31. MEXICO, Creel and the Copper Canyon

We arrived to Creel in the intention of staying for a few days, fill up with town-y things, grocery, water, catch up with things on the internet and do some hiking and biking.

We found the highly recommended 3 Amigos tour shop, where we can hire mountain bikes, get advice on tours and road conditions around the canyon. We found Ivan the bright, friendly and very helpful owner of the shop there. His deep love for and knowledge of the Copper Canyon radiated through his views and recommendations. He is also an excellent (professional) photographer and we could enjoy his work in the office. After hours of enjoyable talk we rented a couple bikes for the following day.

3 Amigos Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

3 Amigos
Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

 

Then I got ill. Some bug that knocked me completely out for 3 days. Well, luckily we were at a place where it was cool (rainy season just started so there were showers every day), we had water and food (though I couldn’t eat for 3 days) Apart from the ever-barking stray dogs (and the sight of them! Man, some were in a real poor state), it could’ve been a worse place to stuck. John had a few hikes on his own, did some tweaks on BURT and did some shopping while I was just sleeping all day and all night.

Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

This one is one of the cuter ones with all his 4 legs.
Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

A few days later (still slightly weak but) I was getting better so we went for our bike ride. It was beautiful. The area has wonderful hills with amazing rock formations and a few indigenous villages. It was very nice biking though this area.

Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua  June 2013

Creel, Chihuahua
June 2013

We have been in Creel for 10 days so when I felt strong enough and we had the chance to catch up on our emails, shopping and fill up with water, we were ready to move on. Taking Ivan’s advice and Mario’s satnav coordinates we finally left.

After a few hours smooth drive we arrived at the Parque de Aventuras Barrancas del Cobre (the Copper Canyon Adventure Park) Where we stayed 2 days, amazingly parked up (for free!) by the very edge of the canyon. And did some really amazing hikes down to the bottom of the canyon and back and tried the zip-line adventure.

Camp spot Barrancas del Cobre, Chih. June 2013

Camp spot
Barrancas del Cobre, Chih.
June 2013

Camp spot Barrancas del Cobre, Chih. June 2013

Camp spot
Barrancas del Cobre, Chih.
June 2013

John wasn’t entirely impressed with (mainly) the zip-line crew. To be frank, they were slightly cocky and unfriendly almost grumpy. Considering the lack of tourists (and the price of the tour) a bit friendlier attitude wouldn’t hurt. But what can we do…? Tried to focus on the activity, and that was actually fun.

Barrancas del Cobre, Chih. June 2013

Barrancas del Cobre, Chih.
June 2013

Next day we moved on towards Cerocahui where we knew where we could stay (still from Mario’s coordinates) This was a out of town ranch-hotel, Hotel Paraiso del Oso with large area of land and a river. We had the choice to park up behind the hotel or by the river. We chose the obvious and stayed there about 3-4 days.

Campsite at Hotel Paraiso del Oso Cerocahui July 2013

Campsite at Hotel Paraiso del Oso
Cerocahui
July 2013

After a few lovely days with hikes we set off for Urique. We knew it will be a slightly demanding drive so woke up relatively early and made a move. The paved road long left us a few days ago before we got to Cerocahui but this was much narrower, steeper, plus we had to cross rivers and had a couple trucks packed with the machine gun guys passing us by. (by this time we heard that sometimes they are actually un-uniformed police force) Anyway, we got the same reaction which was absolutely nothing. They whizzed by without looking at or care for us.

Way to Urique Cerocahui, Chih. July 2013

Way to Urique
Cerocahui, Chih.
July 2013

 

There's Urique! Urique, Chih. July 2013

There’s Urique!
Urique, Chih.
July 2013

 

