Mile after mile of lushness
I can understand why horse theft was a hanging offense in the old West
Casa Grande to Creel – 270 miles
I thought I knew Mexico. I’ve been here more than a dozen times. Today was a big surprise. My visits were to border towns when I lived in Texas, like Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana or dive trips to Cozumel, Acapulco or Cancun. Thus I assumed the entire country was flat, hot and desolate. I explained to Mac that crooks in America try to escape to Mexico to avoid the authorities. That never appealed to me. But after today’s ride Mexico is high up on my list of potential venues to go on the lam.
We left our beautiful hacienda in Casa Grande this morning and started gain elevation as the land mass gently swept upward at a gradual pace. The desert quickly receded and the land became impossibly green and full of life. The occasional rice paddy was followed by mile after mile of apple orchards, wheat fields, corn crops and horses. Beautiful, beautiful, horses. I expected to see the stereotypical underfed Mexican nags or donkeys but these people are obviously prosperous and the horses seem to be rich too. They grazed in green velvet pastures with burbling streams coursing through. The mountain backdrops always remind you of Western movies with ambushes always a possibility.
The entire 270 mile swath of Mexico we traversed today is looks exactly like I think the American West looked before we pushed out the Indians and the Mormons arrived. You could probably do this trip by Conestoga wagon and if you planned it right never see a road or hear a car. Stunning!!Every fifty miles or so we’d reach one of the mountains ranges that constantly encircle the horizon and cross over it through a high mountain pass. These roads are surprisingly well maintained and the mountain twists seemed to have been designed to entertain motorcyclists. Very little traffic, steep drops, switchbacks, pine forests and sudden grand vistas. We danced through this enchanted land for nearly 300 miles and all I could think of was how wrong my Mexican assumptions had been. Never go to tourist areas and presume they represent the entire culture. Better yet, never go to tourist areas.
Before leaving on this trip many people told me Mexico was too dangerous to visit. In fact tourism is way down. But Narco-terrorism has virtually no chance of finding me unless I try to send back two kilos of cocaine in a brown paper bag. Danger is always overblown by the media. They’d prefer we all stay home and watch CSI for God sake.
I thought I knew Mexico. I’ve been here more than a dozen times. Today was a big surprise. My visits were to border towns when I lived in Texas, like Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana or dive trips to Cozumel, Acapulco or Cancun. Thus I assumed the entire country was flat, hot and desolate. I explained to Mac that crooks in America try to escape to Mexico to avoid the authorities. That never appealed to me. But after today’s ride Mexico is high up on my list of potential venues to go on the lam.
We left our beautiful hacienda in Casa Grande this morning and started gain elevation as the land mass gently swept upward at a gradual pace. The desert quickly receded and the land became impossibly green and full of life. The occasional rice paddy was followed by mile after mile of apple orchards, wheat fields, corn crops and horses. Beautiful, beautiful, horses. I expected to see the stereotypical underfed Mexican nags or donkeys but these people are obviously prosperous and the horses seem to be rich too. They grazed in green velvet pastures with burbling streams coursing through. The mountain backdrops always remind you of Western movies with ambushes always a possibility.
The entire 270 mile swath of Mexico we traversed today is looks exactly like I think the American West looked before we pushed out the Indians and the Mormons arrived. You could probably do this trip by Conestoga wagon and if you planned it right never see a road or hear a car. Stunning!!Every fifty miles or so we’d reach one of the mountains ranges that constantly encircle the horizon and cross over it through a high mountain pass. These roads are surprisingly well maintained and the mountain twists seemed to have been designed to entertain motorcyclists. Very little traffic, steep drops, switchbacks, pine forests and sudden grand vistas. We danced through this enchanted land for nearly 300 miles and all I could think of was how wrong my Mexican assumptions had been. Never go to tourist areas and presume they represent the entire culture. Better yet, never go to tourist areas.
Before leaving on this trip many people told me Mexico was too dangerous to visit. In fact tourism is way down. But Narco-terrorism has virtually no chance of finding me unless I try to send back two kilos of cocaine in a brown paper bag. Danger is always overblown by the media. They’d prefer we all stay home and watch CSI for God sake.
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