Durango Mountain Views

Our brief incursion into Durango during our April trip was to visit an old iron suspension bridge and mine tunnel at Mapimi en route from Parras to Parral . From Parras we easily found the town of Bermejillo , where the road to Mapimi turns off and noted a small motel built around a courtyard at the entrance to the town that looked nice and clean and well-kept. We then drove for about 30km through some countryside that looked just like you would expect Mexican countryside to look. Mostly scrub, with a backdrop of bare mountains topped by a blue sky with white clouds. We had rarely had such clean clear air since we left San Antonio and the mountains looked fantastic in it.

The turn-off for Puente de los Ojuelas came earlier than expected and we were immediately surprised to find an entrance gate with a ticket office. LPM hadn’t mentioned any entry fee suggesting that it was out of date and that the road might be in better shape than it had said. We asked if we could drive to the top and the ticket-seller said yes. That was good news for Jan, who didn’t want to do any long hike today after having walked a long way the previous day.

Puente de los Ojuelas

The road was narrow and ran along the valley floor to the nearby hills. Just as we started to climb we passed a small hut that looked like a bus stop and noticed a young man standing there. Gerry tried to ask by gesture if he would like a ride, but he waved us on and soon after the road became definitely only wide enough for one car and changed from gravelled asphalt to cobblestone. Another trial for our poor little Escort. Because the road was steep it had to climb in first gear the whole way and because of the stones it was bounced and jostled the whole way. Jan was afraid it would shake itself apart.

As we started to climb the scenery got better and better and the road twistier and twistier until after about 15 minutes we emerged onto a flat area where a handful of cars were parked and straight ahead of us the supports for the suspension bridge. We parked the car and first looked back to where we had come to admire the great view of the valley, along which we had driven from Bermejillo, and the mountains beyond.

Then we crossed the bridge, tentatively at first, as the guard rails left huge gaps through which you could fall if you tripped and it was a long way down to the bottom of the dry gorge. At the other end, was an entrance into one of the old mine tunnels and there we found a group of people, some waiting to take a guided tour and some waiting for another group to come back. Two men were anxious to go, but the guide wouldn’t take just two so he worked hard to convince us to go. Jan wasn’t too keen, but in the end her curiosity got the better of her and off the five of us went.

Emerging from the mine tunnel

The tunnel itself was mostly unremarkable. It was generally six foot high and six foot wide with a dirt floor that was sometimes covered in small rocks. Ten yards from the entrance it became very dark and we were happy to have three kerosene lanterns with us. Every so often the guide would stop and show us some crystal formation, or dynamite hole and explain bits and pieces about the mine and its workings. We didn’t understand every word but got the gist that the mine produced mostly zinc and lead although there was some gold and lots of quartz and other crystals. There was also fossil evidence of plants that the guide showed us.

After about 20 minutes of rather slow progress through the tunnel, turning this way and that, we met a group coming the other way. They were a large group including two or three children and maybe half a dozen or more adults. They were climbing down some ladders from what we quickly realised was an exit from the tunnel. After waiting a while for them to come, we pushed on ahead and Jan emerged first out of a hole onto a kind of shelf with a wonderful view of the countryside.

When the rest of the group joined us, we had suddenly acquired two other members in our group, a couple that had been with the larger group and had stayed behind, perhaps to do what we did next which was to walk a couple of hundred feet from the tunnel exit to the “Mirador”, the belvedere or lookout point. Jan got there and sat down on a rock to enjoy the view when Gerry suddenly asked her if she had noticed the bridge. She hadn’t. In the opposite direction from her attention was the susupension bridge that we had crossed although we couldn’t see the entrance to the tunnel.

Selling Rock Samples

After five minutes more, we headed back to the tunnel and retraced our steps to the bridge where Gerry stopped to look at some crystal samples and ended up buying one for his brother Allen. Then it was back across the bridge and into the car. As we were getting ready a young man approached us and seemed to Gerry to be asking for a lift down the mountain. However, when our tour companions arrived they explained that he was asking us to delay our descent because another car was on the way up. We agreed, of course, and while waiting discussed where to spend the night. In the end because of the time of day,we agreed to drive back down to Bermejillo and take a room at the small motel we had seen. The drive down was uneventful.

Bermejillo is a strip town with motels and restaurants and shops and lots of parked semi trucks and of course lots of traffic, which thanks to the Mexican habit of putting humps and bumps across the highway moves mercifully slowly through town. The Bermejillo Motel was all that we had expected and very reasonable into the bargain, costing us only 155 pesos. Two beds, TV, hot water private bath, and air-conditioned it was probably our best bargain of the trip. We walked across the street to the Copa de Leche restaurant and ordered chuletas and cold sodas. Then it was back to the room to write diary and download photos.

Bermejillo Motel

Abandoned Buckboards

On the way out of town towards Parral, we noticed this line of horse-drawn carriages by the side of the road. We don't know if they were completely abandoned or just waiting for some local farmer to hire them.