South America by Geezer

[BullShatter]

RexBuck...FWIW, Hermosillo has a great downtown area, if your travels have only taken you through the industrial area, I can certainly appreciate your frame of view, I've been that route numerous times...The downtown area offers great food, and great people!

[GaryWild]

Loved the pics Steve...looks like some nice riding in SoCal.
Looking forward to more...
Gary

[RexBuck]

Most of the past 3 days has been riding in the desert. I like the beauty of the desert but after awhile, going in a straight line and being hot gets old.

So, it was delightful to have almost a full day of Mexico Hwy 16. First 100 km or so was the end of the desert, then the road got a bend, then another, then another, faster and faster until I’m in the mountains and loving it. About 6 hours riding time of twisty roads. Here is a short clip I edited. I put a camera mount on my left crash bar to see how it works compared to the helmet mount. I’m going to have to play around with it a bit as I was hoping it would do a better job of picking up some of the scenery.




I remember being frustrated the last time I was in Mexico of not being able to find a place to stop to take pictures. Sometimes you can just hold the camera in the left hand but on a twisty road, that is just stupid – so, I didn’t do it that much. To try to alleviate that problem, I stuck a second Ram ball on my handlebars (The first has my SPOT) and then the plan was stick my Ram mount with threads for a camera on there. Problem is I forgot my Ram mount with threads – the reason I was trying to hunt one down in Phoenix. So, I MacGyvered a mount using my mini- tripod . . . kinda works great. There is still an art to taking pics while moving but here are a couple of some of the scenery.










Was pulled over for a stretch and here comes a couple of obvious moto-travelers. They turn around and stopped for a chat. Really nice couple Ils and Johan from Belgium. Had shipped themselves and their bikes to South America on a freighter and were heading to Alaska. Like I may well be too late to get to Ushuia , it looks like they won’t beat the snow to Alasaka. They will probably just make Vancouver before heading to Miami to ship the bikes back to Belgium. Their Ride Report is here.


Was heading for the little town of Basaseachi with plans that I would likely have to camp so was surprised to find a hotel right on what I thought was the edge of town. Lady running the place seemed a bit put off that I had showed up. Yes they have rooms. Can I see one? Wave of the hand, sure. Are they open? Yes. Doors all locked, looked in the window – looked fine. And, they have a restaurant here so I won’t have to look for dinner.

I just don’t have my Mexico brain inserted yet. Forgot to ask about hot water . . . in fact, forgot to ask about any water for the shower. Figured that one out when I was about ready to go roust grumpy Mama and ask for some towels. Then decided it was time for dinner and wandered over to the restaurant which was closed up tighter than a drum. Hmmm, well I don’t feel like riding to wherever to find some dinner so lets go explore the Mini-Super at the Pemex across the street. I was able to procure an almost fully balanced meal:



Cup O Noodles – Meat, grain and a couple of pieces of onion so, vegetable.
Yogurt – Dairy, fruit
Potatoe chips – vegetable
Beer nuts – vegetable
Cookies – grain, chocolate
The only food group missing for this meal was beer.

At about 6500 feet altitude, it is noticeably cooler but the room (as are many at higher elevations) equipped with a propane heater. However, no propane bottle, but it had a heater. Lots of blankets though.

TV had one channel so, went to bed early and slept well.

[going south]

Right on Geezer, RexBuck... I followed you along on the last one, I am here for this one, looking forward to more great pic's...

Regards, Jim...

[Pete_Tallahassee]

Like others I followed your last trip and look forward to this one.

Vaya con Carne

[RexBuck]

Originally Posted by Unlikely Cowboy

RexBuck...FWIW, Hermosillo has a great downtown area, if your travels have only taken you through the industrial area, I can certainly appreciate your frame of view, I've been that route numerous times...The downtown area offers great food, and great people!

Yah, I expected that. I'll have to get off the By-Pass and see what else is there next time.

Originally Posted by GaryWild

Loved the pics Steve...looks like some nice riding in SoCal.
Looking forward to more...
Gary

Thanks Gary.

Originally Posted by going south

Right on Geezer, RexBuck... I followed you along on the last one, I am here for this one, looking forward to more great pic's...

Regards, Jim...

Thanks for coming along again Jim, it's appreciated.

Originally Posted by Pete_Tallahassee

Like others I followed your last trip and look forward to this one.

Vaya con Carne

Pete, appreciate you following again.

