San Buenaventura to Cuatro Ciénegas
Day3, 44 miles
Terrible sore throat this morning, and all day. Wonder where that came from. My cold ride to Houston? Or the winter storm in Austin?
Did some serious goofing off today before leaving San Buenaventura. Taking photos of bell towers and bicycles. Saw several trucks move through the plaza area with beautiful horses in the back, but not quick enough with the camera. Don´t know where I read it but some boss was talking to his photojournalist before an assignment in a foreign country and he said-- I want to see what the milk bottles look like.
The road was under construction, led through some arid mountain ranges. Cuatro Ciénegas, about an hour away, is a fine little desert town, upbeat, painted with bright colors, laid back. And internet. Poked around, got the lay of the land there are all these pools, or pozas they call ´em here. In the middle of the desert, and there are lots of them, like oasises. Lonely Planet suggested one in particular for solitude, and that´s where I headed, about 10 miles out, after finding out where it was. There were several palm roofed palapas available, the place was deserted. Spent the afternoon there next to the water, taking photos with my new gigantic big-bucks lens. (Hard to even hold the camera.) Took a swim. Saw a turtle, and a lone duck. Both disappeared under the water and I never saw where they surfaced again.
Then out came the maps and calculator and it was time to plan the rest of my trip. After careful deliberation, I decided on a big push to Guadalajara, before coming home. Towards the end of the afternoon the wind started blowing fiercely. I toyed with the idea of heading out tonight, towards Torreon, but there is about a 100 mile stretch with no gas and my tank was less than half full.
Then a couple of older guys (in their 60´s?) show up in a pick up truck and proceed to sit with me at the table under my palapa and share their lunch of tortillas, avocados, sandwiches, coffee and sweet rolls. One of them,Raul, was described by the other, Jose, as the owner of this land. Well, Raul said he owned 17,946 hectares of it. You do the math. I was pretty impressed. He admitted it was a lot of land.
With the wind out of control, late in the afternoon, I decide to be nice to myself and go back to Cuatro Ciénegas and spring for a room. Finally nailed a nice room! Woo Hoo! I so tickled. Check it out at Plaza Hotel. At $47, what a deal.
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