Last day in the mountains

Just a relax day for the group yesterday, but "relax" doesn't necessarily mean "do nothing"! And so most of the group got out to get some fresh air and exercise.

Ruth and I set off at just after 10:00am to do some exploring. This place has so much natural beauty, and so many different trails to explore that we could spend a week here.

How You Could Travel With $1000 a Day For Life?

The world is a big and beautiful place. The problem is, most of us cannot afford to visit all the places we would like to. Some people are born into money, but most aren’t.

When you have the freedom of money, you can arrange for your life to travel with you. Technology can transfer everything to where you are. This is true for your perfect measurements for alterations measurements, to your prescriptions and your education transcripts.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Another perfect day yesterday. Sunshine, clear blue sky, and a high of about 15C (60F). We are at 8400' altitude, so that's why it's not warmer. But, it's perfect weather for getting out and being active.

So we planned a morning bike ride. Not everybody in the group has bicycles with them, but we still managed to get 6 of us out there on the trail.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Durango to Mexiquillo

We planned on a 9:00am start, but Garth (rig #4) has been having a problem with his automatic park brake. It was decided that he would disconnect the system, which is actually a fairly simple thing to do and we were on the road by 9:30am or so.

We took the periferico (ring road) north of Durango City and avoided any traffic issues. We were soon headed up into the mountains on the free road towards Mazatlan and the western coast.

A good day in the city of Durango, Mexico

On Sunday, we took the group into the city of Durango (pop 700,000).

Our host Eduardo here at the Balneario San Juan (24.054335, 104.545167) has been really helpful, bending over backwards to make sure that we have everything we need. He organized a 14 passenger van to take us into the city and back for 1,000 pesos ($69 CAD, $52 USD). Divided by 14 people, that's a good deal for the convenience alone.

A productive day, followed by a soak in the hot pool

We were all due for a day off to do our own thing and we think that everybody enjoyed doing just that!

We have full access to the pools here at Balneario San Juan so quite a few people took advantage of that throughout the day. I saw quite a few of our group getting laundry done at 20 pesos ($1.40 CAD, $1.05 USD) per load to use the washing machine here. Stuff dries so quickly in the sun that you don't need a clothes dryer.

Long travel day with a few encounters with the police

Yesterday was one of the longer travel days on our route... from Canutillo to Durango city, a distance of 342 kms (212 miles) with some road construction. We left Canutillo just after 8:00am, and arrived at Balneario San Juan on the outskirts of the city of Durango at just after 3:00pm.

A long day, but we took a few breaks along the way. A couple of our breaks were forced on us by police and military checks.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Parral to Canutillo

We planned a late start at 10:00am because it was only an 80 km (50 mile) or so drive on relatively straight roads. Everybody in this group is always ready to go ahead of schedule and it seems like it's Ruth and I who are the last ones ready, even though we are also on time!

We were already at the south east corner of Parral, so we didn't have to drive through the city to get out. We were quickly on a nicely paved road heading south towards Durango.

Touring Parral, Chihuahua

On Wednesday, with clear sunny skies and a forecast high of 25C (77F), we walked from the hotel parking lot to the center of Parral, a distance of about 4 kms (2.7 miles) one way. Mostly downhill.

The city of Parral is known best for two things... a silver mine that was discovered in 1630, and the famous Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Guachochi to Parral

On Tuesday, we did another driving day. We originally had two nights penciled in for Guachochi, but we're trying to get back on schedule due to the rain we had in Creel last week. However, if we do this trip again, we need to schedule more time at both Copper Canyon and Guachochi. There is a lot to see there, including another section of the canyon at Guachochi that not many people visit.

We set off at 9:00am, once again under clear blue skies.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Creel to Guachochi

Ruth and I are kind of recreating a route that we did in January of 2015... but in reverse. So while it's all new for the group, it's kind of new for us as well because we're seeing it in the opposite direction!

Monday's route we knew would be special. Hardly anybody goes this way... for whatever reason. But especially not tourists from Canada and the United States. The odd thing is that the route includes amazing scenery. As one of the group said at a rest stop... "you have really outdone yourselves this time!"

Perfect day for a hike in the Copper Canyon

If we do another one of these Mexico trips, we will need to spend a week just at the Copper Canyon. Everyone totally enjoyed it, and of course it makes it all the better when there is perfect weather.

Sunday we took advantage of the perfect weather to do a 10 km (6 mile) hike into the canyon. But we also had to walk to the trail head, and back from the return gondola to the motorhomes. I think in total we probably did 15 kms (9.5 miles).

How many times can you say "Wow"!?

We used that word a lot yesterday. "Wow"! Not only did we use it, we heard it from the rest of the group too!

Five years ago, Ruth and I did the world's longest zipline here at the Copper Canyon. We've got a pretty adventurous group with us, so we figured some of them might want to try it too! Turns out that eight of our group of fourteen signed their life away and took the plunge!

The best boondocking spot in the world?

On Friday, the sun came out and along with it some strong winds. But that was okay because we wanted things to dry up from that big rainstorm that went through on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ruth planned a morning hike with whoever wanted to go at 9:30am. I was busy catching up on some computer work when Aron came over to say that there had been some kind of power surge overnight and his refrigerator wasn't working.

