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Published: October 12th 2009
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I left Tampico at 8:30 after breakfast at the hotel. I had decided to follow a route that I traced on the map rather than go with the efficiency of the GPS. The roads I picked would take me through the northeastern Sierra Madre mountains on my way to Real de Catorce, a little isolated town I had read about in my guide book. Real was once a prosperous silver mining town, but at the start of the 1900's, the price of silver bottomed out and the town was all but abandoned. In the last few decades, people, mostly Europeans, have been moving there and starting up quaint and artsy businesses and the place has become sort of a tourist spot. What's particular about it is how you access it. There is a 27 km cobble stone road that rises to 2,800 m and then a tunnel.
I road towards the mountains from the coast, first through what by our standards would be classified as slums. Rows and rows of cinderblock houses set up on dirt roads lined the highway west out of Tampico. This eventually gave way to vast marshlands were cattle eaked out an existence. The first 100
or so km were very slowgoing, town after town on the highway prevented me from making decent time. As highways go through towns, you come upon what is referred to as Topes, speed bumps on the highway, big ones. Most are signed, some are not! They are everywhere and they are annoying. Speed limits are set ridiculously low, long stretches of open highway are often posted at 60 km/h, most at 80. Urban centres at 40 km/h. I have developped my own system of interpretation: just add 30. The dual lane toll highways are posted at 110 though.
I made it to the mountains and the beautiful lush green vegetation that grows there. The weeds in the ditches were so tall that they concealed entire donkeys! Hundreds of km of twisty narrow roads offered themselves to me, slow going but beautiful riding. The weather was cooler than on the coast and made for a comfortable day, although I did pass through the odd rainshower.
I later stopped at a roadside tienda in a remote village for a drink. Many Mexicans, both in rural and city settings have shops (called tiendas) or restaurant attached to their property, they pop
up everywhere and are nothing more than shacks really. They seem to be quite busy at lunchtime.
Eventually the road started to descend out of the moutains into an expansive desert valley. The twisty roads suddenly gave way to a straigth stretch of road that went on as far as I could see. Over 100 km according to the GPS. There was very little vegetation other than cactus, small palm trees and the odd patch of weeds. Yet, cattle roamed the entire area freely, including the roadway. Alongside them, Burros also wandered freely. Good incentive not to drive at night.
I finally made it to the cobble stone road that would lead ro Real de Catorce at about 5 PM. It was rougher than I had expected. I figured out that 60 km/h was the optimal speed for going over it, slower than that and it would rattle you to bits, this theory was proven when I passed a pick up truck that had lost one of its back wheels. The road climbed and snaked its way up and around the mountain's edge without a guardrail of course! It made for some incredible views of the valley.
I arrived at the tunnel entrance after negotiating my way through throngs of people at some kind of open air market. A man in a uniform with a walkie talkie approached me with a look of concern and told me that I could not ride the bike through the tunnel, but that I had to park and take one of the many donkey carts that were lined up outside in order to get to the town. I was not about to park the bike overnight in that chaos and haul my gear on a donkey cart, so I headed back down... My own fault for trusting the guide boook.
With the sun quickly going down behind the mountains, I needed a hotel. My GPS showed one in Matehuala, about 45 mins away. It turned out to be quite nice, with excellent service in the restaurant, although, as I have found everywhere so far, no one spoke any english, which was fine but surprised me a little. I did pick up on a conversation at another table that was in German. I introduced myself to 3 men from Germany and ended up sitting with them while we swapped travel stories.
They had rented an SUV out of Mexico city. My final activity that night was to visit the Walmart located a few blocks away. Now I can say I did...
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Kim and Deby
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Good to hear you're enjoying yourself Pat. Sorry we couldn't meet up. Maybe on the next adventure. I liked your comment about others telling you of the dangers of Mexico. We never felt more comfortable on this trip than when we cycled the Texas Mexico border and we were told the same thing before hand. I think that CNN fills people with terror. Keep the rubber side down. Looking forward to seeing you in Grand Forks!!