Monday – Hermosillo, Mexico

Mexico here I come 🙂

I was up and at em early today, posted the past two days small effort and was packed and on the road by 8am. The sun was already hot and promised to be scorcher!

A quick look at the Cactus Burger place with all its fancy ironwork, then it is on to Ajo(Ah Ho) and points beyond 🙂

The road was flat and straight with an occasional border patrol checkpoint, before winding though some small rocky hills, never even got a lean on the bike.

I took particular care coming into Ajo as I had seen some debris on the roadside further back and it looked very similar to the chairs on this idiots roof!

They were nearly hanging off and when I went by I could see scrape marks on the wood, so these had already fallen off once!! You would think they would learn! I went through Ajo which looked a very quaint old town with a major Spanish influence, I grabbed some cash from a bank(from an ATM not anything else). 🙂 and kept on going through the mine site spoils on the southern side

It was starting to warm up now and the road headed through the Saguaro and Chollo cactus of the desert, this was down near Organ Pipe Cactus NP, I had been here around May this year, it was a hot run to the border town and I arrived around 10am.

Here I bought some insurance, I probably made a mistake by buying a months’ worth, but I am new to this, anyway, 3rd party personal and property is all it covers and was not cheap, $123.

I grabbed some breakfast next door at the cafe, now I ordered Chorizo’s and eggs, these are spicy sausages, it was to come with hash browns and toast.

As you can see, it looked like someone dumped on my plate, but it was actually quite nice, being hungry makes things more appetising anyway 🙂 Then at 10.30 I started on the border crossing, first off after entering the Mexican border zone I need to buy a tourist card, this was done speedily and cost 262pesos, but I could not pay the guard, I had to cross the road to a bank where he took my money and gave me a receipt, I would not want to lose this! Then I was free to go, but he said I would also need to buy a bike permit, this is down the road about 20kms, I wonder why it is so far away, maybe to stop corruption, weird? Anyway I was finally through and on my way in about 20 minutes all up with an entry stamp 🙂

Now it is a hot boring road south, straight roads, weird shaped cows, although I did not see any and then I hit the next check point, this is where you get your vehicle inspected and buy an import sticker.

Now, this was a bit of a drama. I had to go to the bank to get my import papers, I had already had copies of my documents, but I made a small mistake, I gave a copy of my International Drivers Permit over, but I also handed over my real QLD licence, these did not match of course, totally different documents. I fixed that up OK, but now she wanted more copies of the visitors’ permit which I had just received. She was a learner and did not speak English, so we had a sign language problem. In the end I talked one of the inspectors in to get me some copies, but he charged me a few bucks 😦 I was annoyed as another chap was also being fixed up and had no copies, that lady went out back and did his for him!! Anyway, after these delays and a bike inspection, I finally got my import sticker, which needs to be handed back in when I leave Mexico. Whew, another hour of the day lost, but it is all done now!!

I left around midday and headed south, stinking hot and boring roads, but it was all new to me, and I had a good starting point on my odometer to check my distance down south 🙂

A federal police checkpoint, but as I was not from this country I was allowed through, there are signs here on the highway saying “hassle free travel” to US cars and bikes, so that was good 🙂

I was seeing a lot of signs, so I decided to start taking pictures so I could work out what they meant, I would hate to break the law here. This first one was easy, a rest area ahead, don’t be fooled by the nice rest area, this is exceptionally good, most of the later ones were soft sand and no shade, I found that out soon enough!

A few more I have no idea about, yet

I went through a small town called Corboca or something, very concrete looking.

More signs, the third one of which I was told later meant do not rubbish.

I was so hot by now I was really glad when I spotted a rest area with shade, the first out of about 10 I had passed!

I was only a few kms from Santa Ana where I needed fuel, I only had US dollars still and this first big station ended up having no fuel, maybe they should stick a sigh up outside 😕

The next one did have fuel and I changed some dollars, but not many, the exchange rate was low, I also filled the bladder with water from a tap, might as well get used to bugs now 🙂

Onwards south, my destination was going to be Hermosilla(Hermo see yah)and it promised to be a hot boring ride, broken up by the occasional checkpoint, with some heading the other way having a longer wait 🙂

There were some vineyards down here as well, so there must be water somewhere, I got so bored I took some photos of my shadow, is that a monkey riding that thing 😕

A little while later after forking out more money at a toll booth, there is no other road so there is no choice in that, I finally got into Hermosilla and found a motel, it looked comfortable and clean and was cheap, about $40 and it had internet, a bonus 🙂

I found out a bank was down the road who would change my money, so off I toddled, but that was a waste of time, they would not do it, but the bank next door would, although it was closed today! The hotel would change it at a bad rate, but I had enough for dinner and could wait :).

This was a weird pub, I went there for the chicken wings, which turned out to be very small, but the beer was nice, I chose that one because it has half the X’s than the beer back home but twice the taste 🙂 But, the bar was based on the US army and was decked out in a very army theme, the Monday night footy was on with Spanish dubbing, but check out the washbasin and the decor, even the check is delivered to your table in an army helmet! 😆

I only stayed for a couple, just in case I was dehydrated from the days ride and headed back for an early night. Tomorrow I would need to get some cash and maybe get to Creel, a town near Copper Canyon, but it is a fairly long distance of 550km, in the heat like today probably, see what happens 🙂

Day – 354 miles and 570 km
Trip – 38,250 miles and 61,557 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

USACanadaMexico

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