Why is it so…. just as you plan to leave, you meet interesting people that make you consider staying longer. We pack up the bikes and decide to take the "short cut" through the farmlands heading towards another coastal town, named San Carlos. Yesterday we had asked a couple of locals we had met in the restaurant about the road that cut across, to Highway 15 cutting out the need to return back to the town of Hermosillo. Their response was….Oh yeah, "the short cut!" It will cut off about an hour of your travel time, is a safe farm truck route, although, it does have many large potholes. But you should have no problems being on the bikes and be able to maneuver around them easily. It is beautiful farmland out there! Cool we thought, this is the way we will go!
Riding out of Bahia de Kino was a little sad. We had ventured into the old area of the town…it was very run down. Many people living in makeshift almost rickety horse stable like structures, that a westerner would not even consider keeping their horse in. Most of town streets were dirt, had a desolate feel and many, many skinny roaming dogs. The locals wandering around seemed cheerful enough, but it did have a very different feel compared to the "new" area. Experiencing this first hand on a bike has a huge impact. It is like walking down a street verses driving down a street….you just see and feel so much more. We continued on our way over to "the short cut" and unfortunately passed a dead dog on the road almost every 20 kilometers. It was very sad for me. Maybe the farm road will cheer me up?
Now we expected potholes, how many…I don't really know… but this road was crazy. It was completely chewed up in sections, under construction with rigid hard packed dirt in others, that definitely kept my mind occupied. Not really cheering me up so to speak. I have to think that it was not a "short cut" at all! I really did not look out across the barren farmlands as my eyes were fixated on the road ahead. Trucks that travel this road swerve back and fourth across the single laned, gravely, bitumen to avoid damaging their axels in the various depths of the pitted voids. I was happy to see a semi trailer zoom by in the distance as we neared Highway 15. Highway 15 was buzzing with traffic. The 100 km/hr speed limit did not seem to make much sense as it too had the odd pothole to avoid. We kept our speed to around 80.
Arriving in San Carlos we hit the bank, filled up at the petrol station then swept the area to find accommodation. I have to say that I love the Mexican service of having my petrol pumped at the service stations here! You don't even have to pull your helmet off let alone get off the bike…so cool! San Carlos is definitely a picturesque jewel along the Sea of Cortez. The jagged cactus pricked mountains encase the shimmering azul waters of Cortez, definitely eye candy! San Carlos is very different to Bahia de Kino…There is much wealth parked in the 2 marinas, many westerners riding the township on there mechanical mules, and no skinny dogs! Maybe a combination of the two towns would make me feel more at ease!
