To Durango and to Mazatlan

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To Durango and to Mazatlan

 North America » Mexico » Durango By Traveller1
April 19th 2007 After leaving Zacatecas we headed north to Durango. Some of you may remember as a child reading comics about Roy Rogers, the Cisco Kid etc. and of course someone might remember the Durango Kid. At least I do. Well here we are finally expecting the wild west. In fact Durango is where many of Hollywood's westerns were filmed. We skipped the sets which are located outside of town.

Durango has a population of about half a million souls and is at an elavation of about 2000 meters. It was founded in 1563 and was a major mining town with the nearby iron ore deposits in Cerro del Mercado.

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Photos

Road to Durango from Zacatecas
From Zacatecas we headed north to Durango . The terrain was basically miles of dry shrub, cactii and small trees with few farms or homes around.

Somebody's Shangri-la
We found these tiny villages along the way with few people outside.

Plaza de Armas
Not exactly a dusty, western main street is it. This is the beautiful Plaza de Armas in the center of Durango. To the left is the Catedral Basilica Menor.

Teatro Ricardo Castro
We were only in Durango one night and made the best use of our time by walking everywhere. This is the local neoclassical theater which at one time was a boxing arena and cinema.

Palacio de Gobierno
Here we are visiting the baroque Palacio with murals depicting the state's history.

Up and Away to Mazatlan
Early the next morning we headed out to Mazatlan. This took us through the Sierra Madre mountains, with one stretch named El Espinazo del Diablo (Devil's Backbone) which gives some idea of the height and precariousness of the trip.

Switch Backs
Imagine bussing throgh the Grand Canyon; this is our feeling here as we lurched around curves which seemed a thousand feet down.

No Railing and Smoke in the Distance
It was interesting to look straight down from the bus and not see the road under us; here however we see a piece of it. Note the smoke in the distance to the right; a forest fire perhaps

Yikes, Yes a Fire and Heading Into It.
As we got closer to the fire in the distance, very close actually, it became evident that we were heading through it.

Going Through
This truck has just emerged from the fire as we are going in.

The Road is Only So Wide
As we descended the Sierra Madre large trucks working their way up had to swing wide to make the uphill curve.
We are in Mazatlan now thanks to the professionalism of our bus driver.
Next, Hola from Mazatlan!