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Day 4:

I awoke several times during the night to the sound of heavy rain.

At dawn, Raul clambored our of his room, setting off the Mexican alarm clock [a rooster is a real Mexican alarm clock].

I grabbed a cup of fresh brewed coffee, not that Nescafe crap, and dragged myself down to the road that leads to Satevo.

Our plan was to ride to Satevo, and then on to Tubares and ultimately Urique and Ceracahui before returning to Creel and then home. Nevertheless, the water was high. Very high. Very fast.

I saw a horse, two cows and some chickens presumably drowned in the river, pass by in the current. The road to Satevo is submerged. Not gonna happen.
The same road, same place, one half hour later:

Still no power, and the river is still on the rise.

Then I found out the road INTO town was also flooded. We were trapped in Batopilas. If you ever have to be trapped in Mexico, Batopilas is one of the fun places to be trapped in.

Asking around, I found that the river crossing of the Urique, about 40 miles downriver, was about 10 feet deep, and looked just like the river here. No way were we going to cross it, not for a few days at least. I also had learned that at least one hombre was swept away by the river early that morning.

Since we were trapped in Batopilas, we went and had a great breakfast.

Afterwards, Nick finished his mexicanada radiator repair. By adding some twisted bailing wires to replace a lost exhaust spring, Nick truly created a world class mexicanada.

By God, he was even beginning to LOOK like a Mexican.

Killer and I chatted up the hostess, Victoria, a very pretty and very nice young lady, although a tad on the shy side. I suspect I would have been too, if I was a girl and had a couple of grubby Americanos pestering me.

I spent the rest of the morning looking over my shoulder to make sure Victoria's novio or hermano wasn't about to cut off my head with a machete. I spied a nice ol' R80GS, the only other bike in town.

Killer and I took a ride down to the river, which had begun to drop.

The sun came out, the skies cleared, and a beautiful day was being conjured up by the Sun God.

The water was only a foot deep by the time we went back, suited up and headed back towards Creel. There was no possibility of getting to Tubares, since much of the road was now GONE, and there was still several feet of water south of town.

Our plans then changed, and back to Creel was today's ride. Back to the gas stoves, beer store, and maybe the power was back on.

The bridge into and out of Batopilas.

Heading northeast out of Batopilas was a real adventure.

The road was strewn with rocks, boulders, mudslides and waterfalls. One rockslide had a boulder the size of a two car garage blocking the road. When we rode in the day before, I noticed a good deal of rocks falling down the slope, but never really paid much mind. Although we were all riding at a good pace, with no dust, care had to be taked to avoid the rocks.

The views were awesome, and quite difficult to put into words.

The canyon with the raging and muddy river slithering past made me feel like I was in some African Basin, with an unnamed river carving it's way through to Victoria Falls.......

It sure looks different on a clear day.

Water crossings were the day's highlights.

A Tarahumara Indian hoofing it to Batopilas was kind enough to let a few of us pose with him.

Crossing the bridge and climbing out of the canyon on the switchbacks proved challenging.

Much of the road was washed out, leaving very rock and rutted sections, with many two foot deep mini-canyons cut across the road. I love the rocky stuff. Somehow, despite the Adventure's weight, it absolutely ROCKS on that terrain.
The views are a bit different in appearance today, being that we're not viewing the interior of a cloud.

After riding alone from the overlook back to pavement, we all hit it and race back to Creel.

After a good dinner of tacos de carne asada, a visit to the internet cafe to post some inflammatory stuff for my buddies on ADVRider.com, followed by six hundred or so Tecates, we got into the Holiday spirit.

Feliz Navidad. More cerveza, por favor.

The bikes rest outside the Hotel in Creel. It's supoosed to drop into the teens tonight. Stoke up that stove!

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