Road condition Urique, Chih. July 2013

Road condition
Urique, Chih.
July 2013

The GPS predicted 40 minutes for the 36km drive…. Ahem, it took 5 hours but we finally got to Urique, only to find that it had subtropical climate (sticky heat again!) with tropical trees. Lovely looking but not good for us. We got ourselves into a pickle driving in to town through the relatively narrow streets with branches far too low for us. So we found that the campsite, we thought we’d stay at, had a tree in front with a low branch that stopped us getting in. I felt a bit uneasy because it was getting late in the day and this was our only shot. We are 5 hours away from Cerocahui, where we came from, and at least 5-6 hours away from the next town (where we’re going tomorrow) The only thing we knew that we have to leave this town as it’s too low for us. We were just hoping that we’ll find a safe place for wild-camping. For our surprise there was small village just 5-6km from Urique on our way. Spotted a village shop with a relatively large area at the back so I jumped out and asked if we could park up for the night. The friendly owner said yes so we stayed there. We ended up sitting outside of his shop with a few beers and some of his family members (wife, kids, brother-in-law and his wife, kids, father and mother!) We had an entertaining few hours chat in Spanish! Which was fun because John and I have all together 15 words of knowledge of Spanish, but somehow, the few words and a desire to understand made it.

Camp spot Village next to Urique, July 2013

Camp spot
Village next to Urique,
July 2013

We had an early start. We learnt the previous night that the drive ahead of us is more difficult than the one we came down to here. Starting with a river crossing due to an unfinished bridge.

On the way to La Bufa Village next to Urique, July 2013

On the way to La Bufa
Village next to Urique,
July 2013

Then roads like these…

On the way to La Bufa from Village next to Urique, July 2013

On the way to La Bufa
from Village next to Urique,
July 2013

On the way to La Bufa from Village next to Urique, July 2013

On the way to La Bufa
from Village next to Urique,
July 2013

On the way to La Bufa from Village next to Urique, July 2013

On the way to La Bufa
from Village next to Urique,
July 2013

Again, our GPS predicted just over an hour for this 63km drive. Now, one might enjoy the off-road experiences of these unforgiving roads but It took us 9 hours with constant concentration, with only a half an hour lunch stop so I was very happy when I saw this:

On the way to La Bufa from Village next to Urique, July 2013

On the way to La Bufa
from Village next to Urique,
July 2013

Hurrah! It only lasted for 10km then back to the unpaved road for another 15km before we arrived to La Bufa…

Next La Bufa, Sherry and Carol.

30. MEXICO, Santa Ana to Creel

We meant to stay at Ana & Edgar’s RV park for a night or two but eventually stayed for 6 days. Feeling like home mainly because of our loving hosts and our new friends Stephanie and Mario.

Mario and John became inseparable. As if they were joined by the hip they were walking across the RV park together checking our vehicle then theirs together,  they went shopping together, they enjoyed cool beers in the afternoon together. In the meantime Stephanie and I spent time playing cards and joking all day! (instead of doing domestic duties -those were pushed to do the following day. Then more cards…) Each days the boys, including the wonderful Edgar, went shopping for dinner. Always came home with some kind of meat. I made the side dish, Ana and Steph laid the table outside, lit some candles and the 6 of us enjoyed dinner together with wine, telling stories, joking, and enjoying the cooler temperature. These days were really fun and effortless and we gained knowledge about Central – South American travelling from our Swiss friends. They gave us very useful tips about camping along with satnav coordinates, about the roads and about the general Mexican “way”.

We all said goodbyes to Ana and Edgar. Mario and Stephanie headed north to the US border, and John and I moved on towards south. As the temperature was still rising (from 35C!) we couldn’t stand it anymore and made the final decision to head up to the mountains. As we got coordinates for camping and suggestions from Mario, John felt confident. As per me… I felt nervous.

We had a couple days full-day drive with one overnight stop by a lake, then another camp stop by a hot spring. Met a few very friendly locals and despite the lack of English or my lack of Spanish we had a good time “chatting”, they even invited us for the following morning for breakfast.

After yet another hot and humid night, in the morning we visited the local family for late breakfast (it was Sunday -Father’s Day and asked us to come over at 11AM) This was a little late for us as we knew we’ll have a long day drive ahead of us. We enjoyed an hour with the family then thanked their hospitality and moved on.

I felt uneasy. My head was echoing of the warnings and terrifying stories about Mexico and we were here. In fact we were heading exactly to the area where the epicentre of the drug stuff was. Having had Mario and Stephanie coming from the mountains and were saying, just a couple of days ago, that it is absolutely OK and they had a great time with no problem, was wearing out. I didn’t know what to believe and I didn’t know whether my fear was real or was created by others’. I started crying in the car. John stopped the car at a fork in the road, we had a break and got out to talk about it.

