Aliens & Cadillacs

The border crossing with the US was relatively painless. I made sure that the bike was successfully exported from Mexico so that the Bajercito wouldn’t slug me a whopping penalty in four months time, and then got a exit stamp in my passport that was as faint as the entry one. As I pulled up to the customs officer on the US side he asked if I had filled in the I91?After hearing that I hadn’t asked me to go inside. I was taken to the front of the large que of Mexicans waiting and soon found out that with a six month visa I didn’t have to. I think they were more interested that I had a Pakistan visa for some reason. But after about thirty minutes I got a “welcome to the United States Sir” and I was free to go. I made it to Pecos the first night and went off to find a large steak, only to find that the puncture repair had finally failed and the rear tyre was going down. I returned to the hotel and tried to fix it, but with little faith that it would still be inflated in the morning. It wasn’t.

Wallmart provided me with another puncture kit the next morning and on the ride up to Roswell I had to repair it again another two times.

Roswell New Mexico is a place that became famous in 1947 when it was reported that a flying saucer had crashed there, and the remains taken off to Area 51. Today it a small farming town with a lot of shops selling “alien” memorabilia. A bit of fun in the middle of the very large open plains of Texas and New Mexico.


Roswell Alien Museum


They're everywhere


Autopsy time


I think they're hiding here!!

I headed up to Clovis the next morning to meet the ex Tech Sergeant of the couple I had met way back in Peru. He had kindly invited me to stay for a few days which was fortunate in that I had to order the tyre from the local Suzuki agent and it wasn’t going to be for four days.

During that time we had great fun going up to Tucumcari on the old Route 66. This town in it’s heyday was “motel row” with as many gas stations catering for the travellers going out west. Today it’s unfortunately falling into decline and many of the old motels are closing and being boarded up, but there is enough to get a good feel of what it must have been like back in the 50’s and 60’s.


Get your kicks on Route 66




Tucomcary The old signs are still here


This one is open and restored like the 60's

After lunch in “Unburritable” a small relatively new café that does the most enormous Burrito’s we headed off to the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.

Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm, and it consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillac’s; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid in Giza in Egypt.


The Cadillac Ranch




Damn, forgot the spray can!!


The Original Plans and costs! These were at John's house in Albuquerque.

Another great place to visit in Clovis is the Norman Petty recording studio. In 1974 Norman closed the door and walked away. Not only is this a museum where the likes of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and many other stars of the past recorded their music, but it’s a time capsule from the 50’s and 60’s with everything left the way it was. There was an apartment at the back of the studios where the artists could stay if they had spent all their money on fuel to get there and paid for the recording (which was charged by the song rather than the hour or day) could stay free of charge. It was wonderful to think of those artists sitting around talking about the music and producing some wonderful songs.


The Norman Petty Recording Studio's in Clovis


The original mixing desk


Just messing about


The Guest House


Everything in the Kitchen is still original including one of the first microwaves!!

Finally I got to do one of the things I love most. Steve and I took his AR15 assault rifle out to the range to play. These weapons are banned in Australia, but are freely available here. So we spent the afternoon making some noise!!





AR15 Everyone should have one.


Or a pump shotgun with folding stock

A huge thanks to Steve and his wife for their generous hospitality while I was there.

On the Friday 29th April I left Clovis with a new rear tyre heading for Albuquerque to find the BMW dealership to get the Wombat serviced. Little did I know what I was in for!

Copper Canyon

I spent a couple of days in Cuahtemoc before heading down to Creel. Apart from another full round of shops selling the cowboy boots and hats and even saddles here, the other unusual thing is the Mennonites that life around this area. They tend to stand out because of their Dutch heritage (blue eyes and blond hair) and although not as strict as the Amish in Pennsylvania they will not swear oaths of loyalty to anyone but God, and continue to speak their own dialect of Dutch rather than Spanish.


Some of the Mennonites. Not your normal Mexican look


Around Cuahtemoc


The main Square

Creel is a little town at the top of the national park which is known as the Barranca Del Cobre or Copper Canyon. It’s not one canyon but consists of six that make up the park. The main canyon is at times wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon. The fisrst day I rode down to Davisidero to the train station and entrance to the park from where you get some fantastic views from the top looking east into three of the canyons. There is also a cable car which will take you 900mtrs out onto a bluff in the middle again offering some beautiful views.


Creel


One of the Indian national parks around Creel


Valley of the Monks


Some more Monks??


Looking into the Canyons at Davisidero


The Cable car at the top

The second day I decided to take the luggage off the Wombat and ride down into the canyon to a little village called Batopilas. I’d stay the night there and ride back out the next day. I got down into the canyon OK even though the road runs out, and the last 60km or so is a very steep and rough gravel road, and found a nice little hotel in Batopilas.


The road ends and this dirt road leads down to Batopilas (as of 2013 it now tarmac)


The temp starts to rise but the views are marvellous


Across the bridge and into Batopilas


The Hotel in Batopilas


I rode through the living room to park the bike!!


The river crossing into Urique


Aldus didn't quiet make it!




