Category Archives: Mexico

Two rest days in the Mexican city of Durango

Part of the Wild West show at Viejo Oeste

Originally we had no intentions to visit the city of Durango, but now that we’ve spent two full days here we are incredibly glad that we did. This city is wonderful! It was built because of mining in the area, and is Mexico’s most isolated major city. The downtown core boasts lovely colonial buildings, coffee roasters, a cathedral, many museums, and other major buildings. Just last year many of the sights were revamped for the city’s 450^th anniversary. Our highlights include the hotel where we stayed, a trip to an Old West film set, and the many festivities for Day of the Dead.

We stayed in a rambling historic hotel directly on the main pedestrian street next to the cathedral. Our room was on the third floor with two small balconies, and it was only about $11 per person each night. Good luck getting a deal like that in the states! The plaza is a beautiful open space filled with locals and families. We loved wandering it both during the day and at night.

Our hotel room: 2 beds and 2 tiny balconies at the end of a maze of hallways.

The first day we were in Durango we took a tourist trip to the nearby “Viejo Oeste”, or Old West. This is a film set built just outside the city where Hollywood has shot classic Western films. Nowadays it is a tourist destination primarily for Mexican families. You pay an entrance fee that includes the round trip bus and is about $3 per person, and you can wander the set to your heart’s content. Every two hours there is a dramatic live action show on the main street with costumed performers and horses. It was full of surprises and we had a blast.

They literally drug this guy in by rope off the back of a horse! And of course most of the characters were “dead” by the end of the show.

After the show, we had some time to wait before our return bus so we dressed up as bandits and had a photo shoot. Jason and I even tried shots of the local liquor specialties!

Jason takes care of Tyler in the jail.

Don’t mess with Daisy’s loot!

Daisy and a dragon

We were also lucky enough to be in Durango for the Day of the Dead celebrations. We were further lucky that Nov. 1 and 2 were Saturday and Sunday this year, so it seemed the entire city was out to play. There were giant sculptures scattered throughout the downtown core, street vendors selling fresh corn slathered with butter and parmesan cheese, and street artists performing. There was a stage in the main plaza for music and dancing. We spent two evenings wandering about with countless Durango residents and taking in the sights.

Delicious, savory, street-baked corn during the festivities.

Jason in the plaza

There were several very large sculptures. The detail and colors were great!

I (Daisy) think that Durango would be a wonderful place to be a tourist for a week’s vacation. There are many outdoor adventures available in the nearby mountains, and we didn’t have the time to visit any of the many museums the city has to offer. We did get to sample some of its classic cuisine, and it was delicious. Perhaps in some future time we will return here and enjoy it all over again!

Us eating traditional food at a fancy-ish restaurant. We hadn’t eaten at a restaurant this nice in ages! … Also note the bicycle-themed paper decoration in the background.

An incredible ride into the Sierra Madre mountains

The second-highest bridge on highway 40D.

We spent four days climbing from the seaside city of Mazatlan to the high elevation town of El Salto and finally to the big city of Durango in Mexico’s wild west. They have been the four most difficult, but most rewarding, days of the entire trip. The road we traveled is a newly opened toll road that passes through 63 tunnels and 115 bridges, including the highest bridge in North America. It also traverses a wealth of ecosystems and features stunning scenery around every bend. I will briefly describe our trip on this road, which includes a night camping in the jungle, another sleeping in the dorm rooms of emergency medical personnel, and a final wonderful night we spent with a host family.

Mazatlan is right on the ocean, and officially in the tropics. The weather is hot and humid, and we noticed immediately that we needed more water and that riding was more difficult. We asked about the availability of water and services on the toll road to Durango and all responses were negative. For this reason, we ended up carrying large amounts of water (about three gallons) up the mountain and into the hills.

Flowers everywhere at lower elevations.