John had a strong belief that reality isn’t scary, isn’t terrifying, in fact it is safe for us, and our experience will indeed be rewarding. He was calm and confident but he gave me the choice. I had to reach deep within, touch-in with my essence to see what I really “hear”. After a few silent moments, I looked into John’s eyes and said “OK, let’s do it, let’s turn left”

Something smoothened in me. There was a 4-5 hours climbing ahead of us on a brand new, smooth road. I was sitting quietly (unusual) and started enjoying the view of the growing, spectacular mountains. In addition, pine trees (I love them) appeared. Their presence were suggesting cooler temperature. For our great joy we noticed that the temperature was gradually dropping from the blood-boiling 39C (102F) eventually to 29C (84F). What a relief!

It was after 7PM when we arrived to our suggested camp spot in Basaseachic National Park. A small park with pine trees, lush green grass, a great canyon and a lovely waterfall. It started raining (first rain for months), it smelled wonderful and the air felt fresh and cool. It was nice to feel a bit chilly. We parked up by the canyon with the view of the waterfall.

We stayed here for two nights. On our full day, we went for a long and steep hike, visiting the waterfall. It felt good. I felt good. We were discussing my feelings and talking about how my fear started to dissolve. Once we were back at our camp, John had a nap and I decided to progress our photos and do some writing -for our ever-behind blog. As I was working on the laptop, listening to the birds outside, a couple of pickup trucks arrived. A handful of guys with machine guns were dropped off. My heart stopped. The trucks left, the guys were outside about 50m from us, having some cigarettes, drinking coke and casually talking. I woke John whispering “hey Johnny, Johnny. There are men outside with machine guns. I’m not joking.”  Holding our breaths, we were peering out the window. They were busy talking and seemingly not at all interested in us. Then Johnny and I were quietly staring at each other for a few minutes. I think we both thought the same… This was the moment of truth…. A few minutes later we peered out again. They were gone. They didn’t care for us, they didn’t even look at us, they had their own business to mind and they left. It started raining lightly. Still enjoying the novelty of rain and the cool temperature we went for a short walk. We were discussing what happened earlier. I took it as an evidence for what we kept hearing; These guys not just do not care for tourists, especially If we mind our business, they mind theirs, it is in their interests to keep a low profile and keep the area trouble-free.

The walk was peaceful and quiet and we decided to stay for another night and leave tomorrow for the 3 hours drive to Creel.

Next, Creel and the Copper Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

29. MEXICO, Santa Clara to Santa Ana

Just picking up where I left it last time in Santa Clara; after the whopper day of drive, we stayed only one night in Santa Clara and we took our time the following day to leave as we know it won’t take long to get to our next destination: Puerto Penasco.

Gotta be honest. Not at all a beautiful place. Many Mexico guidebooks don’t mention Puerto Penasco.
The road to Puerto Penasco, also known as Rocky Point, was built by the US government in WWII when they thought it will be necessary to bring supplies in this way in case the West Coast was blockaded by Japanese submarines. That actually never happened but the road remained in good shape making easier for folks from the US to reach Puerto Penasco in one go from the border.

As we were approaching to the town across the arid desert (crazy heat again!) suddenly huge, tall fancy buildings appeared in the distance which turned out to be Rocky Point and its condo-apartment buildings.
The place had a certain strange, out-of-Mexico feeling. We weren’t entirely sure we wanted to stay but didn’t really have a choice as it was getting late and the next place we could’ve stayed was another 4 hours away. Anyhow, we found our RV place located on the beach, where turned out to be we’re going to be the only “guests” that evening which was a bit spooky considering it was a rather large area completely empty.

Without going into too much details; the place was noisy, too buzzy for my liking. All night loud party music (different ones from different directions) fireworks and motor vehicles going up and down on the beach. The whole place just had an uneasy vibe. The next morning, turned out we had neighbours -a family in a tent. They spotted us as we were leaving in the morning and stopped for a short chat. They were lovely. They also told us that they had their belongings stolen from the tent while sleeping. We felt so bad for them not just for the robbery but for that they only arrived last night from the US, and meant to stay for a few days enjoying the beach with their little boy, but now they are heading back home and looking in to a long 7 hours drive.

