Start: Batopilas, Chihuahuaa, 9:00 am
End: Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, 6:00 pm
Mileage: 174
Waiting for the sleepy town of Batopilas to wake up so that I could get some breakfast. Looks like a few others were waiting for Dona Micas to open, as well.
Breakfast: some Heuvos con Chorizo (scrambled eggs with spicy Mexican sausage), Chile Relleno (big green chilly filled with cheese and deep fried), Frijoles (refried beans) and some Quesadillas (cheese in tortillas). Excellent way to start the day!
Nice map of the whole Copper Canyon region under the table mat. Sorry for the poor quality.
Heading out of Batopilas back up the canyon to Hwy 127 and onwards to Hidalgo del Parral. Note the succession of canyons and their fainter shade of green.
The easy part of the road.
Very steep rock faces
Nice place for a picture, but hoping there was no on-coming traffic, which is quite rare.
Are those some canyons or what.
Looks like a few too many cervezas were consumed when cutting this path, looks a bit slanted. Note the face in the rock, the nose is sticking out.
And there were mountain goats hobbling about, who got scared as I roared by. Sorry.
auDRey heading out of Batopilas.
That's some rough terrain.
I thought going uphill would be easier (as it is on pavement for me), but one slip on a loose rock and you could lose momentum, possibly leading to a tip over and like here, there's no guard rails anywhere. That's why we come to ride this road…
The uphill hair pins were quite challenging and I stalled the bike a few times trying to get over some big rocks.
All done with the tough riding and was impressed with myself that I didn't fall even once. Yeah.
The rear tire was holding up just fine and no new knobbies had fallen off, meaning I was good to go down to Guadalajara and try and get a new tire.
Towards the end of the trail, there was lots of construction going on and looks like they plan to make this a smoother road as there's only one road into and out of Batopilas for all supplies and people.
I was so thrilled to see the toys that I played with as a kid in the mud being used in real life. I've never seen Caterpillar trucks this big being used in their intended environment. Look at the person on the right to get a size comparison. Wow. It was fun having the dump truck pass real close by... not.
The detour around the last part of the road. Note how they just turned the sign to the village upside down to have it point in the right direction. Excellent.
The detour sign that I missed on my way to Batopilas. I wonder why the town names are written backwards... So you can see it properly in your mirror…?
Ahhh, putting much needed petrol and air back in my tires. I reduced the air pressure for the dirt road to get better grip. From now on, it would only be pavement riding. I carried my own little air compressor running off the bike's battery to also help when fixing tire punctures.
The beautifully twisting Hwy 127 heading toward Hidalgo del Parral. The road conditions were excellent and the corners were marked very well. There's no suggested speed signs, but it's easy to get into the rhythm of the road and know how much to slow down.
Nice sweepers and the temps were a bit cooler as I was back up to near 7000 ft.
Lunch near Guachochi. Very nice and clean highway restaurant.
Spicy beef in a gravy with rice and corn and beans. Good food.
More excellent riding on Hwy 127.
More excellent riding on Hwy 127.
The scenery changed as the road approached the bigger Hwy 24. We left the pine forests for more simple flora.
What a view.
Looks like somewhere in Scotland…
Looks like somewhere in Scotland…
Excellent riding on Hwy 127.
Excellent riding on Hwy 127.
The road goes off to the left and sweeps back around. The views are quite distracting.
Since they really couldn't put any speed bumps on the highways to slow down traffic before dangerous turns, they've resorted to using painted white lines to get the driver's attention before dangerous turns.
Made it to Hotel Acosta in Hidalgo del Parral, which is right next to the main square, Plaza Principal.
It started raining just as I got there and the owner told me to bring my bike in to the lobby. How nice of them. I was also the only guest at the hotel.
My decent room for $22.
Clean bathrooms, although there was no hot water initially, which they fixed by the time I came back from dinner.
The view of the streets from my room.
Talk about a room with a view. The sunset was quite dramatic as it has just rained and the clouds were retreating. The city just seemed to crawl up onto the mountain side.
Sunset pictures are always nice.
The Plaza Principal.
A chapel near the plaza.
A Suzuki GS500, just like my first bike. Nice to see a real sized bike as most everything else on two wheels is primarily for transportation sporting around 100 cc engines.
A little courtyard that was open to the public that had some nice gardens. I think it was part of a museum.
Cowboy Boots. And what a crazy variety of them. There were quite a few boot stores and I'm sure a custom shoe could be made.
The prices were not even that bad for custom made cowboy boots (divide by 10 for US prices).
Had dinner at a 24 hr café, which was the only place that I had tortilla chips with dinner throughout my whole trip. There were nice thick chips with fresh butter and green salsa.
Chicken Flautas (small fried stuffed tortillas) layered with ham on top (?). Didn't know if I was supposed to eat the ham with the flautas or separately… It all went down anyways.
The view from the terrace of the hotel looking down at the plaza.
Next: Day 6, Riding the Espinoza Diablo to Mazatlan
Picture Index
No comments:
Post a Comment