The toll road had low traffic levels and a wide shoulder, making it perfect for cycling. Further, it was free for us! The guys at the toll booths would always come out of their little booths to direct us around the car sensors and send us on our way. Our first day on the road was through low foothills that teemed with plant and animal life. Flowers were everywhere and of every color. That night we stealth camped in this jungle and were amazed (and a little horrified) at the variety of insect life. We spotted far too many kinds of spiders as we made camp and ate dinner.

The mountains beckon from the nice, wide highway.

Our wild camp near the highway

The next day we hoped to be on the road early to avoid some of the crippling heat. It worked, mostly, and it certainly helped that we climbed into higher and cooler elevations as the day progressed. The road on this day was stupendous, and we were constantly amazed and pinching ourselves. Was this real?

Sunrise from our wild campsite

The tunnels and bridges led us ever higher into the mountains. We crossed the tropic of Cancer going north, and emerged from a tunnel almost 2 miles in length into a massive and beautiful valley. Later in the day we crossed over the Baluarte bridge, which is the highest suspension bridge in North America. It was an incredible experience to pedal over this feat of engineering.

The second-highest bridge on highway 40D.

The boy’s dorm at the medical center.

That night we got permission to camp outside one of the tunnels’ power stations. There are guards there 24 hours a day, so it was a safe spot. As we finished setting up camp a pick-up truck arrived carrying two toll road employees who were worried about us. They convinced us to take a ride from them to spend the night at the medical personnel dorms about 20km up the road. It didn’t take much, to be honest. They were so nice, and we had a restful night.

The toll road employees helping us load our stuff.

Gordita with Mexican spiced coffee.

The next day we rode back down to where we had gotten a ride and then climbed back up. Our legs were definitely starting to feel the strain of all the climbing! We stopped for a delicious lunch of gorditas (stuffed corn tortillas) at a roadside shack with a great view.

Restaurant with a view.

One of many, many tunnels.

El Salto: a town based on logging and processing of pine trees.

That evening we headed into the industrial town of El Salto, where I don’t think any tourists ever go. We wanted to find a safe place to camp, and met a nice woman and her grandchild who helped us find one. Later on, she came back to check on us. Even though we had already paid for camping, she offered to host us for the night in her rancho nearby. We convinced the campground guy to return our money and we went with her to her house. On the way we rode through a small village where all the children ran out to meet us. We also had to ford a small river.

River fording en route to our host house.

Enoc and the chickens. There were over 100 chickens there!

Our wonderful hosts.

We spent the evening with our wonderful hosts Manuela, Maciel, and Abihu. They are mother, daughter, and son. We were also delighted to play with Maciel’s son Enoc who is 1.5 years old. They warmly welcomed us to their home and shared their dinner and their evening with us telling stories and chatting. We camped outside their house, and it actually got cold that night. In the morning there was frost on the tent. I suppose that’s what we get for sleeping at nearly 9,000′ of elevation!

Our tent, complete with foraging chicken, in the morning

Our tent, complete with foraging chickens, in the morning

It was such an honor to be welcomed by this family, and we are very grateful for the kindness they showed us. Hopefully we can pass it on in the future.

Our final day on the toll road to Durango was full of ups and downs, hills, headwinds, and unexpected canyons. In short, it was exhausting. Beautiful, but exhausting. At the end of the ride the scenery opened up into high, flat plains dotted with cactus. We descended into the large colonial city of Durango victorious, having successfully ridden an incredible stretch of road.

As we neared Durango the scenery changed to Old West.

We made it!

Currently, we are spending a couple of rest days in Durango catching up on chores and seeing all the tourist sights. It is a good city to be a tourist in, and we are loving it. We will have to write another post soon just to describe all the adventures we are having here!

We finished riding the Baja, and then went snorkeling.

We went snorkeling in almost-too-perfect waters.

