1/2/25-Thursday-Day 27 “El Espinazo del Diablo Lives Up to Its Name”
I believe I finally dozed off sometime after 4am, managing to get about three hours of less than quality sleep before waking up a bit before 8. Duke had both Heather and I up all through the night barking, panting, and crying over the unwanted movement of his (lets be honest, the camper belongs to the dogs, they simply tolerate our presence within it!) domicile. Multiple times through the night we were out of the camper walking him up and down the deck of the ship, each time crawling back and forth underneath of the semi trailers which surrounded us. Having missed the ships breakfast hours we make a backpacker meal of biscuits and gravy and head to the upper deck to enjoy our morning chow with a view. Over breakfast we have the pleasure of watching whales breach off the side of the ship.
We land in port around 10:00am and by 10:30 we are off of the ferry and onto the busy streets of Mazatlán. With no interest in hanging around the city we quickly make our way east out of town towards highway D40, the toll road that connects the cities of Mazatlán and Durango. The toll road, D40, somewhat parallels the libre (free) highway 40 for much of the way and when we approach an exit somewhere east of Copala we hop off of the toll road and onto El Espinazo del Diablo, The Devil’s Backbone! Once known as one of the most dangerous roads in the world, this winding road is now a bit more tame due to the toll road bearing the load of commercial traffic.
We make our way up and through the mountains with wide eyes and jaws on the floor around every curve and eventually stop just to check out a campsite with no intentions of staying. We spy the Baluarte Bridge, at one time the world’s tallest suspension bridge at 1,322 ft, connecting the states of Sinaloa and Durango on the toll road below.
Soon after leaving the campsite we come upon a burnt hillside still smoldering. As we drive further we notice multiple burnt out spots on the road that appear to be vehicle fires though there are no vehicles present. We start to think that this is no accidental wild fire but likely something a bit more insidious. A bit further up the road we come upon a military checkpoint of about ten soldiers along the road. After asking multiple times if the route ahead is safe we are assured that it is safe to proceed. As Josh, who is in the lead begins to pull away, a soldier in a hushed voice says something to him which he manages to catch in Google Translate. Unfortunately the app doesn’t translate immediately and we proceed down the road. Just a mile later the soldiers words are processed and Josh relays the message over the radio, “Go ahead and investigate your path, there are bad people, follow your path carefully, no more direct to where they are going.”
With the soldiers ominous warning at the front of our minds we all proceed with a heightened sense of caution and agree that the soldiers told each of us multiple times that the route ahead was safe and that turning around was not necessary. We round a few more turns before we come to a very small town, more of a collection of houses than a town really. As we near the edge of the town we see two pickup trucks sitting in a small pull off along with about 8 people in street clothes, each holding rifles. It is quickly apparent that this is NOT a military checkpoint. As he approaches, Josh who is in the lead of our small convoy, is directed in to the pull off by one of the men. Not being comfortable with the lack of options for egress in the small pull off, Josh slowly comes to a stop in the road as the man approaches the passenger side of his truck. Josh rolls his window down and says “No Español”, the man takes a quick look inside the truck and immediately says “Todo bien!” (All good!) and waves us on down the road. As we roll by the man shows us a big grin full of gold teeth and the rest of his amigos are all smiles as well. Less than four hours on mainland Mexico and we’ve already had our first interaction with a cartel.
While certainly not an ideal situation, the whole interaction lasted maybe 30 seconds and aside from our own fears and projections I personally never felt threatened. At no point did any of the people at this unofficial “checkpoint” act aggressively or even begin to raise a rifle in our direction. That being said, we were all certainly on edge as we continued down the winding mountain road still trying to appreciate the beauty among us while occasionally noticing what seemed to be lookouts positioned on random hilltops and overlooks.
We eventually pull in to the town of La Ciudad, Durango without further incident and find our camp for the night. Parque Natural Mexiquillo is an off-road park and clearly a tourist destination offering ATV rentals and guided tours as well. We pay $400mx ($20us) to enter the park and drive in about a kilometer before finding a campsite among the rocks. We all spend the evening debriefing and trying to decompress over the situation of the day and manage to relax just enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset. We have come to mainland Mexico looking for an adventure and so far she has delivered just that, though probably not quite the adventure we had all hoped for and certainly not that quickly!
Adam Olterman
You can read more on our travels here!
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