dramatic bridges with gulp inducing drops over the edge. We also realised once we had arrived at Mazatlan that we had crossed the Tropic of Cancer so we are now truly in the tropics!

Mazatlan is essentially a large holiday destination but we managed to find a lovely campsite to the north of the main town, away from the tack and kiss me quick of the golden triangle. We parked up right next to the Ocean and went to sleep each night listening to the big combers crashing onto the rocks.

Footloose Lucy parked at Punto Cerrato, Mazatlan

Waves crashing at Punto Cerrato

Brown Pelicans at Punto Cerrato

Frigate bird

It was surprisingly easy to catch a bus which took us along the coast, through the main holiday bit and into the old town of Mazatlan. We spent a happy couple of days visiting the market, the lovely plazas and taking a water taxi out to Stone Island.

Fish seller at old Mazatlán market

Street cobbler, old Mazatlán

On Sunday 15th May we went on our way down the coast to a sleepy fishing town called San Blas, also a bit of a magnet for surf bums. There we camped at Los Cocos campsite which was basically a coconut grove. Whilst a lovely setting, it had a down side which was that it was also home to thousands of mosquitos and sand flies which had Sue doing a dirvish dance in an attempt to keep them from biting every exposed part of her (in spite of being covered with mozzie spray).

Campsite at San Blas

The highlight of our trip to San Blas was a superb boat trip up the river through the mangrove swamps and jungle where we saw a wide variety of birds. If you enjoy bird watching (the feathered variety) then we hope you will like this small selection of the many photographs which Alan took. If you are not at all interested in birds, then skip through!

Great egret among mangroves

Boat billed heron

Boat billed heron, close up

Northern Potoo, disguised as a piece of tree

Yellow-crowned night heron

Tri-colour heron

Terrapin

Whilst in San Blas, we met up with Ian and Penelope, an Australian couple who are spending 4 years travelling round the world. We met them briefly in Creel and then we were following in each others footsteps on the road down from Mazatlan. They have a large and very impressive Isuzu truck which dwarfs Footloose Lucy but which looks entirely suited for 4 years of travelling. They have been on the road now for a year, having started in Alaska. Ian very kindly helped us download the IOverlanders App which has maps of the entire world and marks campsite spots which will make life a lot easier for us from now on.

Unsurprisingly, it was very, very hot and we also decided that we wanted to avoid the next big holiday destination further down the coast. So, on Tuesday 17th May we went back inland through the Central Western Highlands and made our way to Lake Chapala just south of Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city. Our journey took us through Tequila and fields of blue agave, the plant from which Tequila is made, and we have purchased a bottle! Alan has been reminded of a well known quotation: one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

Faro (lighthouse) at Lake Chapala

Thanks to IOverlander we found a lovely campsite right next to the lake, close to the little town of Jocotepec. The great thing about this place is that, whilst it is hot during the day, it is wonderfully cool at night so you get a good night's sleep. And, of course, Alan has been photographing more birds by the lakeside!

 Flamboyant tree at Lake Chapala

Sue relaxing at the campsite

Black crowned night heron with supper

Ian and Penelope joined us here a day later and we have very much enjoyed their company and generally chilling out. They are off to Cuba shortly so our ways will part, but we may meet up further down the line.

With aussie friends and their gert big truck

We left Lake Chapala this morning (Friday 20th May) and have arrived at a delightful village called Comala which is in the volcanic area of Colima. More about this in our next post!

Going down and down and down . . . . . . . to the bottom of the canyon

Having spent several days taking in the breathtaking highland scenery in and around Creel, we decided it was time to go down to the bottom of the canyon. The Copper Canyon is, in

fact, made up of a series of 7 canyons, the deepest of which is the Urique Canyon.

View of Urique from top of the canyon rim

So we set off from Creel on Thursday 5th May and made our way some 80 km to the town of Urique at the very bottom of the deepest canyon. The last 40 km was dirt road and the final 20 km was all hair pin bends, a lot of it single track with no guard rail and drops of 1,000 ft.

