I rode out to a town called Madera that some people in Moab had told me was worth a visit.
It was again very quiet on a Sunday and there was almost nothing I could find to do when I got there, so after I`d had something to eat I headed off down toward one of the few national parks in the North of Mexico. As I rode along, it was clear that the horse is still a major player in the life of rural Mexicans (unlike in the USA). There were quite a few people doing things on their little farms by horseback. I also happened upon a gathering of quite a few cars a a set of stock yards along the highway. I stopped and had a look and it turned out that the locals were having a practice session at roping cattle.
There were about a dozen riders and a dozen smallish cattle and they took it in turns to rope the head and then the hind feet of the steer as it shot out from the race. They were just local guys but were quite good at the roping and very friendly to talk to.
Then it was on the road again toward the falls, but it got dark before I got there and I decided to camp by the side of the road. This time however, I was discovered by a group of boys who were out playing in the country side enjoying their Sunday. It seems Mexican kids are in general prepared to walk much farther afield from their houses than their US equivalents. - Not sure if it is due to the Mexican parents being less paranoid about what could happen to them or if they are just more accustomed to walking. Whatever the case, I used to roam the country around the little towns I grew up in in Australia and I think it is a good thing. Anyway, the kids eventually got the hint that I more or less wanted to be left alone and headed home for dinner.
So I camped out in Mexico for the first time - It was bloody cold!
I was high up near the continental divide again. I got up and packed and breakfasted (milk and cereal) in about 45 minutes and then headed over the last little bit of highway to the National Park. The parking area was only about a Km from the falls and I trotted off down to see it.
I then arrived at the top of the falls and found that I had to go about another Km to see the falls from lower down, so off I trotted again. It turned out that the 1Km was the distance but that it was down about 600m, so I got quite sweaty in my motorcycle gear (Actually it was nice to be hot after the sub-zero night) but the view of the 250m high waterfall was quite nice. When I got back to my bike I found two other bikes had arrived (Big KTM 950s) and I had a bit of a chat with the guys (Jean-Luc and Ron) who were from California and Jean-Luc was going to Tierra Del Fuego while Ron was only in Mexico for a week. Anyway, we chatted for a bit and then I headed off toward Creel where the tourists gather to head down into Copper Canyon. I was expecting the road there to be paved as the maps I had both indicated, but it was not and it was quite hard work for me again. The Mexican roads are built for low maintenance it seems and when the road is steep they tend to use a very coarse size of gravel (fist sized chunks of rock actually) and when it is loose, as it was, it makes for quite an exciting ride. Eventually the road did turn into Asphalt and I again made it to my destination without incident but quite tired.
Creel was a very touristy town with several hotel options and I chose a guest house with a dorm (about $10) so I could meet and talk with a few people and hopefully learn about the road to Batopilas in the Copper Canyon. I`d heard from some people that it was really bad and I`d be lucky to survive and from others that it was fine. For that night though, I was happy to just take a shower, have a meal and see who there was to talk to.