This, the bad sleep, the negative vibe plus, I guess the incredible heat made us lethargic so we were keen to get out of here. After filling up with water and some necessary grocery shopping we finally headed south on highway 37. We thought staying in a small town would be nice and found a place El Desemboque on the map that we thought it might be nice. It was about 3 hours drive and we were right on time for our schedule when we arrived, but after spending a short walk on the busy beach I didn’t feel right staying there so we had to move on.
Now we were in time-trouble. It was already 5PM and we were clueless where to stay, mainly because there were not many roads, meaning only ONE that was heading in to the mainland towards Caborca. Neither of us were in good mood but knew we had to find a safe place to stay before it gets dark.

One of our guidebooks mentioned some nice things about a little place called Santa Ana (and a few RV places in and around it) about 100 km from Caborca. That made the potential drive a long-ish stretch but Johnny said he’ll get us there before dark.

It was just on the edge of the evening when we got there so headed to the first RV place that sounded rather appealing to us (an organic eco-farm welcoming Rv-ers with facilities) Lovely! It was out of town, not much, about 15 mins drive though we were running out of time. It was jolly poor form. They were closed for the season! Boo. Then not having much choice we checked a couple of hotels in the town that was now closer to this point but they wanted ridiculous amount of money for nothing. Then in our desperation we asked a Pemex (Mexican petrol station) for parking up for the night -they said yes, they didn’t even want money but when we parked up in a dark corner, we looked at each other and we said nearly in sync “let’s check that last place out in Santa Ana” (one place our guide book mentioned)

At this point it was after 9PM and both of us were fed up, tired, hungry, grumpy when we finally pulled up at a closed gate (boo!) where a sign was saying “Yes, We are OPEN!” (yay!) First we weren’t sure how to decipher this puzzle but as we were standing there a bit confused two chaps from inside the campground (guessed they were guests) walked up to us to help and let us know to knock on the door of the little house next door where the owners live.

What we didn’t know at this point was that when we (or anyone needing a campground for a night or two, as a matter the fact) knock on that door will meet the sweetest, most friendliest couple, Edgar and Ana.

They were already in bed but both of them got out and immediately opened the gate and welcomed us warmly then introduced us to our two neighbours (two couples) who were still up and enjoying a glass of wine and chatting. We hardly went through our usual parking-up routine, they invited us over.
For our biggest surprise one couple, a Swiss pair (Stephanie and Mario) were also overland travelling in their home-built Land Rover 110 in Central – Northern America (this time, They’ve already done Argentina- Alaska 5 years ago) So it was an extra excitement for us to meet them. The other very nice (Canadian-Mexican) couple John and Gaby from Oaxaca (Southern Mexico) were driving up to Canada where they spend their usual, annual few months for the summer. After a short introduction and chat with a bottle of cool beer (it is now 10PM and still 29C!) We all decided to continue the story-sharing tomorrow when it is actually Stephanie’s birthday.

We both, Johnny and I felt an incredible relief, joy and gratitude to find this place, and meet some truly sweet and enjoyable people -who welcomed us straight away as old friends, especially after a rather unexciting and demanding drive.

This could be something…

28. MEXICO, Baja California to Santa Clara

So we travelled half way down on the peninsula. We weren’t as impressed with Baja as we thought we would (sorry Baja lovers) For fairness, we appreciated the fact that it was out of season time so things seemed more deserted (plus more left rubbish around) and less lively. Although, recommended by a friend, we visited and stayed at one of the beach camps at Bahia Concepcion.

In the large bay there are there are over ten beach campsites. The only one that was away from the road was called Playa Escondida. (Not as if the road is busy but the trucks are travelling night and day and they are noisy) John had a good sense to pick out this little beach even that we kept missing it , driving up and down on the road several times counting the beaches… Then finally we noticed a rough little road and a weather-beaten small sign for Playa Escondida. About 3-4 kms the bumpy road lead us to the stunning little beach unexpected behind a hill, hence the name which means “hidden beach”.