In all we dropped from 8,000 ft at the rim to 1,500 ft at the bottom.

Sat nav impression of the road to Urique

Unsurprisingly, it was very hot when we go to the bottom, about 40 degrees C.
















We made our way to the Entre Amigos campsite where we set up camp for the next few days. The campsite was set in a lovely cultivated garden filled with fruit trees and flowers, humming birds and other beautiful birds which we couldn't identify. The site was managed by Tomas who, each morning, gave us fruit from the trees for our breakfast - prickly pear, papaya and grapefruit - delicious!!

We fell in love with Urique - we hope the following photos help to show why

View up from the canyon bottom

Red Cardinal

View from the campsite

Collared  dove on prickly pear

Spot the camouflaged lizard

Urique High Street

Alan keeping cool

Lucy parked up at Entre Amigos campsite

Mexican gate hinge (worn out sole + coca cola tops)

Car wash Urique style

Urique river in the canyon bottom

Adult and juvenile birds (unidentified)

We left Urique on Sunday and made our way back up the canyon to Creel. They are beginning to tarmac the road from Urique upwards so it is closed for most of the day whilst they work on upgrading the road. We were reliably informed that the road would be open between 1 pm and 2 pm. We got to the closed part of the road over an hour before it was going to open. Much to the amusement of the flag man we deployed the canopy and got the chairs out. Shortly after the 'patron de camino' came along and decided to wave us through anyway.

Waiting for the road to open

Having retraced our path back to Creel and then Chihuahua, we are now in a rather seedy town called Gomez Palacio (nothing palatial about it) in the hope of reaching the pacific coast in the next couple of days.

Hola Mexico and the Copper Canyon

So, the interesting stuff has started!

On Thursday 28th April (also Sue's birthday) we crossed from El Paso into Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, supposedly across the Rio Grande, although it can't be very grand as we never saw it. Crossing the border and obtaining the necessary Mexico vehicle insurance, tourist visas and vehicle import permits was unexpectedly straightforward and we were soon bashing our way down route 45 towards Chihuahua. The road was basically a very long, straight and boring 250 miles with nothing but a bit of scrub and a few cactuses on either side but we felt we were well and truly in Mexico - the place has become shabbier, the cars older, more battered, the facilities less or non existent and the country has a pleasantly shambolic air which we immediately took to. We arrived in Chihuahua about 6.30pm and checked into a delightful little hotel, set around a pretty plant filled courtyard, right in the city centre.  We celebrated Sue's birthday by having supper at a lovely restaurant with a balcony overlooking the cathedral.

Birthday supper at El Meson de Catedral

 

Chihuahua Cathedral

Chihuahua is a lively, vibrant city so we decided to stay on Friday as well so that we could have a look around and also have some R & R, particularly as Alan was going boss eyed from all the driving.

We met a fellow traveller also staying at the hotel, a Greek American called Nicholas, who was travelling down from Denver on his motorbike and then meeting up with his wife in southern Mexico before travelling on  down into South America. Nicholas very kindly spent over an hour sorting out our computer problems which has essentially enabled us to continue writing up the audio diary which forms the basis of our blog.

We spent much of Friday browsing the boot shops displaying completely over the top cowboy boots and then visiting a museum which is the former mansion of Pancho Villa. 

Villa was a bandit turned revolutionary, turned politician. A colourful hero, he is best known as leader of the Mexican revolution, but as much of his time was given over to robbing and womanising as to any noble cause.

Pancho Villa's bullet ridden Dodge

Pancho met his come uppance in about 1923 when someboday took him out while he was driving his Dodge through the streets. The said vehicle is in the museum together with lots of photographs of people, most of whom seem to have been either murdered or died in battle.

