A Ride To Cosala

We presently have a Franch Canadian caravan in the back of the park.   They arrived from Tachos RV park in Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday afternoon and they will leave on Sunday morning.  There are about 20 rigs which is a little less than last year but there will be a second wave next week.  They seem nice enough and the guy next to us speaks good English so he was happy to come over and chat to us.  We did take French in school but that was over 50 years ago!  Our mission is to learn as much Spanish as possible and not confuse our brains with French! 

It has been a cool winter here in Mazatlan and now we have been getting huge blasts of sea fog.  I hung my laundry out on Wednesday morning and it was a bit difficult to get it to dry.

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And now for the ride.  We had hoped to overnight in Cosala this winter but some how it just didn’t work out.  Frank and Sandi had planned to come with us and stay as well but…next winter!  Today’s distance is 100 miles each way which is about as far as we like to go on a day ride.  200 miles is hard on old bodies!

That’s Eric outside the rig cleaning up Big Red’s windshield.

Out of the park and north  to Avenida Ing. Mario A. Huerta Sanchez where we will turn east.    This will take us out to the free road where we’ll head north to the turn-off to Cosala. 

Just before El Quelite there is a little town with a huge soccer field that isn’t ever used.  Today it has a circus tent in it. 

As we rode along we were passed by a couple of bikers on what Eric thought were Kawasakis.  They were geared up and heading north. 

Passed the turn off to San Ignacio.

Passed the turn off to Estacion Dimas.

Over the Rio Piaxtla.

Passed La Minta which appears to have an inactive mine operation and a few people living in town.  I looked it up on the net and it seems to be for sale as a prospective mine.  No takers at this point!

Ahead the Sierra Madres appear in the distance.

Here you could turn off and go into La Cruz de Elota.

And what grows in this area…elota or corn.

                

The free road isn’t in very good shape here…lots of patches and broken pavement.  However the toll road isn’t any better and you have to pay a huge amount of money to drive on it!

Turn right for Cosala.  We left the park just after 9am and it’s now 10:30 and we’ve gone about 67 miles so ….about 35 miles to go. 

Pretty here and the mountains are looming in the distance.

First we pass the El Salto lodge where you can stay if you want to go bass fishing on….El Salto Lake.  This is a man made lake created by  damming the Elota river in 1986 to supply adequate water for agriculture and it covers over 25,000 acres during the rainy season.  It has a maximum depth of 140 feet, an average temp of 80F and the water is apparently crystal clear.  It was stocked with large mouth Florida bass which are said to grow quite large in this perfect habitat.  As we ride by the lake is barely visible as it’s the dry season. 

The road’s pretty good here.

As we get farther along and start to climb the twisty turns start to appear. 

Many small towns like Ibonia along the way.

The truck ahead of us is loaded with cement bags and he is barely moving….heavy!

There is some sort of hay or grain crop along the way.

As we get closer there is a little advertising

We climb over another ridge and then head down.

Eric really has to pay attention here and we’re in first gear and going slow. 

Down we go. The elevation in Cosala is around 1300 ft which isn’t that high but we have come over a couple of high ridges along the way.

Here we are in Cosala which dates back to 1550. 

There is a very long sidewalk heading into town….I wonder how many people ever walk on it.

We are on the main highway heading into town and toward the Santa Ursula church.

Even the Mexican tourists like to have their picture taken in front of the Cosala sign! 

We are heading up to the Hotel Quinta Minera where we hope to stay next year.  Today we’ll just have lunch.

A quick left here and we’ll arrive. 

That’s Eric leading the way to food!

We ate here last year and there were quite a few people eating.   Today….only us!

Only Tecate served here and since it’s cold it’s just fine along with some good in house salsa and chips. 

While I was in the washroom one of the workers came to tell Eric he couldn’t leave the bike out on the street.  He said there was no parking even though we’d parked on the white curb which was past the yellow curb.  He wanted Eric to move it down into their parking lot.  Eric explained it was all loose gravel down there and it wasn’t safe so they compromised…they opened the door and let him bring it inside! 

Lunch today is our usual choice when it’s offered on the menu….Chili relleno with refried beans and rice….served with…

….blue tortillas. 

Guess who!

I couldn’t really understand what this plaque was about so I looked it up.  It turns out that Heraclio Bernal was a bandit know as the “Thunderbolt of Sinaloa!”  Born in 1855 and died in 1888 so he didn’t last long.  A Robin Hood of sorts and there are lots of ballads sung in his memory. 

Governor of Sinaloa in the 1800’s.

Selling birds I would guess.

Lunch is done and it’s time to pay the bill and head home.  Funny enough the food was cheap 85 pesos a plate but it turns out the beer was 40 pesos each.  I don’t think I’ve ever paid that much for a Tecate in Mexico! 

We asked one of the women from the kitchen which way to get out of town and she said to turn left when we got out the side door and then take the first right and travel down to the malecon.   

We followed the malecon along the arroyo until we met the road which comes into town where we turned right to head towards home.  This was a much easier way to get to the hotel and next time we’ll just backtrack this way rather than going through the middle of town.  Google maps did tell us to leave town this way but on the bike you have to be sure so that’s why we asked for directions.   

I spotted these ladies with the little girl and you can see in the cropped picture she has cowboy boots on with her tutu dress and hat!  Too funny.

Bye bye Cosala ….see you next winter.

The twisty turny ride back repeats itself.

The picture doesn’t do it justice but we are up very high. 

They must have water here as you need lots to grow corn. 

We’re just south of the turn off to El Quelite and we have a large truck full of scrap metal in front of us….no bueno!  There is no cover on it and Eric quickly passed so we wouldn’t get hit by any flying metal. 

The tell tale sign that we are almost home…..the Riu. 

That evening the “ Fun Bus” showed up to take the caravan people out for a tour and dinner.   This driver came into the back of the park and couldn’t make the turn by us so he had to back up and turn around in an empty spot.  This has happened before and the driver had to back all the way out.

A good day….a couple of happy hour beers…..soup for supper and bed!