Getting on the road, the first few days of travel thru Creel, Mexico, Copper Canyon, Durango, Aquas Calientes, Leon, then onto Acapulco. The polar vortex has followed me down into Mexico. It has been cold by my riding standards, but a great opportunity to try out some of the warm weather gear I brought. I rode into Creel with the intention of taking the train trip thru Barrancas de cobre (Copper Canyon). Chatting with the locals and scoping things out for myself made me decide not to take that ride. The canyon is beautiful both from the top and from within. Overall it is three times bigger than the Grand Canyon and there are three rivers that have cut gorges deeper. The rocky terrain and pine forests are beautiful and the Tarahumara Indians who reside in this area are very interesting to see. The rocks remind me of the eastern Sierras of northern California. I rode out to Divisadero for one of the best views of the canyon from the top, checked out Lake Arareko and the Valle Bisabirachi (in Tarahumara, this means the valley of erect penises)! Reality struck on my second day in Creel when 9 new trucks carrying about 30 men rolled into town, circled the plaza and stopped in the middle of the Main street. Most of the local people disappeared, construction on one of the shops abruptly stopped and the streets that had been busy with people were suddenly deserted except for the caravan of trucks. I looked them over as they passed me by, only one gun (a military AK) was visible. I eased into the church! After about 15 minutes, I heard them leave…About 30 minutes later 4 military trucks with about 20 armed soldiers showed up, made the same circle around the plaza and left. My travel plans changed abruptly from riding the train to heading on down the road. I left Creel the next morning in 39 degree weather. The road to Batopilas through one of the river canyons was the twistiest road I have ever ridden, it was twistier than the Tail of the Dragon in eastern Tennessee or the Devil's Highway 666/191 in eastern Arizona. 90 plus miles of twisties and about 4000 feet of elevation changes…I was alone that morning, except for one full logging truck pulling out of the canyon. Nobody had cleared the previous night's fallen rock and one was the size of a VW! It was so cold, the pictures I took were mostly a bust since the lens fogged up. I rode all the way to Durango, over 400 miles.

The ride has been pretty uneventful thus far, there was a pretty major semi truck wreck with two double trailers trucks and one single trailer truck. Traffic was backed up for almost a mile. It is times like these when I love splitting lanes on a motorcycle, I picked my way thru the debris and kept right on going. Down here, lane splitting is a real benefit for motorcyclists, I have ridden past miles of backed up traffic and nobody seems to care! I have noticed some harsh stares in California when I split lanes so I seldom do up there. Add a dousport to that equation and you really can't guess where I will slip thru the jam-up!

Perhaps the neatest thing I have seen this week (I have been on the road for 8 days now) was the Mariposa Monarcha (Monarch Butterflies) overwintering zone. Imagine a spruce fir forest up about 2200 meters... I was in one of the Reserves a few days ago, my jacket felt good when I started the climb, but was quite sweaty by the time I got back to my bike. These may not be the best of days for the Monarch, last year, numbers were down about 25% and then a late season frost killed untold millions. While it is early in the migration for this year (December is the peak), folks seems a little worried….

I have been eating some good stuff, last night I had grilled iguana! Kind of like the guy on one of the Crocodile Dundee shows said, "Needs more garlic"! I had mine in a hot pepper/tomato sauce with lots of garlic…I liked it and would eat it again, the backstrap piece I had was about the size of a quarter and 4 inches long! Maybe after a long day of riding, cold beer in excess makes anything taste good! Today was another treat, fresh water lobster! These too were in a pepper/tomato sauce with plenty of garlic and a couple cold Victoria beers! Pricey but good!

I have traveled almost 2200 miles this week, the Sierra Madres are incredible for riding, more twisties than you bikers can fantasize about. I have seen a couple patches of Organ pipe cactus on the way to the coast which is where I am tonight…just outside of Acapulco; I hadn't intended to even enter the city, but sometimes you got to go with traffic. As I was leaving, I spied a bank and since I am headed to the boondocks, away from gas stations, banks and ATMs, I decided to recharge my money supply. Wow! was I disappointed when the Cajero (ATM) retained my debit card. So tonight I am in Acapulco. No chance of mischief here! Since this is my first chance to get on my computer, I caught this up!