On Saturday we left Chihuahua and drove down to Creel, a highland town which sits on the edge of the Copper Canyon. After we left Chihuahua the scenery became progressively more interesting as we got into the hills and started climbing and climbing. It is quite chilly here which is not surprising as it is situated at about 7,500 ft. The area around Creel is covered with surreal rock formations and the

Mushroom rock in the Valley of the Frogs and Mushrooms

countryside is also where the Tarahumara, a tribe of pre Hispanic inhabitants live in caves and small houses. 

Sunday was an interesting day, most of it dramatically scenic. We started off with the assistance of Doris (our sat nav) who took us off on a dirt road into the Valley of Mushrooms and Frogs, so called because of the shape of the rock formations and then on to the Valley of the Monks or erect penises, as the local Turamahara people call it. It was after that that Doris took us completely off piste and the road became less and less of a

Tarahumara girls looking glum

track and more of an assault course. Lucy and Alan seemed to be in their element, though Sue was not.

We eventually gave up and retraced our steps back to Creel and then made our way to the Turamahara village of Cusarare. Cusarare is accessed down an exceedingly dusty track and, when you get to the end of it, what you have is a collection of houses, some buildings that might be farms,a church and a shop.

Tarahumara mother and children, all glum

A group of Tarahumara women doing nothing in particular

When we got there we came upon a load of women in brightly coloured clothes who were basically sitting and propping up the wall. We gave them some money and they seemed to be reasonably happy to be photographed although they don't really go big on toothpaste smiles, they mostly just look glum.

Beautiful Tarahumara woman with child

Two Tarahumara women giggling at the silly gringos

We then continued on our way down a very bouncy, rocky, dusty road in search of the Cusarare waterfalls, a lovely spot but the waterfall had about as much water as Alan would produce after a night on the beer. It was, however, a lovely spot and Alan saw a beautiful yellow and black butterfly that must have been 7 ins across.

We then drove some 30 km down to the Humira bridge at the bottom of the canyon which was quite staggering. We were basically driving

round the edge of the canyon and were amazed at many a bend by the vista that was opening up. At least,  Sue was amazed, Alan was more interested in keeping Lucy on the road which was narrow and had a constant series of switchbacks and hairpin bends.

One of the abiding impressions of the Copper Canyon is that it is unremittingly green and the  scent of pine trees permeates the air and enhances the constantly unfolding panorama.

Monday was an equally amazing day. We visited the Copper Canyon adventure park which is situated near the village of Divisadero on the canyon rim. There we gave ourselves the ultimate adrenalin fix by soaring over death defying drops on a series of 7 zip wires and 2 heart-in-the mouth wobbly bridges.

The longest zip line is 1.1 km long and you travel at a speed of over 60 mph!! The blog doesn't seem to be allowing captions any more but the photos speak for themselves!

On our way back from the Adventure park we drove to the Rekowata hot springs which involved quite a lot of hairpins and dirt roads which Lucy took in her stride. The car park is 3 km from the pools which are unsurprisingly at the bottom of the canyon. So, we had a 3 km walk down the track where we found several pools and had a lovely swim and then a 3 km walk back up again, but it was worth it.

Yesterday we drove a long way to the Cascada de Basaseachi, a high waterfall which falls apparently 250 metres to a pool below where you can swim. It was very hot and we decided against the trek down and back up again after all the exercise we got on Monday. Again, there was very little water in the waterfall and you get a prize for spotting it in the photograph.

Today we have stayed in Creel to catch up on admin and write the blog. Tomorrow we are heading off to stay in Urique, a village right at the very bottom of the canyon.

Since arriving in Mexico we have completely failed to find a campsite and the Overlanders handbook also states they are few and far between across Mexico. We have come across one or two camping areas with no facilities but, unless we want to wild camp all the time (which Sue definitely does not), then we will be making use of hotels rather more than we intended. In fact the locals look mildly astonished when you ask about campsites saying 'Why would you want to camp when hotels are so cheap' which indeed they are. The guide book informs us that there is a campsite at Urique but we shall see. (NB. the average price of a decent hotel room is approximately the same as a campsite in Europe. QED).