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Yesterday was my second day out of Creel, towards Hidalgo del Parral. It was a hard fought 60km of serious ups and downs, but also some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen anywhere. Like a cross between Yosemite and the highlands of the area around the grand canyon. I’ve had rain on and off for two days, which was getting to be pretty lousy, as nothing dried out much, but finally it was sunny this morning, so the campsite looks like a yardsale. I think I can say with confidence that I’ve used pretty much everything I’m carrying, and been glad I had it - always the true litmus test for your gear.

I’ve camped two nights in a row, both at wonderful campsites with serious views out over deep valleys. And I’ve had the place to myself both nights. It doesn’t seem very heavily inhabited here, and even the road traffic is minimal. I only see a vehicle every 15 minutes at most.

Yesterday, I stopped in at Cuscarare to top up supplies. To get there, I had ot leave the main road, and follow a dirt road a few kms. Needless to say, it’s a small village. But beautiful and idyllic as well. Horses and burros gazing next to the road, small houses sprinkled amoung the fields, all walled in by huge walls of stone and pine trees.

I found the one shop in town, and picked up my standard staples - crackers, pasta, and sardines. Mmmm. They didn’t have tortillas, but offered me “pan Bimbo” instead, which is quite literally “Bimbo bread”, a cheaper version of Wonder Bread, with perhaps the best brand name ever. Every time I see it, it makes me giggle to myself. There’s even Bimbo trucks.

After I left Cuscare, I saw a sign for casacare waterfall. I needed to take a food break anyway, so I thought what the heck. As I pulled onto the dirt road, two young boys popped up from under a tree, and, after the required greetings, began rattling off rapid spanish. After three or four times, I gradually understood it to be the spanish equivalent to “doyouwantmetotakeyoutothewaterfall?”, as only an excited 10 year old boy can muster.

Faced with a myriad of dirt roads through the small village, I thought, “Sure, what the heck.” It turned out to be a blast. Habierto ran and got his bike (after makijng really, really sure I was going to wait for him), and off we went, taking all the shortcuts, and with Habierto riding through all the puddles he could find. By the end, he had mud splatters all up his back and on his face.

The whole way there and back he balanced the time between peppering me with questions, and asking “racio?” before charging off on his bike over stones and water crossing and puddles. The scenery on the way there was spectacular - limestone cliffs and green grassy banks along a meadering river.

The waterfall itself was nice, but very touristy. The main tourist mode of transport around here is these big suburban 4×4s driven by hired guides, and there was a veritable herd when I got to the end of the road. The local Taurumara indian women were out in force, selling their weavings and baskets and other crafts. Some were quite nice, though undoubtedly wouldn’t survive the rest of the bicycle trip. The women are very shy, and it’s hard to even get a “hello” out of them. Needless to say, they’re not big on pictures, so I didn’t manage to get any closeups of them weaving (sorry Mom). I did get one telephoto shot of a woman weaving, as I felt like I was far enough away that i wasn’t intruding too much.

The rest of the day was filled with lots of cycling, trying to putt as many kms behind me as possible. All through magnificent valleys.

Today looks to be more of the same, with the final bit of a climb over a pass, and then who knows from there.

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