2. Night in the museum
Day 13. Just like the Navy SEAL say, “the only easy day was yesterday”. It was quite an easy drive. Lazy morning with breakfast in Chihuahua. No rush as the plan is to go to only Parral, 220 km south. Easy. Got out of town in time as the temp started to climb. The route was through rolling hills on the Mexian plateau. Off the freeway but quite an easy ride. My GPS told me it will be only 2,5 hrs so I dialled my cruise control way back and still the destination was showing before noon.
Mexican driving regulations … I’ve read the entire regs and here are the main points:
“All written regulations are only suggestions to be followed at each person’s discretions. No penalty for any and all transgressions for locals. Gringos must follow all regs to the letter. They are always in fault. Penalties range from incarceration in a max security prison to a donation in any policemen family fund. Bigger cojones have always right of the way. Bigger and faster is better. Road signs and markings are for decoration only. No real purpose. Will be deleted in the next Regs update. When passing 3 abreast, the opposite traffic must somehow get out of the way. Passing in blind corners is legal and encouraged. There is no speed limit in Mexico.”
Mexican speed bumps. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you are lucky or very smart. The speed bumps here are mean. They are always at RR crossing and randomly spread anywhere, mostly where least expected with no prior knowledge. Their size is gigantic. They also function as a launching ramp. If you go over them in anything faster then 20 km/h then you better have a pilot licence. And a phone number for a local tow truck company, conveniently always around the corner. Those suckers will rip your undercarriage off. You’ve been warned.
OK, I got to Parral at noon. The town is a maze of one way streets up and down the hills. People everywhere, so following my GPS and paying attention to the traffic is quite a challenge. But no problem to find my hotel. Wow! I’ve seen the pics but it is even better with my own eyes. Check-in was painless even with my non-existing Español. They showed me my room and my eyes got pretty wide. Anywhere else in the world, this would be a museum only to be looked at from behind a tape. I was impressed. I hauled my gear upstair. I wanted to take pics of my room before I mess it up so I stuck it all in the bathroom and took the pictures before unpacking 😀. They were nice enough here to allow me to park my bike inside the building behind the locked gate.
Beer, tacos and siesta, in that order was nice. Waited for the evening to cool down and went out to explore. Parral is a small town with lot of mining history. It was once called “silver capitol of the world”. But after 1930s all went bust. Anyway, I am not feeling much hungry in this heat so it was an ice-cream dinner for me. Back to my castle to work on my pictures.
The next morning … Day 14. I had a nice princely sleep 🤴 A good morning coffee although my usual company was missing 🥲 But I was with you in the spirit. I am planning my next moves. I have about 3,500 km to cover and 14 days to do it. No idea where I am going from here. I will be meeting here with my fellow adventurer tonight. He is arriving from the south. He is from YVR, ride the same bike and did the exactly same route as I “plan” to do. It will be nice to get the latest intel on what to do (or not) and where to go. I’ve extended my stay here in the palace, so it will be 3 nights and 2 full days. Nice R&R.
Almost Creveza time …