TravellingStrom

Wednesday – Creel, Mexico

Well, I did not sleep well again and woke up tired, but after yesterdays effort it is not surprising. The internet was down so it seemed, but I could work on writing the day up anyway. I called reception and even went down and asked as they may need to just reset the router. No one spoke English this morning so it was a lost cause even with me drawing pictures! In the end I grabbed some breakfast, once again Cherizos and eggs with toast, but not whole.

While doing this the Manager(who spoke some English) mentioned that the internet is down quite often for no reason for quite some time and this is true of a lot of Mexico. So, it is a good time to mention here that from now on I am limiting my photo upload per day as I may need to post multiple days at a cafe somewhere, so no more huge photo days. Sorry, but that is the way of it unless I get a good connection and slip some extras in.

Now, I had seen this bike in the car park last night and it sort of looked familiar, but I was tired and did not pay attention, so later in the morning after a mild case of stomache upset, I decided to stay another day and sort out my route into the canyon.

While there I spotted a familiar face and it was Vincent, he was the Transalp rider I had met in Fairbanks Alaska who was trying to head to Prudhoe Bay in the rain and fog etc. He told me later he did end up making it in the rain the following day and even stayed overnight and did the tour as well, good on him 🙂 He also got in yesterday and as it turns out did the same route as I did but in the daylight. He had actually stayed at Yucora where I met them funny dudes in a truck and taken 7 hours to do the last 300km the next day! Anyway we chatted for a while and decided we would do the canyon together tomorrow, so today we went for a walk around the town, but I also wanted to go on a tour at 2pm, if I could drag myself away from the dunny that is, Montezuma’s Revenge, or never trust a fart 🙂

Now, this is why I had some problems last night finding the motel, the sign says Best Western, but no street address, the sign next to it says turn left here for hotel plus other things BUT, the sign next to that says no left turn 😕 I was confused, but even today it looked like a one way street here, although the street signs along it were facing both ways, oh well, chalk another one up 🙂 We grabbed a Burrito for lunch from a small cafe where the menu board was blank, but it tasted very nice and was cheap as chips 🙂

I noticed back at the motel that my saddle bags are a bit worse for wear after only a few days, I guess I was a bit more aggressive into corners yesterday than I thought, I may have work out a repair or bin them, or a different mounting solution.

By now it was time to get on the tour, there was a bit of confusion about the price, it was supposed to be 200p, but the docket showed 600p. It turns out we were the only two on the tour, a minimum of 4 was normal, so they bumped the price up and that price on the docket was for two. We ended up getting it for 200p each anyway and headed off with a non English speaking driver, what’s the point of a tour guide that does not cater for tourists? Anyway, we stopped at a few of the ‘attractions’, first there was Elephant Rock then a lake surrounded by hawkers and then an old church.

Then it was off to a waterfall, here we had to run the gauntlet of hawkers, but as it turned out we were not hassled at all, they just politely did their own thing, I guess as it was a tourist park with an entrance fee, it is up to tourists to buy, rather than them sell. The waterfall was not at its maximum strength, so it was not as impressive as it could be. On the way I saw this huge boulder being held up by a small column of softer rock that had been worn away, not a place to be hiding under I reckon!

We had the time so we decided to walk down those steps to the bottom, even though we knew we had to walk back up 🙂 And after a few photos it was back up to the top again, although the new steps are better than the old ones.

The way back included a swinging bridge, courtesy of the two small boys, who after we did not give them any money proceeded to rock it mightily, I am sure if you pay you get a smooth ride across 🙂 Right next to it was the remains of the old bridge, not quite so swinging!

By now it was 4pm so we negotiated the rough ride back to the motel, where the internet was happening so I quickly posted yesterdays post, before we headed into town for a beer or two 🙂

I had been given a free dinner voucher at the motel because I had asked for an AAA discount which they did not give, so I was OK with the replacement 🙂 I noticed these SES cars, but they were the wrong colour and were concerned with a slightly different theme as well!