Clubhouse Dinner

Day 27 – Mazatlan to Guamuchil

The weather is getting warmer, especially as you move away from the coast. Shortly after lunch we passed through Culiacan, a city with close to 1M inhabitants. It was hot and we got lost. Not fun at all. Eventually we found our way onto hwy 15 north. Overall the GPS helped, but at times, I found it was more confusing than helpful.

We arrived in Guamuchil late afternoon and as is common practise, we followed the signs to “el centro”, parked the bikes and started looking for a hotel. As Lee walked around the corner to see if there was any sign of a hotel, Linda and I were approached by a local gentleman (Victor). He spoke some English and told us that there was a motorcycle club in town and that he would like to invite us to come over. He also offered to help us find a hotel. As he was explaining this Lee came back to tell us that he had spoken to a couple of police officers on bicycles and they were waiting to lead us to a hotel. Victor agreed to meet us in a half an hour so we jumped on the bikes and followed the cops on bicycles.

The ride behind the two cops was interesting. To get to the hotel, they led us through 3 stop signs and then the wrong way down a one way street! The hotel fit the bill, so we checked in, quickly showered, changed and hurried back to meet Victor.

By the time we got back to meet Victor he had made some calls and we were met another member of the club. Javier could speak very good English and explained more about the club and the motorcycle community in Guamuchil.

There are not a lot of larger motorcycles in Mexico. They are expensive and difficult to import. Because of this the motorcycle community is fairly small. The club numbers about 70 members. I would think that the club members would represent the majority on motorcycle owners in this community of 100,000 people. They ride all sorts of motorcycles from sport bikes, to cruisers to off road bikes.

We were invited to their clubhouse for beers and dinner. One of the members likes to cook and prepares meals nearly every night of the week. Everyone who shows up chips in for the food and drink. Since we were the invited guests, some calls were made and about 25 members showed up to greet us and have dinner. Indio is the cook. When he heard that we liked chicken he made a fabulous chicken stew. I have no idea what it would be called, but it was very good. Several of the members could speak some English so between their English and our Spanish we traded stories all evening. We eventually made it back to the hotel about 1:30am.

We can’t thank the club members enough for their hospitality. They made us feel very welcome. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Victor for taking the time to approach us and extend the invitation. This event was a memorable highlight of our trip. We hope to make it back here again.

We didn’t get up too early this morning.

Day 28 – Guamuchil to Navohoa, Sonora

Another hot, windy day, but only 270K. We made good time because Highway 15 is mostly 4 lanes now. The free 2 lane hwy 15 has ended and the only road north now is a toll road. At this point I don’t mind. Much of the road is mainly across the Sonora Desert. As far as I’m concerned, the less time we spend on the road the better. One good point about the toll roads here is that the toll also gives you break down coverage. Hopefully we don’t need it is nice to have.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to San Carlos on the coast of the Gulf of California.