Hanging out in Hidalgo de Parral

Day 24 kt:94 ta:3338 gps N 26 degrees 55.355' W 106 degrees 19.836'

Today was a fun day for riding for I mostly rode downhill, especially at the end of my journey when I descended over 3000 feet. I swear I rode downhill for the last 20 kilometers of my trip. The descents were more fun, too, because I could see farther ahead so I wasn't afraid to just let go of the brakes and zoom downhill. The ecosystem has changed back into a desert ecosystem. There are no more pine trees or manzanillas. They have been replaced by desert succulents and oak trees. The scenery is beautiful.
I was going to stay at a motel tonight but I did not have enough cash and there were no cash machines in Balleza.Oh well, I just have to camp, instead. I have to make it 97 kilometers to Hidalgo de Parral with only 76 pesos which is around $7. I can do it because I have lots of food and water.

Day 25 kt:96.63 ta: 4727 gps: N 26 degrees 55.811' W 105 degrees 39.995'

I made it to Hidalgo de Parral from Balleza with the small amount of money that I had. I was mostly ascending the first half of the day and mostly descending the second half. Hidalgo de Parral seems like a charming town. It was an old colonial mining town so it has lots of narrow colonial streets built for horse carriages. Too bad, if you drive a car here.
I am staying in a place here called Hotel Monarrez. It is the place the taxi driver directed me to when I asked where the cheapest hotel was. It is a charming place with cold water only and toilet seats for all of its toilets. Toilet seats are a luxury here in Mexico so I am always grateful. The truth is, that after camping in the mountains for several weeks, toilets are a luxury. Considering that I hadn't showered since Chihuahua City, the cold shower I took there was the best cold shower of my life. The Hotel Monarrez also seems to be the favorite place of hookers and couples who have no other place to do it. This is no problem but the noise they make is often distracting. The doorperson here gave me an excellent local tea called te de zorillo or skunk tea. I will stay here through tomorrow, The Day of the Dead.

Day 26 I stayed in Hidalgo de Parral

I wake up with the sun, therefore I wake up much earlier than most of the Parralenses as the people from Hidalgo de Parral are called. I went to find the taller de torno but it was not open yet. I got to eat the first tacos of the day at the taco stand next to the workshop. They were quite delicious. I eventually found a machine shop that could make the part I needed. It will, only, cost $15 for all eight pieces. Try replacing any specialized part like that in the United States for that price.
Hidalgo de Parral seems to appear in the pages of Mexican history books disproportionately for a city its size of about 120,000 inhabitants. It was founded in the seventeenth century as a small mining town. There was silver in the surrounding mountains so the town become a city by the early nineteenth century. It was the capital of the republic when Benito Jaurez brought the government of Mexico here while fleeing from French forces. When the American Punitive Expedition came here under the command of General John Pershing, they were driven out of town by a riot of townspeople. This is also the town in which Pancho Villa was killed. I went to the spot where he was assassinated. There is a museum there dedicated to him.
Since it is the Day of the Dead, I thought I would buy some pan de los muertos and share it with el general at his tomb his tomb in the panteon or cementary outside of the city center (His bones were actually exhumed and put in one of the corners of the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City). The cementary here is huge and was filled with people. People brought flowers and food for their ancestors. They cleaned up and deweeded around the tombstones. There were groups of people singing and playing instruments at some of the gravesites. It was a very beautiful thing. I wish we celebrated the Day of the Dead in the United States.
Mexico is a land of contradictions. It is flooding right now in the southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas and yet I haven't seen a drop of rain since I left Austin. I am sure this will change once I make to the jungle. The government which, at one point, conspired to assassinate Pancho Villa, now celebrates him as one of Mexico's greatest folk heros. When I went to put a flower on Pancho Villa's tomb, it was closed off and an arrangement of flowers had been left by the municipal government of Hidalgo de Parral. On the same day that the Mexican Navy found 23 tons of cocaine in a ship off the coast, I was rolling through a military checkpoint unimpeded. The soldiers were more curious about my trip than what was in my bags. I still remember how the soldiers in the first checkpoint, I rode through in Northwestern Chihuahua, were listening to narcocorridos while they were searching all of the cars and the trucks. The narcos that I met in Guachochi were some of the nicest and most generous people to me even though they carried guns. I kind of like being in a land of such contradictions. It is always fun to make ironic observations.