[GaryWild]

Hey Rex
Really enjoyed the video. I actually thought the angle worked out really well, such that you caught the front wheel, the whole road, and even your shadow sometimes. What a beautiful area, and an excellent "dinner" to boot (which adds to the adventure). The passing sequences were excellent.
Have another great day,
Gary

[SoosCreek]

Highway 16 is an amazing trip. I got tired from all the curves and constant shifting. I was going the opposite direction. Stopped for the night in Yecora.

I also stopped at the PEMEX in Basaseachi. From there, if you are headed to Creel, the the cut off road to San Juanito is just as good. I dont' think I ever saw another car the whole section. Not sure of the highway number...

Take care out there!

[RexBuck]

Originally Posted by GaryWild

Hey Rex
Really enjoyed the video. I actually thought the angle worked out really well, such that you caught the front wheel, the whole road, and even your shadow sometimes. What a beautiful area, and an excellent "dinner" to boot (which adds to the adventure). The passing sequences were excellent.
Have another great day,
Gary

Yah, I like it also, just can't see much more than the immediate area around the road. Gives a better sensation of the ride - but, no where near the real thing.
Will hopefully get another edited up shortly with the camera on the helmet. Different. Videos take an insane amount of time to put together - I'll likely limit the ride vidieos . . . or not.

[RexBuck]

Originally Posted by SoosCreek

Highway 16 is an amazing trip. I got tired from all the curves and constant shifting. I was going the opposite direction. Stopped for the night in Yecora.

I also stopped at the PEMEX in Basaseachi. From there, if you are headed to Creel, the the cut off road to San Juanito is just as good. I dont' think I ever saw another car the whole section. Not sure of the highway number...

Take care out there!

Hey Soos - Yah I did the same as you last winter - East to West and stayed in Yacura. For some reason, I found the West to East less tiring.

Stay tuned.

[RexBuck]

Woke up at 5:00 after a pretty good sleep. Oops, lost an hour as we are now on Mountain time so, I guess I woke at 4:00 Pacific time . . .

It was cold –a lot different at this elevation than down on the desert. Watched some kids / family TV show hoping they would keep their vocabulary at a 4 year olds level . . . maybe they did and I’m just in the 2 year old category. Got a few things done since my time wasn’t absorbed by taking showers, doing internet stuff or eating. Was able to make a cup of coffee with my little “slowest water heater in the world”

It warmed up to about 10C (50F) when I left. Stopped at the Basaeachi Falls. About a half mile walk down to . . . . the top of the falls. Looking up the little river at the suspension bridge you cross coming down



They do a nice job of building rock paved trail to the edge of the falls



Pretty cool and you are able to walk up about as close to the edge as I wanted to get. The river is in the trench in the foreground. The fences in the distance are at the edge.



Looking up the valley the falls fall in



The water going over the edge - thought about hopping over the edge to get a better pic of this, then thought not . . .



Then back on the highway, turned down Hwy 23 and here is another Basaeachi Falls turn off. You could drive right up to this one – great view point looking across the canyon at the falls. This was the more spectacular viewing.


The falls - there are actually people standing at the top . . .






Looking up the valley



This will be a short day as I plan to hang out in Creel and and get a few things caught up. Stopped in San Juanito for a Hamburgesa – little shack in the corner of a Pemex lot. Looks like maybe a couple of sisters and the pregnant daughter of one working there. Couple other kids wander in, are given sandwiches and go. See these little places a lot providing a bit of income for a family. Hamburger and a big Coke . . . $35 pesos – about $2.50.

[RexBuck]

For those who are not members of ADV-RIDER, I have created an index at the beginning of my first post. By clicking on the page number, you will be directed to the relevant page of that post.

So, if you are using www.rexbuck.com to access this report, it may help you get to the latest posts easier.

[Pedro Navaja]

RB, thanks for the note about El Morillo. I have put the correct link in the hotel thread and also sent a note to Norma. Enjoy the ride. Mike

[Jick Magger]

Hey Steve

Great scenery and a great highway. I stayed north of there in Sahuaripa in March on my way to Durango. Enjoy the ride. Be safe and I am looking forward to following along.

[RexBuck]

Originally Posted by Jick Magger

Hey Steve

Great scenery and a great highway. I stayed north of there in Sahuaripa in March on my way to Durango. Enjoy the ride. Be safe and I am looking forward to following along.

Thanks for joining in Jick. When you are next down here, if you can work some of these roads in, you will love it.

Appreciate your well wishes.