Day 23 was hands down our best day of riding so far. It could have only been better if I had Eva Mendes on the back seat. We took off from Batopilas, and started ascending in the green mountains through a tight winding dirt road. The views were once again amazing (unfortunately pictures never do justice to what we saw). We crossed a few trucks on our way up. It's really impressive to see them making their way through such roads, which would be scary for the average person in a 4x4. The previous day, we had even seen a semi with a back hoe and big generator on a 45 ft long float trailer. I wouldn't have thought that this was actually feasible (never mind safe). These drivers have balls of steel, no doubt about it.
Once we ascended up to about 2500 m, the landscape changed completely. The vegetation was now almost alpine, and we rode the next 2 hours through a pine forest, on some very fun high speed hard packed tracks. The temperature had dropped down drastically too, and we were now down to 10-15 deg. C. I know it may seem like a lot for people in Montreal at this time of the year, but it's chilly on a motorcycle, and especially when we had a comfortable 28 deg. C in the morning in Batopilas ;)
We eventually hit pavement, and we were now on smooth twisty roads for another 2 hours. At some point, as we were coming out of a turn, we see two other bikes parked on the shoulder, so we pull off to see where they're from. We immediately notice the license plates from Ontario. It turns out that Ken (on a KLR 650) and Mike (on a BMW GS650), both from Toronto, were also heading South. Ken is planning to make it to Panama, whereas Mike is riding down to Argentina as well, but a bit on a tighter schedule than we are, since he has 4 months to complete his trip. We agreed to ride together for the remaining of the day.
Later in the afternoon, the scenery changed again, and the landscape was now reminiscent of Utah, with its red rock and western style rock shapes. We finally arrived in Hidalgo de Parras in the evening, right after sunset. The city itself is ordinary, really nothing worth mentioning except out first police shake down of the trip. We were standing outside of our hotel, waiting for the small restaurant downstairs to prepare some food for Mihai and Mike, when two pick ups of heavily armed cops pull up to us. They tell us to step aside, and we get lined up hands up on the truck, and they search us. After a few questions, they leave... with our 8-pack of beer. LOL. We had just brought these from a store near by, and we were 100% legit, since the cans were unopened and in a grocery bag. I still can't believe that the corrupt bastards did that.. Well, a loss of 4$, but at least we have a story to tell ;)
The day after, we were talking to two ladies also staying in the hotel, and they were very apologetic about the event. They said that police corruption is a major problem in Mexico, and that if something similar happens, we should get the cops' name and badge number, and threaten to report to the embassy and media. Well, I don't think I would do that for 4$ worth of beer, but for 400$ bribe, maybe ;). Between our encounters with narcos, cops and the military, the cops have been the only ones we had trouble with.
With the two other Canadians from Toronto, Ken and Mike
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