It has been nearly a week since we last updated, and in that time we have criss-crossed the mountains on the Baja Peninsula, endured some agonizingly straight roads, and stayed in some very interesting places. These places included a very welcoming RV park, and cement pads outside of two different elementary schools. We reached La Paz near the bottom of the long Baja peninsula after nearly 1000 miles of desert riding. In La Paz we were welcomed by two amazing hosts: Jerry and Celine. These two not only put us up for three nights, and fed us delicious dinners and breakfast, they also hooked us up with an amazing snorkeling tour in the waters around La Paz.

I will just briefly include a few photos from our last few days before La Paz.

We camped near two elementary schools. In this picture, we are set up on a basketbal court.

We passed through some lovely mountains during an early-morning climb.

We navigated many stretches of roadwork, where all cars were diverted to a parallel dirt road.

Sunrise in a small Mexican town.

Jason en route to the Marine Park.

Now, on to the main story of the post: our amazing snorkeling trip. Six of us, the Philtrons, Tyler, Menno, Kate, and Spencer, joined a father-son guide pair (Leo and Israel) on their boat. We headed out to the Marine national park of Los Islotes to snorkel with stunning fish and friendly sea lions. It was doubly incredible because there were so many schools of brilliant fish of all types, and the sea lions were inquisitive, playful, and not at all hesitant to swim right up to us. On numerous occasions they swam within two feet of us and frolicked endlessly with each other.

The sea lions were not shy at all, and would swim right up to us.

Approaching Los Islotes Park

So much life here! Look at all the bird poop.

Underwater life.

Multiple sea lions frolicking under in a deep water area.

So so many fish!

This is the perfect beach, truly.

After that, Leo and Israel took us to a picture perfect beach for more snorkeling. While here we saw numerous puffer fish and even a zebra moray eel. It was another incredible spot.

Our crew on the picture-perfect beach.

We stopped two more places before the day was out: a coral reef for more snorkeling, and a spot just offshore where the whale sharks are known to stop and feed. Sure enough, we found some whale sharks! We were able to jump in the water with them and swim alongside, but the water was so murky that there were no good pictures to take. You’ll just have to trust us that the whale sharks are big animals!

The entire crew from the trip.

Our absolutely incredible hosts in La Paz: Jerry and Celine. Thank you!!

After the trip was over we were all exhausted. Our incredible hosts picked us up from the marina and took us back to their house for home-made chicken curry and apple crisp. La Paz really is heaven!

After a final good night of sleep, we packed up the next day and left to catch the ferry to Mazatlan, where we are right now. The ferry terminal was about 12 miles north of town, and there were no signs guiding us there. Luckily, there was really only one possible road and we had no problem locating the terminal. The boat was somewhat industrial, and we stashed the bicycles in a weird room full of switches and control mechanisms. It seemed secure though, so we didn’t worry about the bikes at all. The ride to Mazatlan took about 18 hours, during which we alternately napped in comfortable chairs and slept in our tent on the deck. Thanks for the Dramamine Mom, neither of us got seasick!

About to board the Baja ferry to Mazatlan.

Sunset from the ferry was a lovely spectacle.

Now we are relaxing for the afternoon in Mazatlan while we gather supplies for the road ahead. We found a reasonably priced hotel right on the boardwalk in old town with FOUR beds, wifi, AC, a pool, and tons of character. All for less than $15 each. We love Mexico!

We made it to paradise, but the stingrays got here first.

This is paradise.

It has been another great stretch of riding since we last updated. Although the days blur together, our highlights include meeting and camping with four more touring cyclists, reaching the Sea of Cortes and spending a rest day in the small town of Santa Rosalia, and camping on the beach in one of the most scenic locations we could imagine. Of course, the next night Jason got stung by a stingray in a similar beautiful beach, but he is ok and we will tell you the story.

