Our door lock - I wonder if anybody got ever locked up by accident?
Roadblock - Mexican way
Hardware store selling also coffins/graveyard stones?
View in Balleza.
Secure parking in the inner yard
Hotel Barraza besides the bus station in Santa Maria del Oro. At first we parked in front of the hotel on the street. That was spooky because plenty of people came by to talk and the kids' body languages were somehow strangely aggressive (like "give me your money you bloody tourist"). Luckily the owner showed some understanding and I could move the bikes into his locked inner yard at his house which was only two blocks away.
Plaza at Santa Maria del Oro
Hotel Suites in Nuevo Ideal.
Those wires were hot with some isolation missing - extra crispy :D
View from the public hallway into our bathroom ;)
Street parking - nicely guarded from the reception
View over the city (west)
View over the city (north)
Paper as isolation for the water pipes?
Lyra made new friends
A nice small park for our walks
Brick production
Nuevo Ideal by night
Our track from Batopilas to Nuevo Ideal via Balleza and Santa Maria del Oro (about 680km). We wanted to ride more of the white streets but as it turned out the one from El Ojito towards south-east was indeed a gravel/mud road, so we turned back and rode via Parral to Santa Maria del Oro. The road from there towards Mex23 was in excellent condition and fun to ride.
Enjoy the next episode of our travel life (click the picture below to watch the video):
Riding in Copper Canyon.
Wolfi found vegan cookies and they are
really delicious (of course full of sugar and fats)!
Curvy and steep mountain road.
Simple transportation – at least one
gets plenty of fresh air which might be needed to survive those curvy
and bumpy mountain roads.
Water levels are going down.
Batopilas in the morning.
Lyra was freaked out when we walked across this swinging bridge.
Gorgeous and good-smelling flowers.
The village plaza opposite of our
hotel.
Beautiful inner yard (solo bikes can be
parked here as well).
Skippy had an eye for this light game
of the water fountain.
Amazing nature – it appears that
roots grow from the stone.
A typical land slide which was blocking
the way. Luckily it was possible to go around easily.
Stunning landscape along Batopilas
River (once more difficult to focus on the road).
The “nightmare” bridge
Height profile of the 55km one way
road from Batopilas.
Our track from Creel to Batopilas. The
road to Batopilas was all paved on the first 40km from Chihuahua25 to
the bottom of the canyon. The street was mostly in good condition
with one bad segments after the first 20km and basically rock fall
and slides all along the way. Then there came a 3km stretch of lousy
gravel including the two suspicious bridges. For the remaining 23km
the street was a mixture of fast gravel and asphalt with the
exception of those parts where land slides blocked the road. The
other steep descent/climb with its sharp switchbacks was also nicely
paved.
Our next reality show - click the play button to watch the video and enjoy
We found these nice packages - used baby diapers - when we had a short break. Well in case they are the cheap (and non-eco friendly) ones, those souvenir packages will be there for the next 500+years.
A patio that invites to relax.
... more poop ... this dog poop in front of our hotel room and look at the plastic those poor fellows ate.
As learning Spanish would not be hard enough for me ... here is some on-the spot dictionary for the local language ;)
Our track to Creel (122km). I only found that road by reading the street signs as we passed by them. This road from Highway 16 to San Juanito (and Creel) was marked as a gravel road in my Garmin maps and marked as a white road in the Michelin paper map. This road was in excellent condition with smooth asphalt, maybe one or two potholes in 100km and only in a very few curves some damages (as I regard that already normal on those lonely roads). Besides that this curvy road already offered some breath-taking views, no wonder since we rode through the Sierra Madre.