Durango, Northern Mexico, Mexico
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
June 28th - we debated about going back to
San Miguel through Guardalajara as the road construction was bad and we were further north. We finally decided that we would go back to San Miguel via
Durango. As it turned out this was probably not the best choice. You cannot even begin to imagine how twisty, turny these roads were. I was constantly turning the wheel one way then the other while either going up a steep grade or coming down a steep grade. After a couple hours into the trip we came to an area with a flagman signaling us to stop. We were the first car so we got to converse -hahaha - with the flagman. He told us in Spanish and hand signals that it would only be a couple short minutes until they had cleared the road and we were on our way. There are been a rockslide (not an unusual occurrence in this area). Great we thought. What were we thinking - this is Mexico - there is a difference between a couple short Mexican minutes and a couple short Canadian minutes. Moving the rock slide were 3 large pieces of equipment. As we watched they cleared off the road - great we would be on our way - nope! No sooner had they cleared the road then the big shovel would drop another shovel full of rocks and dirt on the road, the bull dozer would push it over the side and the process would start all over again. After about 10 minutes I finally decided to shut the car off. After about 40 minutes they finally decided that it was time to let us through and we were on our way. There seemed to be no sense to this whatsoever but then again this is Mexico - just a lesson in patience I think.
Well including the rock work it took us over 7 hours to travel 324 kms (202.5 miles). Oh yeah, believe it or not we ran into snow or sleet or whatever. The weather got a little nasty at one point and we had heavy rain. As we travelled along we came to an area where the road was covered with a couple inches of slushy snow. It only lasted for a couple miles so we figured it was a heavy sleet storm that we were fortunate not to have driven through. We had thought we would be much further than
Durango by that evening but that was not the case. We stayed in Durango in a cheap little hotel - not bad but nothing fancy. Had supper at a little local place - delicious - we each had half a chicken (breast), potato salad, green salad, rice and split a pop - the price including a tip was $5 Cdn - now that is Mexican pricing! ;-)
Oh yeah, through this trek we also went through the Tropic of Cancer and the Continental Divide.
