Wednesday 6 February 2013

Apatzingan To Uruapan

.... I know a shortcut. 

As defined by Murphy “a shortcut is the longest distance between two points” 

Bastid was right but we had fun so that is all that matters, leaving Apatzingan we exited up and up a zig zag steadily climbing to a small village, main street was one lane but the Mexicans managed to crowd three across.

Our turn off towards Nuevo San Juan was not posted and Mrs.Garmin was having a siesta it would seem so we shot past and carried on along the main street....which turned into rougher cobbles...turned into dirt .... this aint right.

Doing a U turn on a road not a lot wider than the length of Maya we headed back and stopped asking directions ... there was pointing up a funny skinny little road which was obviously the turn off ... 

Gracias for the directions and we were off again, a beautiful narrow winding road through the village up and out then shingle, freshly dumped shingle, gravel, stones etc for rebuilding the road.





This made for interesting wrestling .. I mean riding as it was soft as well and boney, I used this as a good training, relaxed and let the long wheelbase of Maya look after us which she did.





The semi gnarly bit of the road was only 6km long before we hit beautiful tarmac again winding up through the trees and nice riding temperatures to. 

Nuevo San Juan appeared which was our turn right down into Uruapan which was our destination, inspired by Gene and Nedas Volcano report we wanted to get to the church hidden amongst the lava. 

We had arranged a couchsurf at Uruapan at a fellos place call Jorga, arriving at his work we waited for his return then he took us out to the section.

Also while waiting on the street a hot young lusty was really interested in the bike and us and even bought her boyfriend back for a look and chat, we were invited to a motocross event but it on after we were leaving. 



While waiting there a fello on a 100GS races past and returns a minute later, quick chat and a few giggles and he races off again. 





Jorga has two large dobermans, the boy was called Son and the girl was called Bitch.

Unloading the bike and getting organised we used our newly made bike cover for Maya to hide under, unfortunately Son took a liking to the cover and tore a big hole in it .... I didn’t see the funny side of that given it was the first time we used it....never mind, Ellen and a needle and thread fixed it, now there is no dispute as to which is the front.

The place was really neat



Extreme security 



Banana tree



Porcelain plant 



The dogs also barked all night at anything and everything, growling and telling them off made no difference, being really tired we really wanted a sleep and after the dogs shredded things we got a hotel just up from Jorga’s work and stayed a further two nights, turns out the owner of the hotel was the dude on the 100GS.

The not so new bike cover



Visiting the National Park which was just up from where we were staying was cool, nice plantings, beautiful creek and a river source that was very clear and cold. 





The rest of the day was filled out with cruising in town and getting some tucker.





Angahuan and Paricutin was the plan to go to the Lava flow and see the church, we were served up a beautiful day so we made the most of it.















We didn’t get up to the top of the Volcano having walked into the church, this part of the history is amazing with the lava flow spreading for miles, see Gene and Nedas thread looking down from the top.

Church and volcano in the back ground



The place has an incredible stark beauty in the middle of the sea of lava, this bought back fantastic memories of our 2010 Iceland trip.



Lunch spot at Cafe del Lava 



Huge expanse of lava flow with the volcano in the back ground



That evening we set out for tea and found a small place with pork and chicken soup, Ellen got the chicken and I got the pork not realising that mine was hot as .... all good ..red faced and sweating I enjoyed it.



The menu



Next stop Zitacuaro 

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