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Ferry from La Pax to Los Mochis
10-20 to 10/2222
Copper Canyon Country
Trip to Batopilas
We took the 12 hour train ride up from Los Mochas to Creel –about sea level to 7,000 feet up in the mountains. Hot and humid along the coast; cool to cold with frost in the mountains at night and early mornings. In Creel we met another couple Dan, Janell Lee and their son Alex (4) over dinner at Margareta’s Digs (room with breakfast and dinner included for $30). During discussions we explored what their plans were for the next few days. We decided to check out options for side trip down into the depths of the canyons to visit Batopilas, since that is what we all wanted to do. The next day we solidified plans to rent a Nissan pick up with extended cab (seats 5) and drive down.
The road to Batopilas starts out fine with good tarmac for the first 2 to 3 hours. Very scenic, through tall pines twisting up and down over ridges and down to the bottom of canyons. We were furnished a picnic lunch with tables, chairs, table cloths, napkins, drinks, fruit, veggies and sandwich makings, which we consumed in a canyon bottom surrounded by Raramura Indian dwellings and their live stock. One of the cave dwellings we visible from our table.
Raramuran Indian goods
Ramura snapshots (both of above)
Further on the road branches off and turns to rock and dirt single tack for 65km. This road was a total experience: very narrow, rough with loose stone, rocks, and small boulders…first and second gears the majority of the way – twisting turning through the forests with no real line of sight. Glad Dan drove down and back. We dropped downi nto one canyon complex after another: 3 in all – each one more spectacular than the next. Larger than our Grand Canyon, deeper, broader with grand vistas, steep switch backs with thousands of feet of exposure. When two vehicles meet, there is little or no room to pass. One backs up until a place is found and at that the mirrors of the passing truck whack each other! Very scary! The loose rock surface is like stopping on ball bearings: tap the brakes, slide towards the edge, wooooh shit – that was close. We back up and try the turn again….this road is hairy!!
Many more than the five hours they said it would take, we arrive in the sleepy mine town at the very bottom of the canyon (like Phantom Ranch in the Grand). We drive down the narrow single lane streets, worming our way to the Central Plaza and start looking for a room the the night. We inspect Mary’s and found it not to our liking at $20 and ended up down the street at Juanita Hotel ($35) large, clean rooms with 2 huge beds and hot showers and overlooking the river. Our hostess, Juanita, loved Alex and was very accommodating to us. She directed us to Carolinas where we had a delicious late evening dinner.
Judee found a bar with live music so we went for a beer before dinner - loud, lively local musicians playing local music with more passion than talent. We were served our beers and before Judee could take a sip an elderly Raramura man in sandals, jeans, cowboy shirt and hat, with few teeth, swept her up to dance. Judee, being the only woman in an outdoor patio of men admirers all well oiled on Tacate, was quite a femfatal. Fun for all.
Batopilas
A good nights sleep after our long bumpy ride down was welcomed! Rooster and dogs woke us the next morning. We breakfasted at the same place we had dinner – very good hot cakes and a slice of ham in between.
Last snap of Batopilas
Judee with sandal maker
Lost (last?) cathedral of Batopilas
The trip up and back out to Creel was just a rough and dusty as the trip down. The dust coats everything: clothes, hair, bags in the truck bed. The first thing you want to do is shower upon arrival. Akll the bags needed to be beaten and brushed off. Our front panniers are no longer black, bust dusty borwn! My two zippers worked open so I found piles of dust inside both pouches.
Having visited both canyons, Grand and Copper in the last four months provide us with an opportunity to compare. Both are vast – Copper was clear and crisp; Grand was smoky. Copper - green trees, shrubs and bushes, dotted with cacti, large granite walls and peaks. Grand – bands of colors with lots of layers of soil evident. Copper – dotted with Indian homesteads. We were in and out of the many canyons that make up the Sierra Madre Mountains. We only looked into the Grand from the rim overlooks.
Train to Creel
Copper Canyon
10- 23 Copper Canyon Express from Creel to Los Mochis
Rocks and rolls, clicks and lacks, groans and moans. One train car is freezing, the next hot. In total there are 5 cars and three engines. It would seem all ver old stock and generally in poor condition. Stops and Starts, sometimes to weld the track back together sometimes to let passéngers on or off. Seats are generally not comfortable, some do recline a little but sleeping is difficult due to the poor ergonomics of the seats. Views from the dirty window is good, but from between the cars is outstanding: Rock walls, bouldered river channels and stream beds all smoothed over by green vegetation with spots of fall leaves turning bright yellow and orange. Sun is setting so the light on the mountain tops is moving from soft white to rose, the hard granet streaked with gray, white, green and yellow. You breathe a mixture of diesel smoke, cigarette smoke and pines!
