Inuvik to Ushuaia

Here is a photo overlooking the road to La Bufa and eventually to Batopilas.

This area is the home to the famous Indians Traumara (Raramuri). One of the oldest people in North America, migrated to this area to avoid conflict with the Spanish Missionary. This shy group of people who live a subsistence life style can be recognized by their unique clothing and dark skin. The men wear a white loincloth, sandals, and an array of shirts and the women wear colorful layered blouses and skirts and large scarfs of multi designs.

It does appear the Traumara (Raramuri) have huge struggles with health, farming in this harsh climate though they have some of the most efficient farming methods known, and preservation of a culture that is in conflict with a monetary society.

The death rate for women giving birth is one in ten. The death rate amoungst children under 5 is 50 percent. Poverty amongst these people in this area is so rampant it touches everyone. Read more · Lee más →: View La Bufa in the bottom of Copper Canyon, Mexico

This trail follows the aquaduct in the bottom of Copper Canyon in the town of Batopilas. Nancy hiked up around 5 miles toward Cerro Colorado.

Along the way she swam in the Rio Batopilas river, panned for silver, meet a goat herder, and also a guide on a horse returning from a 3 day trip to Urique and back to Batopolis. Most stunning were the flowering cactus and trees found in this deep desert canyon.

The ribbon road down to Batopolis is one of the most amazing road engineering projects. The road twists its way down 5000 feet (1800 meters) through 5 ecosystems and millions of years of rock formations.

If you look very closely at this photo you may see the foot paths and used by the Tarahumara (Raramuri) Indians to access the resources of this canyon and the way the people of this region travel to and from the outback.

We hitched a ride down to the bottom with four Canadians driving this dusty, teeth rattling, back jarring road. It took around 5 hours to drive this 65k (40 mile) road. Around every corner was a new photo opportunity. We also hitched back with a kind couple from Mexico City who had hired a guide to bring them down and back up to creel.
(Thank you folks for the ride and the time we had to share).

The road was only really wide enough for one car so if another vehicle came around the corner, one of the drivers had to back up or down the road to a spot wide enough for both to squeeze by.

Randy enjoying a typical Mexicana breakfast: Instant coffee, Huevos Rancho a la Mexicana (Eggs with tomatoe, onion, peppers (the color of the Mexican flag is Red, white and Green) with tortillas and beans.

We have decided this dish is an excellent meal to power us on our bike ride. (Protein, Fat, and carbohydrates). Tamales are another food we have discovered is an excellent biking food.

It's been a while since we updated you with our location and route and everything, so we have a number of things for you:

• Our location: We're in Parral, about 200 miles south of Chihuahua, having exited the southeast end of the Copper Canyon region. Nancy did up a wonderful new map of our route (below) so you can see our route.
• New pictures: There are a lot of new pictures on the photos page.
• Podcast: We have started an experimental podcast (audio listen) for you. Click the Podcast button on the top of the page.

March 21, 2007 to April 7th Parral to Zacatecas Riding the high plains of northern Mexico was peaceful enough with arid high plains, scattered stunted dark colored trees like scrub oaks and what I thought was nut trees. The was little traffic and what traffic there was gave us lots of space and many waves and friendly beeps from their cars. The high plains were broken up with a few river valleys which we descended to find the area blooming with the newness of spring and planted with apple orchids, corn fields, and other cultivated fields. It turned out that the month of March is the windy season and we were greeted with varying strengths of winds through out this stretch in northern Mexico.

About 56 kilometers (35 miles) south Parral as we rode into the town of Las Nieves, the wind blew sheets of dust across the town, the roads and us. It was so impressive to see the wind blowing sideways full of the dust and particles of the arid landscape. We bought a few things to eat from the local Pemex gas station and continued on our way to find Poncho Villa’s Villa in Canutillo. The villa was a run-down complex with a handful of building with large photos and a bit of history about this Mexican who both was a local hero, a famous general of the Mexican revolution, and renegade (from the perspective of the U.S.). After the visit to the museum we decided to find a hotel because we both were sick with a cold and did not have the energy to continue. We found a clean economical room next to the bus stop which we laid low for two days recovering from our ailments.

We headed out two days later feeling somewhat better. The winds where more gentle and the landscape was the same.

Several nights we camped in the desert along this stretch along with what Randy calls the Mexican brown bears (cows). It was so nice to have such quietness in the vast dry landscape. It gives me a well needed break from the cities, the little pueblo with dogs that bark at us in the nights, the cars booming with music that have to pound the sense out of the youth that drive around in these moving music jukeboxes and the constant attempts to speak a new language I know so little of. The nights we camp I have come to treasure more then I knew.

(You may want to click the "read more" below to continue - this is a long one.)

Read more · Lee más →: Parral to Durango and then Zacatecas

Here's the map of our route into Mexico so far. Today we're in Zacatecas (leaving Monday going south). The red sections are the parts we biked, and the blue are other forms of transportation (the train into Copper Canyon, a truck to the bottom of the canyon at Batopilas, and the bus from Durango to Zacatecas).
There are new pictures on the photos page...

Hi there all you folks working on your taxes at home! We know that it's tax weekend and wish you well. Some of you asked how we handle the tax event while we're on the road... Well we just do it electronically with Turbotax like we've done for years. We filed in February and got the refund in early March. Not to rub it in or anything.

But that brings to mind a story from the Oregon coast last fall. As you can imagine, not everybody we meet understands what we're up to or why - or can relate to it. We were talking to one fellow who was just flabbergasted at our trip and the informality and unplanned-ness of it. He said "so do you sleep under bridges?"... We said, "well, we have". He was horrified. But his next question was the most memorable indication of his disapproval: "But your taxes - how do you pay your taxes?". We explained that with little income you have little taxes. But we remain amazed that he was more taken with our disconnection from the tax system than with anything else about the trip.

We all make a choice in life. Stay within the lines or venture outside the box. He did not understand there are amazing things to experience outside the normal perimeters. We love to explore the life outside this box. And all you folks who are joining us, are also enjoying life outside this box. And for this we thank you for sharing life our trip.
We all have to pay taxes, we just do it online. Computers sure have changed our lives. Has the world become smaller or are we just more connected. What do you think?

In Zacatecas we got to watch the most amazing folkloric dancers. We were late and were right up against the stage. Nancy turned our little tiny Sony camera into video mode and captured this action. We thought you'd like it. There are two different videos here. I love them both!

Here it was the end of March in Mexico and we had been riding for two months. The weather was great: no rain, the temperature was perfect somewhere in the seventies, sunny. All the things a bicycle tourist would want. But the wind kicked up every day around 11:00, a couple of hours into our day and hearing traffic difficult to hear in windy conditions so we decided to take a quiet dirt road which someone had described as a beautiful ride and “a good training road”. Um.. sounded interesting. We headed down the road not knowing what it was going to be like but we did know it would get us to Guanajuato.

It was a wonderful road with all the things we love. It wound its way up through a forested canyon on a good dirt road. There was so little traffic that we could let our minds wander or put on our head phones and rock to music as we rode.

Read more · Lee más →: Riding to Guanajuato