A couple of views coming out of the canyon

Then another guy (Aldus) on a bike turned up (another Canadian) So we had a few beers together and in the morning he said he wanted to ride a different route back out. So we set off together. What a mistake!! We rode out of the canyon over a very steep rough dirt track (which wasn't marked on my map) and down into another. I nearly went into the rock face at one point and Aldus dropped his. When we got to the next village, Urique, we had to cross a river. I got very wet feet and boots full of water and Aldus dropped it just before he got to the other side. We stopped for lunch and to try to gather our thoughts. The other problem was fuel. We had managed to get some at a house where he had a 40 gallon drum and sold us 5 litres each. After lunch (well by this time it was 3.30) we set off again, but unfortunately in the wrong direction!! Bugger. By the time we backtracked it was 4.30. Aldus said he was staying there for the niight, but I had booked and paid for the hotel in Creel, so I set off again. The road just got worse! Bull dust and very loose sandy conditions made it very hard to make any sort of progress. The fuel light came on and the map indicated that the only fuel that was commercially available was in creel some 80km away, the sun was really getting low at this point and I was hopeping that I could not only find some tarmac but also some fuel. Luckily I made it off the dirt just as the sun went down, and the little village of San Rafael had a fuel pump that sold me fuel just as it went dark. I got to Creel at 21.00, so that was a twelve hour day.

The sense of achievement is great, but I wish I'd just ridden back the way I had come down.

After a sore nights sleep (my shoulders and neck were so tired from the off road riding) I got up the next morning, topped off the fuel in Creel and headed for Chihuahua.







Two nights there to find a laundry for some clothes and a power wash to get the bike clean. On the Thursday before Good Friday I headed the two hundred km towards Ojinaga and the border with the US.

Mexico Video Part 1

To make up for the short post this week there's the video for Mexico (part 1)

Slowly North

The last week has been a slow ride north. Each town two nights giving me enough time to stop and look around (I’m in no hurry) Durango which is a name from the depths of my memory of the cowboy films of my youth. I also crossed the tropic of Cancer so I’m out of the tropics now and the temperature in the early morning and across the high plains at the side of the Sierra Madre shows that.


Durango centro


Big Country


A good landmark

Hidalgo Del Parral was another silver mining town where I took a tour down the mine that shut down operations in 1974. It’s also the town where Pancho Villa was assassinated. Again here there are a lot of Mexican cowboys wandering around and every other shop selling the most ornate boots that you could want. Long straight roads are the order of the day here as I head north towards Copper Canyon.


Hidalgo Del Parral


They are actually wearing these


Not this cowboy though


A view from the top of the mine


The pit head


Down in level two


And the road goes on

Central Mexico - Leather and Lakes

After three days of doing nothing apart from walking along the beach and watching some of the braver surfers tackle the pounding waves I got ready early and then found the back tyre was completely flat!! So after a nice shower and getting ready to go in the early cool I then found myself using the foot pump to get some air into the tyre and getting hot and sweaty before I even started. I put enough air in to get me to the gas station where I slightly over pressurized it. Over the course of the next hour or two and several visual checks I found that it had lost half it’s pressure in 200km which was about a fuel stop, so I pressed on with the realization that I would have to get the puncture repair kit out that evening.


The plug seems to be holding

I had planned to stop in a place called Chilpancingo. It was the right amount of traveling for the day, but although it’s a reasonable size it didn’t even feature in the Lonely Planet guide. The first hotel I came to I asked how much and promptly misheard the price of Mex $1500 too rich for me. I was walking away when the owner appeared and in English reassured me that it was Mex $550, more like it. The Hotel was only 7 months old and was one of the nicest I have stayed in. Not only that but the owner was another bike nut with a BMW650 X Challenge all kitted out with a large fuel tank for touring. After he and one of his staff helped me fix the puncture he invited me for dinner with himself and his good wife. How a shitty start to a day can turn out well. Unfortunately he wasn’t there the next morning and I only have the card from the hotel so (here it comes) I can’t remember his name!!! If you are reading this please contact me to let me know. To anyone else that finds themselves in Chilpancingo I can highly recommend staying at the Parque Sur Hotel.

Thursday saw me on another long day full of twisty mountain roads and Topes towards Morelia. This town was given perhaps the biggest rap in the Lonely Planet that I have read. I guess it’s a matter of opinion, I preferred Puebla much more. It didn’t help when the salsa I was given in the restaurant and was told was not “picante” nearly burnt the tonsils out!! It was no cooler at three O’clock when it burnt as much coming out (sorry). What a difference a day makes with the Hotels. The one I picked in Morelia was dark, damp and generally unpleasant, but I’d paid for two nights upfront, so I moved a hundred meters down the road on the third night to a nicer, cheaper one. The bike also got its first wash since Palenque.


A Mexican hat anyone??


Another magnificent Cathedral in Morelia


Part of the old aqueduct

A change from the cities was Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala. It’s a very small village where you are just as likely to hear English being spoken as you are Spanish. The reason for this is all the American and Canadians that have retired down here. It’s a very pleasant and relatively cheap place to spend your retirement!!


The streets of Ajijic are all cobbled, murder to ride on!!


The graffiti artists are back


The town side of the lake


And across the lake. Very nice, very peaceful

The next stop was Leon. It’s not that I was desperate to see any of the next few cities, it’s just that they are on the route north. I had been told that the main plus in Leon was the leather that is produced here. Just behind the hotel I stayed in are the most amazing shops for leather wear that I have ever seen!! Shoes and bags, but also cowboy boots in everything from leather to croc and snake skin. There were also arcades full of stalls selling coats in every style and colour you can imagine. The end result is that I bought myself a nice soft casual leather jacket for the princely sum of $56. It was too good a bargain to walk away from. The down side is that I now have to carry it around until I can possibly send it home.


Leon's Cathedral (how big are they going to get??)


All the leather shops you could want, and so cheap

Thursday and a nice run to Zacatecas. Once famous for the silver that was mined in the local hills around the town. It was also famous for one of the major battles fought by Pancho Villa in 1914 during the Mexicana revolution. There is a very nice cable car ride from one side of the valley over to the mountain on the other side from where you get an amazing view of the whole city.


In Zacatecas you have to climb to reach the cable car station


Keep going!!


Then jump on board


The view is worth it.


Go Pancho Go