10- 26 Los Mochis is a lively town. The guide books said it was only good a a port to La Paz and to the Copper Canyon. We found it to be fun! We stayed in a hotel the night before we left for the Copper Canyon storing our bike in lthe hotel and then stayed the night after we returned from the CC at midnight. We moved our operations to a campground on the north of town – laundered, interneted, and rested. Our day heading south toward Mazatlan – many days of riding – ended at Playa Las Glorias, 40 km out of Gusave. We rode 104 tough, hot miles. A man stopped us on the road and asked if we needed help, we told him we were just very hot and tired. He asked where we were going: we said Mr Moro’s. When we arrived 6 VERY LONG SLOW km – the gentleman, Tavi (ie: Mr Moro) greeted us with beers! Yeah! Our hero.
Mr Moro was a stop over for about 20 RV’s that had come through the CC on flat cars. It is a 23 day tour through the Canyon to Mazatlan and back north through Los Alamos with a stop here. This is a wine and dine tour – shrimp fest! The RV’ers invited us to eat with them and gave us a couple of new paper back books. Thank goodness for new reading material!
We were awakened by 20 idling RV’s, filing out of a difficult parking situation. We took a walk on a deserted beach, watching fishermen bring in the morning catch. Later in the day we swam, body surfed, read and napped under the palapas as dozens of pelican flew in a pelaton over the waves.
We also spent part of the day trying to repair our wheel. Velocity deep rims were rubbing and freezing the rear wheel. Somehow has spread at one spot, causing the break pads on both sides to rub the rim and freeze the wheel. With some thought, two pieces of wood and a found pair of pliers, Art squeezed the rim back into shape and Judee trued the wheel.
This has been a good layover. The 104km took the wind out of sails. Mr Moro’s had a grassy, shaded spot for our tent, a room to shower in with big towels, shampoo and body lotion supplied. Are we in Mexico? When Tavi offered us a ride back into town and to a bike shop, we accepted.
Sr. Mora's bike shop, above and below
Pemex
10-27 Las Glorias to Gusave
The bike shop was a hole in the wall place with few tools: no stand, no wheel truing set up…but nice guys who know how to oil and turn a spoke wrench. They oiled, we gesticulated, we all smiled, we left. Only to be stopped by the press, photographers, to interview us for the paper!! The price of fame is that we didn’t get on the road until after 1pm.
Judee started to feel sick soon after we got going: very hot isn’t it? We were going to start looking for a likely place to stay around 4 pm but only made it 26 miles to a little after 3pm when Judee really started to feel sick. We have stopped at our first Pemex station and are camped out behind the showers in a nice grassy and shady place. Tent is up and Judee has showered and crashed.
I (Art) am liking Mexico more all the time. The people are what make it special. Everyone has been positive regarding our trip and helpful when you least expect it. Tonight will be a test for crashing at the Pemex. They were ok about our camping, showers are usable and I’ll eat at the restaurant in front. Judee will sleep.
10-27 Continued: A night at the Pemex.
Dinner was 3 tacos with Carne Asada (roast beef), Corona beer and peanuts. Good Tacos when they were served I wondered if I could eat all three…well, yes I can and they were delicious. I watched a young man chop up the meat and cook up the corn tortillas – 2 per taco and served with a relish, hot salsa, guacamole sauce!
After dinner I went back to the bike and got my book to read since it was only 7:30 and I wasn’t tired. The action all around the station was alive: trucks, cars, semi’s (lots of them) moving through getting gas, oil, checking the rigs; men running around the huge dirt and gravel parking lot with buckets of water offering to clean headlights, windshields, mirrors, or running lights, working women servicing the truck trade, some older and plump, some young wearing pink torredor pants, pink cut offs, t-shirts with bare mid-drifts and peroxided hair up in pony tails with lots of jewelry. The girls walk out to the middle of the divided 4-lanes so they can work both sides. There is a toll station here with a Pemex on either side. We chose the closer one and didn’t even know there was one only about a block further south. I shut my book about 10pm and joined Judee in the tent. The noise in the parking lot continued all night with trucks dieseling while their drivers slept. For me it just became white noise and I slept rather well.
