At what point do you cut and run? I was so Hell bent & committed to making good distance away from Puerto Vallarta before I slipped into even more days of lazy balmy leisure… that I just kept telling myself that the black cloud mass would just “burn off” like JR speculated. But, it got just got darker and darker. Even still, I told myself that it would likely just be a quick summer storm and I’d pop out the other side of it in a matter of minutes. And, that it’d likely just be a welcome and refreshing shower that would make the rest of the ride a little more delightful.

I was wrong.

The two-lane from Puerto Vallarta towards Zacatecas is actually a pretty cool road in good condition that ascends through thick jungle foliage. It whips back and forth through sharp technical curves with no shoulder at all. The only problem is that this road is congested with buses, cars, semi-trucks, and local motorbikes. You’re constantly leap-frogging around blind curves or doomed to crawl at a snail’s pace behind a semi truck inhaling huge plumes of diesel exhaust as you climb up and up.

Imagine you’re focused on the road curves and obstacles while managing as best you can… trying not to get creamed by someone behind you trying to skip their turn in the leap-frog game, or you timing your blind-curve pass wrong and becoming a gooey smear on the front of a bus flying down the mountain with a full load of tourists all excited about long week of basking in Puerto Vallarta’s moist romance. Now imagine this scenario darkened with heavy black cloud, gusting wind and giant tropical raindrops falling as your vision is obscured down to almost nothing. You try to maintain constant speed so as not to lose traction and thus squashed by the truck driver behind you who likely can’t see well either.

You decide that perhaps you should give up, pull over and seek shelter. But, guess what? There’s nowhere to get shelter and not even a shoulder to pull over on. You’re locked in and have to look death in the face as he laughs at your bull headed decision to ignore all of the clues that would be perfectly clear to any other sane person. The clear-cut that one should have paid heed to all of the available intelligence that forging ahead was a very bad idea.

Lesson learned, but now I’m stuck and have to stay focused and not panic. It seemed like an eternity, but the worst of it was only a couple hours. After that, it calmed down to a light right for the next hour or so and had stopped about the time I’d entered Guadalajara.

Sailing from one end of Guadalajara, straight through the middle to pop out the other side, went surprisingly well. Or, maybe I was just so desensitized from my previous terror ride through Mexico City in the rain, and the hell ride up the mountain from Puerto Vallarta in what seemed like hurricane level winds and rain. In any case, I was now seasoned and ready for anything.

I hadn’t really decided where I was going, but a split in the highway came and it was either Guanajuato, Aguas Callientes, or Zacatecas. I really didn’t think I’d make Puerto Vallarta to Zacatecas in one day, but i was now making such great time that it was now a viable option. I still couldn’t decide, but since I’d been in Guanajuato only a year and a half prior I took the left turn toward Aguas Callientes. This option would also leave the Zacatecas option open since they’re basically the same direction. I adore Guanajuato and think it may be my favorite city in all of Mexico, or, at least in my top five. Something about Guanajuato never fails to stimulate my mind. But this time I was committed to seeing more new places and at minimum, places I haven’t seen in many years.

The last few hours, the weather was perfect. The toll highway after Guadalajara is mostly straight and perfect for decent speed. Actually, after the winding part from Puerto Vallarta the toll highway is also a great ride with stellar vistas of the high plains and big swooping dramatic curves as you continue to slowly ascend.

Before I knew it, I was entering Aguas Callientes. It mostly looked industrial with more modern architecture and large tracts of what appears to be cookie-cutter residential block-houses. I’m sure there must be some very nice parts of Aguas Callientes and it looked like it is likely a pleasant enough place to live, but I wasn’t feeling it. Onward to Zacatecas.

Just a little over an hour, I was at the foot of the centerpiece mountain called La Bufa that Zacatacas is wrapped around the base of. Navigating Zacatecas is a bit tricky since the typical city grid evidently doesn’t adapt so well to being laid over partly at the foot of a mountain, but I managed well enough.

Rooms were mostly full due to “vacaciones” (the time in the summer before school starts and all Mexican families take to the roads for vacation).

And, the hostal I chose didn’t have any private rooms left, so I had to stay in a dormitory with four bunk beds in it.

Luckily I was the only one there so it was like having a private room anyway. The bathroom and shower was right outside the door across a little courtyard. It was nice and cool at this higher altitude so all was quite good. I made such great time that I still had time to get out on the street before last light to get a few images before looking for some tasty street food. And, after the day I’d had… I was famished!

Zacatecas is very similar to Guanajuato in that it’s in the higher plains and more of a desert region. The architecture is also very geometric and colorful… built on hillsides with steep passages and great for getting those colorful, stacked-house looking images. In some ways, I think Zacatecas has a slight edge for capturing that look photographically, in that it’s a bit more open and easier to get wider shots than in Guanajuato’s dense neighborhoods. Both are great though. I think I love them both for different reasons and will definitely add Zacatecas to my pantheon of places I like to return to.

There were posters all about town advertising a bull fight coming up on Sunday. Personally, I find the “sport” abhorrent. But, I do fancy myself a bit of a journalist with my photography and bull fights are a part of the culture that arent’ likely to cease anytime soon, so I thought maybe it would be something I should document. I had enough time left to extend my stay an extra day for it, and it just so happens that I hit the city right when they were having them, so… why not?

