Entering Mexico for the second time in a week, this time through Nogales, south of Tucson. My entry to Baja the week before was planned that way because, although I wasn’t “scared” of Mexico, I thought it might be better to avoid the northern border region. That’s where a lot of the trouble is, no sense taking unnecessary chances right?
But after my week in Baja I was fairly comfortable in Mexico and around Mexicans, so wasn’t too worried about the Nogales crossing.
Easy peasy! Now having lunch on the beautiful town square at Magdalena de Kino, a couple of hours from the border. Paperwork (only needed on the Mexico side) for the bike took less than an hour, and I already had the tourist visa from Baja.
The road from Magdelena to Banamichi was fun and scenic, but surface was pretty broken up in places. This is where the new suspension made itself felt – or not felt, as the case may be! The bike just glided over rough sections that would have felt very harsh previously. Great!
I went through a couple of police checkpoints – or at least they are some branch of the Police, known as PEI. At the first checkpoint I didn’t recognise what was on the side of the vehicle – PEI didn’t mean anything to me, except maybe Prince Edward Island, but I thought that was probably not what they were referring to. I was more focused however on the guy waving me down with the AK slung over his shoulder. It must have been casual Friday for these guys, this one was wearing a track suit top, jeans and sneakers… He asked me where I was going and then waved me through. No drama but a bit disconcerting not knowing who you are talking to. There was another stop a bit further down the road, this time the guys were in uniform and it showed – the attitude was less casual as well!
I’d arranged to stay the first night in Mexico at a hotel in Sonora, run by an America expat, Tom, and his wife. After the casual cops I had no further problems, although the roads were narrow and bumpy. No problem though and got to Tom’s place (Hotel Los Arcos de Sonora) around 4pm.
The next morning I took some quiet backroads to get me over to Mex 16. The roads were so quiet in fact that more than once I thought to myself “why am I the only person on this road? Do the locals know something I don’t?” I was able to keep my paranoia in check, mainly by focusing on the riding and the road and dodging the potholes. The road south on this map is one of these… Once I got onto Mex 16 east, the road was just fabulous, and not quite as deserted. There was still very little traffic though, and a million and one curves, it was just a blast. I was stopped at a military checkpoint not long after getting onto 16, but the guys were friendly and interested in the bike more than anything else.
But soon I was on MUCH better pavement, winding my way between these imposing rock formations. It went on like this for hundreds of miles… I’ve never ridden better roads, and with such little traffic. The banditos/donkey/cows/trucks that I’d been warned about either weren’t present or didn’t present much of a problem. Cows and donkeys tend to be slow moving, so on the odd occasion they are standing in the middle of the road, they are easy to avoid. My worst animal experience so far was trying to avoid a vicious-looking dog that was chasing me as I cruised through a village; my usual tactic is to accelerate away, but with slow-moving traffic ahead of me this wasn’t an option. Instead I resorted to weaving, and almost wove myself into the back bumper of a parked car! I have to figure out another strategy – a blade that pops out from the boot, a la Maxwell Smart?
