Once again the road was fantastic and the experience could only be improved if it was a little warmer, some shaded areas were quite cold.
After emerging from the canyon it was time to put on some miles, we made a quick stop for gas at Guachochic, this led to a slight navigation error that took us into the town. Not all bad, got to see another city, except this one gave us a very uneasy feeling. Kind of made the hair stand up on our necks. Thanks to technology we followed the GPS directions and got out of there and on down the highway again. Hidalgo de Parral seemed like a nice enough city, we thought we could find a hotel on the south side and thus avoid crossing the city in the morning. Wrong again. By the time we got to the south side of town, the road was under construction and the detours were like driving through a field, a very dusty field filled with speeding cars. No speed restrictions in construction zones like at home.
Well, I guess we did find a hotel on the south side of town after all, about 100km south in Las Neivas. This was the most basic of accommodations, a bed, a TV, a bathroom.
The ladies at the restaurant/reception area were very friendly and helpful with dinner. When I asked for a menu the shortest of the three, shook her head and motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen. OK...she then showed me a bunch of prepared dishes of mixed meat, refried beans, rice, and tortillas. She motioned for me to pick which I wanted while she rattled on in Spanish at about 20 words a second. She apparently forgot that I only spoke a little Spanish, but none the less we worked out a couple of plates of food. She gave us a little of everything, and every little bit was delicious.
On to Durango in the morning, busy city, but once again the GPS saved the day. Not that we were off track this time but it was assuring to know that we were on the right track. So after making short work of the city it was more miles, more curves, more mountains, more small empoverished towns, this is beginning to be very familiar along this route.
En Salto was our next overnight visit, we arrived into town by mid afternoon which gave us some time to walk around and explore. As water is always a concern we stopped in at Mini Super and one of the ladies spoke very good English. She was very bubbly and gave us a good restaurant name within walking distance. The restaurant served rotisserie chicken, blackened chicken and salads. The price was $4 for half a chicken and two salads, which was enough to fill both of us, pretty good deal we thought. Our hotel was the Los Pinos, clean and comfy with eventual hot water for the shower, sometimes it takes a while for the hot water to kick in.
Can you see the dog in the picture. He seemed content to guard the rubble.
The main industry in town in logging, so there is a constant stream, of trucks both loaded and not, rolling through. Every once in a while there is the aroma of the sawmill and fresh cut lumber, the rest of the time the street vendors selling their tacos, tomales and roast corn fill the senses. It is hard not to give in to all these temptations, but it is even harder to know which places are safe to eat at. I suspect there are no health inspectors for the restaurants. Just guessing... In the morning we had to ask the guy at the front desk to move some cars so I could get the bikes out. The best security for our bikes is being blocked in by two cars and a truck inside a locked, fenced parking lot. From En Salto we rode to Mazatlan and spent two nights there.
The road was again very twisty in sections and it got increasingly warmer as we moved towards the coast. En Salto was 1C and the thermometer on the bike read -3.5C at one point in the canyons, so the 32C in Maz was nice but overwhelming. We found a nice little hotel, Hotel Mazatlan, a couple of blocks from one end of the Malecon (boardwalk), again about $30 per night. Good basic accommodations with internet and within walking distance to most things. There was actually a big gringo area just up the street. Office Max, Home Depot, and a Mexican version of Walmart. We spent the rest of that day walking the beach and just enjoying the ocean. The next day we went for a ride, two up, around town. There is a new resort area in the north of town and surprisingly there is an RV park at the very end. We later ran into a nice couple from Winnipeg, who RV full time and were staying at that park. They said it was just ok, but I suppose they would see alot of different types of parks due to them being full time RV’rs. It is apparent that the recession has taken it’s toll on Maz, there are alot of closed businesses along the Malecon, and a few building projects that appear abandoned, and yet there are other ones under active construction. These two fellas were working away at about 60-70 feet high, on a balcony with no railing, on a plank which we could see was flexing, on top of saw horses. No fall protection or harness visible and the only thing to slow their fall was a screen two floors below.
Pto Vallarta was our next stop. An absolute nut house getting into town. We knew we wanted to stay close to the beach so of course that meant going right into the Centro. But that was after we spent an hour in a traffic jam back out on the highway, way back 18km where the turn off to Neuvo Vallarta is. We even tried some of our new skills by going on the shoulder and between cars but our bikes are just to wide for that kind of action in tight traffic, so we sit, and sweat, did I mention it is 35C today. Oh well, better than shovelling snow. It has also been about 20 years since I was at PV, wow now I feel oldish, anyhoo, the Malecon is still the center of action and some of the same stores and bars are still there. We found a nice hotel with the help of a street agent, he said the rooms were $300 pesos but they turned out to be $600. I negotiated down to $590 including the 19% taxes, thankfully the lady at the desk spoke very good English so the process was much easier. The days seem to be a repeat of travel, find hotel, walk a bit, then sleep. I guess this is because be figured that we could fly to these resort towns anytime so not much sense in spending a bunch of time or extra days here. My nightly maintenance routine for the bikes discovered that I had a antifreeze leak from one of the return lines. A quick adjustment and this was fixed, but now I needed some antifreeze to top up the reservoir. I ended up walking to the Pemex twice because the first time I did not take enough money.
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