For some strange reason, I found myself trying to find the most difficult route up the mountain they call La Bufa overlooking Zacatecas. There are taxis that go up to the top. There’s a sky car that goes up. My motorcycle was parked outside so I could have easily just ridden up. But, I decided to pick the roughest side of the mountain and hike up instead. I kept thinking about that line regarding the road less traveled I suppose. It seemed like a good idea until the pathway got really harsh and it appeared that I was hugging the bottom of a cliff face that wouldn’t allow me to pass the last few meters to make it to the top.

There were a couple of abandoned mine shafts that seemed to plunge down into a very deep void with rusted steel cables dangling into the darkness. I kicked a rock into one of them toward the top and it seemed to take a good while before I could barely hear it splash into water below.

It was clear I was going to have to retreat and go back the way I’d come… so I spent awhile perched up on a large rock just enjoying the sprawling city below. The terrain was harsh, dry and the trees looked lightning burnt and below was the colorful toy-box houses that blanket the valley. The colorful liveliness contrasted with the lifeless dry and stony mountain terrain was very peaceful for some reason.

On my way back down the path I’d taken to get up the mountain, I noticed a small path that looked like it might wrap around the cliff face and I thought there might just be a way to get up the last bit without having to go all the way back down.

I was right! Just a small path for servicing the cable car system I suppose, but it got me up the last several meters.

As I climbed over the last ridge. There was a Mexican family standing there waiting their turn before getting in line for the cable car. They just all quietly watched the ledge in amazement as some sweaty gringo with cameras dangling off of him, non-elegantly scrambled over the stone ridge and breathlessly said, “Buenos tardes!”. They just stared at me in disbelief at I brushed myself off and walked up beside them to take a few images of the vista. It was a little comical I think.

After spending a couple hours studying the amazing views from La Bufa, I began my descent. I discovered there was a great stone pedestrian path all the way down with steps in the steepest places and lovely benches along the way to rest if one needed to. Perhaps I should have asked around before I’d taken off overland the hard way. ;-)

When exactly that I stopped being interested in finding bars to drink in, I can’t tell you. But for some reason, that didn’t interest me in the slightest anymore. The hostal owner asked if I wanted to play dominoes with him. At first I declined. I then thought,” what the hell?” dominoes actually sounds like fun. After I told him I’d changed my mind and would play, he was so excited and called for his two sons to bring the dominoes. He also had them bring a pile of peso coins to bet with. They all filed into my dormitory room and he pulled up some 70’s music on his cell phone speaker for entertainment.

The first night, I think I finished with more pesos then anyone. I was crowned “El Champion.” The second night, between he and his sons… they won it all back. In the end, I think we all finished with exactly the same amount of pesos we’d all started with. I can’t think of a better way I could have spent a Friday and Saturday night in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Sunday, the day of the bull fights, it rained off and on throughout the day. Some of the day I spent checking out the Huichol Indian Museum. They have a great collection of the colorful yarn paintings and animal beadwork the Huichol Indians are famous for. The paintings depict scenes from peyote visions that are so bizarre and amazing, that I began to wonder if perhaps I haven’t been eating enough of the plants all this tine on my own ceremonies within the sacred desert called Huiricuta. Then, I realized they’ve got thousands of years of uncorrupted cosmological context to draw from and perhaps my mixed mongrel background with lost history and very little context likely would never produce the same sort of visions anyway. In any case, since I was going back to Huiricuta after Zacatecas, i thought perhaps their amazing vision-inspired yarn paintings might give me a taste of that same pure context to draw from on my next desert quest.

It continued to rain and I asked the hostel owner if he thought the bull fights were covered from the rain. He said that they weren’t and that they’d likely cancel it because the bull fighters can’t really do their fancy turns and such so well in the mud. Not to mention that it’s pretty dangerous to be slipping around in the mud with an angry bull charging you. He suggested I should just stay behind and play another round of dominoes instead.

Did I listen to his advice? No. I was again hell-bent on not changing course in the face of glaring evidence that I should scrap the bullfight plans. I guess I didn’t really learn my lesson after the hell ride through the hurricane-like wall of rainfall and gusting wind just a few days prior after all. ;-)

I won’t bore you with every detail of everything that went wrong on the bull fight quest, but I will just sum it up with the fact I spent the better part of the evening walking in the rain, not seeing a bull fight, getting my camera gear wet, and then waiting in a Denny’s sort of café  called Vip’s listening to some family’s screaming brats running throughout the restaurant terrorizing all the patrons who were also trapped and waiting for the rain to let up. I definitely should have stayed at the hostel playing dominoes. ;-)

At least the bull fights were cancelled early and at least two glorious bulls lived to fight another day.

I’m sooooo glad I decided to give Zacatecas another shot. The last time I was in Zacatecas several years ago, nothing fell into place and I ended up writing the place off for future visits. Aside from the evening spent getting soaked by passing vehicles sending waves of dirty street water my way… I really enjoyed Zacatecas and will definitely be coming back, if for no other reason than to win back a few pesos playing dominoes.

Only one more stop before I head back toward the Texas border. One more stretch of days in the Huiricuta desert region where I started and reflect upon the whole journey. I think the ride to Wadley should be an easy one and I’m looking forward to sharing my new stories with El Senor Mescalito. I’m sure he’ll be quite entertained with my perpetual foolishness. :-)

Hasta,

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