Playa Escondida Bahia Concepcion May 2013

Playa Escondida
Bahia Concepcion
May 2013

We arrived at dusk knowing that the whole beach is ours! Turquoise, crystal clear water heaving with water creatures, a few small islands in the distance and a couple of pelicans. I loved it here straight away.
After parking up, we made ourselves comfortable on the roof, it was dark by then (around 10PM) we were enjoying a couple of cool beers, counting the shooting stars and chatting away we heard footsteps behind us! I was hoping it was just my ears but unfortunately John confirmed that he heard it too. Oh crap! It is almost impossible to get to this beach without a 4×4 vehicle -which we didn’t hear arriving, and as far as we were concerned no one else was on this beach. We turned around and shone our torch, and again, and again… “Do you mind!!” a strong voice broke the silence from the distance. “Shoot! Johnny, there’s an English guy up there!” I whispered frightenedly to John. We looked at each other blinking… But somehow it was peace of mind knowing that there’s (a rather polite) man up there and not an axe murderer or something. We called it a day, went to bed and had a peaceful night sleep.

The next day, in the daylight we were looking around and only noticed a car covered with a blanket from the bleaching sun, hidden under a palm leaf palapa that we didn’t notice yesterday. No sign of anyone though. We spent a nice relaxing day, and again that evening we were enjoying the wildlife waking up in the cooling water, watching stars and finishing off our last few bottles of light beers.

The following morning we just got up, sitting at the table with the wide open hatch enjoying our coffee, watching the calm water when the guy(!) walks up with a beaming smile on his face and holding a huge jug of coffee. “Sorry for the other night. Coffee?” says it in perfect american accent. Sergio the 38 year old ex marine, from San Diego (raised by an Englishman) who lives in his car, Betsy for 10 years and lived on this beach for 6 months. We invited him up to have the coffee here in the shade and breeze with us, and from that moment we were inseparable for 4 days.
He told us how he got here, made some buddies (permanent hippy residents of the area) but likes being on his own here. He hunts and fishes for his dinner, swims across to the island to swim with dolphins, he’s got a couple of seagulls who he talks to (or swears at when they steal his fishing baits) and every now and then fires up Betsy and drives into the nearby little town. He was a thoroughly fascinating guy in-tune and respect for nature and who appeared to be the perfect wildlife survival and not doing so brilliantly in the US society.

It was absolutely great to meet Sergio and would’ve loved to stay for a few more days but the extreme heat drove us away and we were still trying to make our mind up about taking the ferry to the mainland or drive back up north and around….

Finally the decision was to drive back up. The ferry seemed far too expensive and it turned out, yes, there’s a “special” fare for tourists. So we decided to spend that money on diesel and drive around, at least that way we meet more people and have more adventure.

We headed back up north on the exact same route we came down on (at least for the first day) It was long stretch of drive but we made it for our first stop in the mind-blowingly stunning Catavina desert. Amazing desert plants and huge ones!! We parked up at the end of an unused airfield runway and had a peaceful, lovely night.

Catavina Desert May 2013

Catavina Desert
May 2013

Catavina Desert

Catavina Desert

Catavina Desert Campsite

Catavina Desert Campsite

The following morning after a short walk in the desert (too hot!!) we headed to the Pacific side as we knew that the temperature is a lot cooler over there.

On our way we met a couple of surfers, Jake and Adam, a pair of brothers who were chasing the waves along the Pacific coast. We decided to stick with them for a couple of days at a couple of different spots and enjoyed watching them on the waves. Shared dinner with them and they shared their rather delicious wine with us. (Adam lives on a Napa Valley vineyard so had a few bottles of the home-made) We also met a bunch of guys from Tasmania -who couldn’t take their eyes off the waves when talking to us (apparently that’s normal) It was a fun couple of days with proper cool wind (we were craving for) and good company. I never heard John saying “dude” so much before.

130608_11

The morning we were leaving Baja, got up early (though we’re never very brilliant actually leaving early) We made our way out of this coast (deep sand!) then up north on a rough-rough route that took alone 3.5 hours (only 36 km) the temperature’s gradually rising up to 49C!! All together the whole route was 450 km. It was a challenging, very hot and a very loooong day drive that John handled fantastically and without a peep. We eventually arrived at a small RV place, in Santa Clara, with a sweet-as-pie Mexican lady who made us dinner, provided a couple of bottles of ice cold beer and cool-water shower.

To be continued from here…