Thanksgiving in Mexico

Weather was a bit better yesterday, but it still showered on and off occasionally. Our original plan was to head down to Divisadero for a couple of nights, but because of the rain storm that went through on Wednesday we decided to stay put and let things dry out a bit.

Also, this way we could have our Thanksgiving potluck feast with the group indoors using the conference room here at the lodge.

Never say never!

We had a rain day yesterday. A huge storm front went through much of northwestern Mexico yesterday. We woke up to a heavy steady rainfall on Wednesday morning and it continued all day and into the evening. No idea when it stopped but we woke up at about 4:00am and noticed that it was windy, but no more rain.

It had been forecast though, so we knew it was coming. We've adjusted our schedule accordingly.

Copper Canyon Train - day 2

We were all up early because our ride to the train station in El Fuerte was picking us up at 7:30am so we would be there for the 8:15am departure for the return trip to Creel.

It had rained a fair bit overnight, and it was still spitting on and off. Not the best weather for a scenic train ride, but it turned out that the pictures were a little bit dramatic with the clouds as our altitude rose.

Copper Canyon Train... day 1

The Copper Canyon railway line is one of the world's most spectacular train rides. Ruth and I did it back in January of 2015 and so we knew that it was worth showing off to the group.

The train was scheduled to depart Creel Monday at 11:47am and so the group began walking over to the station at about 10:30am to give us lots of time. Better to be early than late!

Exploring Creel

A bunch of us set off around 10:00am for a hike in the hills that overlook Creel. Roger and Larry decided they wanted to go for a bike ride instead, and Sue, Roy and Garth stayed behind to watch the motorhomes.

Temperature was about 16C (61F) but it still gets a little chilly overnight down to about 2C (36F). We have 30 amp electric here though, so it's nice to be able to use our little electric heater through the night.

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Basaseachi to Creel

We planned for a 7:00am start on Saturday. We don't always start that early, but in this case the road leading out to the highway is narrow, and we figured if we left early there would be no oncoming traffic. Also, we wanted to get to Creel at a decent hour to enjoy the day.

The temperature had gone well below freezing overnight Friday night, and Sherman's front windshield was covered in frost... both inside and out!

Another great day of fresh air and exercise

We woke up Friday morning to clear blue sky, and the sun made it's way over the mountain by 7:15am or so. The forecast was for a beautiful day with a high of about 15C (60F) and that's exactly what happened. We took advantage of it by heading off to do a hike at 9:00am.

The main building here at Rancho San Lorenzo was built to be part of a movie set. Not sure what year, but Fernando told us it was a French Western called Blueberry. Fernando said that it was built in three months, mostly by two guys!

To the bottom of the falls... and then to the top!

Larry installed one of his new batteries first thing this morning just to test the system. Everything seems to be working fine, but of course we don't have a spare charge controller for his solar panel so we have a separate battery charger being run off the inverter of another rig. He's got the basics working again so they have power for the fridge and some lights in the evening.

The entire group set off from the ranch at around 9:00am to do a hike. Ten of us who were most ambitious would go right to the bottom of the falls, and then cut across on the way back up to the top of the falls, while the other four would attempt the more direct route to the top of the falls.

First view of Basaseachi Falls.... and battery problems!

The heavy overnight rain eventually tapered off and the sun peeked through at times on Wednesday. When 10:00am rolled around, it was a looking good enough to do the walk up to the viewing area of the falls and the surrounding canyon. It's only about a 1 km (0.6 miles) walk uphill to the parking area, then there are trails leading to three different viewing platforms.

We are in a beautiful remote mountainous area and our internet has varied from poor to non existant. So I won't be able to add photos to this blog post until we move to Creel, probably on Saturday.

Long drive to Rancho San Lorenzo

(Photos have now been added to this post.)

We planned for a 9:00am start on Tuesday to wait for the traffic to die down a bit, but the security guard came over to say that if we wanted to stay until 9:00am we would need permission from the office. And the office didn't open until 9:00am. He said he would prefer if we left at 8:30am. Strange, but we didn't argue with him and it was fine with everyone to leave at 8:30am.

And it turned out that traffic wasn't too bad. Still, it's difficult getting 8 rigs through a city without getting separated by traffic lights. A bit of excitement as one rig made a wrong turn, but they were only on their own for a couple of kilometers and quickly got back in place with the rest of us.

We are okay

We are in a beautiful mountainous area, but no cell signal good enough to do a blog post. You  may not hear from us again until Saturday!

Welcome to Chihuahua!

Just couldn't sleep in yesterday morning and we were up before the sun. That's okay though... it gave us more time to enjoy another beautiful day!

We made plans to leave here with the group at 10:00am and walk the 3 kms (1.8 miles) to the historic central area. We wanted to go to the big Telcel customer service center... but we weren't sure that it would be open. Turns out that it was a statutory holiday here in Mexico and a lot of things were closed.

Fantastic first day in Mexico

We were on the road at 7:00am just as the sun was coming up. We won't always start that early on driving days, but we always plan to be at our destination by 2:00pm at the latest. That gives us lots of daylight hours to fix any problems that might arise along the way.

And, we did have a bit of a long drive ahead of us, as well as crossing the border. And you never know how long it will take to cross a border. Yesterday's border crossing turned out to be very interesting!