Day Two---February 10th, 2004
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It's 4AM--and if Kenny's snoring isn't enough, I hear a loud thud--and wonder if someone is breaking into our room ?? Another minute goes by and another---Thud !!----then 3 more thuds--and I watch Kenny as he slowly sinks to the floor---he's still snoring--I throw a pillow at him to wake him up (this always works)---and his bed looks like one of them adjustable hospital beds with his butt nearly touching the floor---we laugh for 10 minutes. Kenny take this all in stride and is back to sleep in 5 more minutes, snoring away. In the morning we inspect the bed and found almost all the slats under the bedsprings had fallen out. We were only going to give the motel a *** rating but went ahead and gave it a full *****'s for entertainment value !! "Ahhhh--Mexico" |
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We ate breakfast at the Motels in house restaurante'-------Huevos and Pan Tostado---"Eggs and toast". We couldn't get out of the courtyard as a car and old van were blocking the entrance. After finally locating the driver, we got them moved---the old van backed out and just as soon as it cleared the entrance the transmission gave up the ghost and he couldn't even pull it back into the courtyard---luckily he got it backed out or we might still be there. We waved "Adios" and hit the road !! It was miles and miles of curvy mountainous blacktop till we hit the dirt road that would lead us down to Batopilas. (Bah--Toe-Pee-Less). Me and Kenny refuse to adventure without riding in the snow---we found snow about 5 of the 9 days we were in Mexico--well that's better than 50% !! |
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| We have been staring at this view on the internet for months---but this much better than those shots, as we are there !!! The dirt road we are on, switches back and forth down to the swithchbacks down below---and there is a bridge (barely visible in this picture--put your bi-focals on) across the river. Copper Canyon is touted as being 5 times bigger than the Grand Canyon in the U.S. |  |
| Same road a little further down---we haven't crossed the bridge yet. |  |
| OK----This is the bridge you seen above--it is still about 12 miles of one lane dirt switchbacks and ledges down to Batopilas. |  |
| I spotted these goats peering down at us--it doesn't look like it, but they were about 100 ft. above us. |  |
| More road hazzards---Moo Cows----"Move Cows---I said Move Cows"---they paid us no mind as we idled by. |  |
| We came across this really neat suspension bridge along the way over the Batopilas river. There were trails all over the other side and a little dwelling. The Tarahumara Indians lived all over this area and are famous for their running abilities. There were several of them walking along the road as we went down. These people are very shy and have their own language--although I hear some of them have picked up on Spanish quite a bit. |  |
| This view was taken off the suspension bridge and you can see our bikes up high on the left side. |  |
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This is the first site you see when you enter Botopilas. I can't remember the name of it, but it was beautiful--it was a little out of town and we wanted something closer so when could probe around with the locals----also we were cheap !!
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After you pass the first motel--you must turn right and go over a bridge as the town is mostly on the other side. There is an aquaduct on the other side of the river that used to flow water into the hydro electric plant providing electricity to the town for a few hours each day. The town is now on the electrical grid (this happened about 2 years ago I think) now and has full time power andthe hydro electric plant is now idle. |
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We stayed at the "Hotel Mary" right across the street from the big church. $20 for the night. That's $10 apiece---I think I might just stay here. Manuel pointed for me to go around the back and put our bikes in a fenced and locked area. It was a very narrow muddy road back to it and I had to poke at a very large pig with my front wheel to get him to move out of the way--he seemed very displeased about me disrupting his "siesta". "Ahhh---Mexico" |
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| We had a beautiful room which led into this neat inner courtyard with beautiful plants everywhere. There was also an inhouse restaurane in the inner courtyard. |  |
| This lovely seniorita sold me some bananas and a snicker bar---this was to be our breakfast in the morning as people kind of sleep in around here. |  |
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This picture is a little fuzzy---Kenny took this picture and said he couldn't tell which of the 3 were the Jack-Asses !! And he's my buddy !! I tried to feed them my banana---but I guess they don't like bananas---or gringos. |
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| Me and Kenny always have to search for some dirt or rocks to ride in when in most towns----but I like this town----no pavement anywhere. |  |
| This is the main drag------there is only one street in Batopilas so you can't get lost----sometimes it is very narrow and there were a lot of junk cars parked along it in some places---and they looked like they had been there for years. |  |
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The only gasolina station in town. You order by the litre. A nice lady hands you the siphon hose down---Kenny went to suck on the hose and almost got a mouth full, as she tipped the bucket over and it ran out all by itself---now, who-da-thunk. You can see a nice stone street hear--there really pretty and Kenny really liked them. |
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When we were going to leave the motel---Samuel was no where to be found and he had the key to let us out----I finally found a lady who was trying to help us---she brought one set of keys after another but couldn't find the right one. After about a half hour she finally found the key and unlocked the gate---we pushed our bikes out and the way out was blocked by 2 trucks--some guys were pouring a concrete sidewalk and were very busy--they were mixing the concrete by hand in a wheelbarrel. I went up to them and did a little pointing and mumbling and we finally got them to slide one of the trucks over alittle and we squeezed by. Me and Kenny thought this was all just hilarious and we quietly motored out of town. "Ahhhh----Mexico" |
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