May 8 - Rodeo to Culican - 450 Miles

We had planned to be in Durango to start out this day of riding down to the Mexico west coast.  However, since we were about 100 miles short of Durango, we got up very early and left the little town of Rodeo.

We had breakfast in Durango, but what we realized in the process was that Durango was in a much more mountainous setting than we had planned for.  Deane had been as far south as the town of Hidalgo de Parral (about 90,000 population), but not further south toward Durango (several 100,000s in population)..

Between what we would consider the major cities of Hidalgo de Parral and Durango, the road is of the same nature as the mountain roads so far - narrow two-lane road with no shoulders and almost no traffic.  We came to the conclusion that in the major northwestern to western part of Mexico, the mountains are so difficult and the country so poor that they can't afford larger commerce roads like the U.S. and therefore this is a part of their economic problem in those areas.

However, from Durango to Mazatlan on the west coast, about 150 miles, the route is over absolutely gorgeous mountains, but with lots of truck traffic.  These mountains have heavy forests of Ponderosa Pine, with significant logging going on as a big employer.  

Along with the heavy traffic of logging trucks, there are also many, many 18-wheelers on this road.  Apparently this is a major East-West highway, between Durango in the interior and Mazatlan on the coast.

This road was one selected specifically by Deane, because it contains a section called "El Espinazo del Diablo" - "The Spine of the Devil".  That section of very tight curves turned out to be not only fun and challenging, but highly scenic.  One rides or drives on roads dynamited out of sheer rock to make a highway that also is at the top of the world of that part of the coastal range of Sierra Madre Occidental mountains.  

For some reason, the mountains chosen for the road are significantly higher than most of the mountains of the range, so the views of forested mountains everywhere are stunning.  It is hard to tell how many miles represent the named part of El Espinazo, but we rode 50 miles of fabulous curves and scenery.  Alex got tired of it, but Deane didn't.  This has to be one of the top motorcycling and scenic roads of North America.

There were some scary parts.  This happens when you are going into a blind switchback corner, and are just ready to pitch the motorcycle into the curve, and you see an 18-wheeler coming the opposite way, but with him swinging wide and taking half to two thirds of your lane, as well as all of his!!  Then you are just barely able to squeeze between him and the rock wall and gutter.  We had this happen five times to one or the other of us, and Alex barely escaped once!  How cars survive we don't know.

From Mazatlan we rode up the west coast about 150 miles to Culiacan, just to see what the west coast of Mexico looks like there.  It was a dry coast, very much like the California coast.  However, water comes from somewhere, and there are very large farms raising corn or tomatoes.  It is strange to think of thousands of acres of tomatoes being raised, but there they are.  We all probably get some of our tomatoes from here.

Culiacan is a large modern city with lots of traffic.  We got a motel at the top of a hill, with panoramic views of the city, so that was interesting.

Oh yes, for our motorcycling friends, we happened to walk by the Honda motorcycle dealership, and were interested in the types of motorcycles offered in this area of Mexico.

Well, back to Mazatlan tomorrow.

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