10-28
Judee woke up early, her temperature had broken so she is feeling much better and wanted to continue on our journey to the next Pemex. We had a good breakfast of eggs and ham with tortillas and coffee – Nescafe, but it hits the spot. We got on the road by a little after 9 am and rode until about 11 when we stopped at a Pemex for lunch – the restaurant was serving Tacos made from steer head pieces: lips, tongue, eyes, etc – WOW a turn-on for me!! Instead I had a coke, cookies and peanuts. Judee had a Gatorade and ice cream.
11:45 and off the next Pemex for the nights stop. We arrived around 1:30 to no restaruant, no showers, no grass and little shade. Judee could go no further…so we cooked up Romin noodles for lunch and drinks. Judee slept in a small shaded area for 2 hours. The staff let us use the employee shower and we made dinner from boxed chili we had been carrying for the past two weeks. The chili was quite tasty and the view of the setting sun behind the mountains while we ate a desert of cookies was spectacular! What a view from the back wall of the Pemex: fields rolling softly to the mountains and the cinder cones and volcanic leftovers all around us.
10-29
Judee is weak but we’ll ride into town on a back road one of the locals told us about. The two lane farm road wove through small villages with many mom & pop eateries, each offering only one plata. We stopped an enjoyed barilla – an excellent beef soup. The owner shared new bathrooms, clean, all new tile complete with TP and a hand washing area!! This was in a village with 3 store fronts, with chickens and dogs running wild.
As opposed to the toll road there was lots and lots of trash along the road in between the towns - one constant dump it seemed. Traffic increased and town (burbs) got closer together as the got nearer to Culican (a city of 1 million).
From field to city just like that: two lane to four divided with trees down the middle and lots and lots of traffic. We worked our way following the signs to Centro looking for a hotel. Then we got into Centro - one way streets, some one lane streets absolutely bumper to bumper – all taking with their horns. This was Saturday at noon. Found the hotel we were looking for but they could not accommodate the bike. Judee is running a high temp and I am tense from the city traffic. We head back to a place we past. It was expensive, but had RV spots. We took a spot in the back on the grass and went around the corner to Applebee’s for dinner! The menu and the food was just like home.
To combat the illness, the hotel called a cab and instructed them to take us to a farmacia with a doctor. When we arrived, we paid $15 ($1.50 US) and were given a number and sent next door to the doctor. We were the only ones there and were taken into the exam room by a very young female doctor who spoke no English. She used all the tools at here disposal: looking down Judee’s throat, listening with a stethascope, weighing her, but did not have a thermometor. After the $1.50’ worth of consulting, we were prescribed three medications, one being a dosage of Cipro, which we went back to the farmacia and was given off the shelf for about $20. We were worried that Judee may have had Malaria – but were assured by the doctor that was an infection – where in the body one can not say, but we have enough meds to completely knock out anything moving in there!!
10-30
So, after fitful sleep we got up slowly . I (Art) was restless (loud music from some where between 9-11pm) and worried about Judee. Where is this illness-health group? Is this a bad situation? It is scary not being able to communicate. Got into a shower – hot water and a clean up is helpful.. We walk to breakfast, back to Applebee’s, and have hot cakes and a very large fruit cup and good coffee. Judee’s appetite is not up to her usual level. We stop by WalMart for water and toothpaste on the way home. We rode around the bock to explore the neighborhood both morning and lunch. Found an internet place and checked our email and sent messages. Had a nice couple of hours mid day at the pool and a great shrimp ceviche for our late lunch (off the street and good).
Back at camp Judee ran into a couple of Americans just pulling in. Got to talking and they invited us into their trailer for discussions and a drink. What a nice treat – they have lots of information to share about where we are going. Kathy and Tom have been coming to Mexico for the past 18 years. We copied their bible maps and may look Tom up when we get down to the Puerta Vallarta area.
10-31
Today we are still laying low in Culican. Today we are exploring the city because Judee is feeling better. Judee's recovering. Tomorrow we move on. Obviously from this last photo [above] one can see we have truly been suffering from this lay over in the exciting and lively city of Culican.
bus
bus rear
artist for Day of the Dead
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