Leaving Guerrero Negro (where we last updated) the road took us southeast for the following three days. They were easy riding days along flat, straight roads through green desert. On our first day out we met with Menno, Kate, Spencer, and Tanya. They are from the Netherlands, Canada, Canada, and Germany respectively. Menno started in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska! We have been camping with these folks every night since. We stayed in a very nice campground one night, in front of a half-built hotel another night, in an actual hotel for two nights, and on the beach for two more. The company is great, and it’s been really fun to have so many cyclists around to share stories with.

Our new friends, exploring in Santa Rosalia

Our first tarantula sighting.

We have a new term for the kind of rest we get here: Mexico sleep. It means that you mostly slept through the night, except for the random and unpredictable noises that woke you up all night long. For example, we almost always hear dogs barking or fighting, roosters crowing, car music, truck engine brakes, etc. We are getting used to it though, and it’s always fun to see what kind of animals visit the tent in the morning. Sometimes it’s a horse, and sometimes it’s a chihuahua.

A friend we made in the small town of Mulege. He rode with us all over the pueblo.

During our day off in Santa Rosalia we spent as much time as possible relaxing. There were chores to do too, however. We bought a Mexican pre-paid cell phone to send texts and make calls. It was cheap, and will be useful to us. We shared a hotel room with Tyler for two nights, and it was a relief to not set up or take down the tent!

New phone! These nice folks helped us with all the details.

Paradise has black labs to play fetch with.

After we left Santa Rosalia it was a shorter day of 50 miles to Bahia Concepcion, our intended stop for the night. The sight of the perfect beach was a little mindboggling. Tyler negotiated a decreased camping fee for the group, and we all went swimming. It was stunningly beautiful and the water was warm. We had a moment where we realized we had just pedaled there from Alaska… we had arrived in Paradise!

Our camping spot in paradise

Sunrise the next morning.

We liked Paradise so much that we decided to stay on the same bay for another night, but move about 15 miles down the road and find a different beach. Our new beach was called Playa Buenaventura, and it had a little restaurant, an abandoned hotel, and another gorgeous beach. We were all a little low on food and water, but the lady at the restaurant was nice and made us all huevos rancheros. Then the owner got home from the store, and she was nuts. She came into the hotel yelling about all sorts of stuff and we almost felt like we were trespassers instead of tourists. She immediately made us tally up everything we owed, told us we couldn’t eat dinner there, and got upset when I asked if we could at least buy some eggs to eat later. Oops. Her husband came in and calmed things down a bit by telling us there were clams on the beach that we could go find and eat by shuffling through the sand.

Poor Jason soaking his foot from the sting. Apparently hot water neutralizes the poison.

Tyler, Jason and I all went out and started clam-searching. We found nothing, but Jason got stung by a stingray! It hurt him a lot, and we had heard that such stings can hurt for a month. He was pretty shaken up, but luckily the owner’s husband and some other patrons at the restaurant knew that the poison could be neutralized by holding the sting spot in very hot water. The cook was able to heat us some water, and we got a nervous Jason sitting down with his foot in a big pot. He was so tough! He held his foot in that hot water for a very long time until it was bright pink and waterlogged, but no longer hurting from the poison.

At one point we had to move him outside and heat more water for him on our camp stove because the owner had apparently hit her compassion maximum for the day and decided we couldn’t get any more hot water from the restaurant. We were blown away by her rudeness, but were happy to tip the cook for all her help. The whole group of cyclists rallied to help entertain Jason while he soaked his foot, and we pooled our resources to make a delicious group dinner. By the time we went to sleep, his foot didn’t hurt at all.

The next day Jason was able to ride to the town of Loreto 55 miles distant, and we took a hotel to let him rest a bit more. We are so grateful that the proper treatment was administered, and that he is now ok. We have less than a week left on the Baja peninsula, and we are glad Jason can enjoy it free of pain! Next stop: La Paz. We hope to take a snorkeling excursion with a tour company and take a few more relaxing days in Paradise.

There are ton more photos that I want to share that didn’t fit into our narrative. I will put them here at the bottom!