1/3/25-Friday-Day 28 “Debriefing and Hot Springs”
The morning is spent running through the previous days events once again, discussing what could have been done differently as well as what was done correctly. We talk about the compounding subtle clues of a potentially bad situation which when looked at as a whole seem so obvious but when presented individually over a period of time, they take a bit more effort to notice. The road that we were on was clearly not well travelled, with multiple downed trees and rock slides reducing the highway to a single lane in many places, but the toll road which runs parallel reduces travel time by 3-4 hours and therefore has diverted much of the traffic that this road used to see. The burnt out hillside could very easily have been a trash fire that simply got out of hand, it is quite common in Mexico to see multiple burn piles in places completely unattended. Even the apparent vehicle fires could have just been caught up in the blaze. The military checkpoint while certainly in an unexpected location is not an uncommon site either and they did tell us it was safe to proceed. When you zoom out and lookout at all of these indicators it seems so easy to simply turn around, but when you are in the moment and admittedly a bit captivated by the beauty that surrounds you it is quite easy to overlook the minor incremental changes in your environment which compound over time. All of that being said, if you told me yesterday would play out exactly as it did, I would still drive El Espinazo del Diablo. It was absolutely the most beautiful drive that Heather and I have ever done.
Before we can get breakfast started a pack of four stray dogs shows up at our camp and while Duke and Annie typically do very well with the chill street dogs of Mexico, there being four of them running around together has us wary of bringing them out of the camper. Eventually though the pack settles in for a nap under the shade of a nearby tree and I’m able to bring our pups out one at a time without incident before we hit the road for the day. The drive out of La Ciudad while still gorgeous is much more mild than what lies behind us and we also opt for the toll road once we reach it.
Our destination today is Balneario San Juan, a naturally heated hot springs water park just east of Durango City. We arrive around 3pm and get settled into the camping area adjacent to the water park, taking advantage of the water hookup provided and set up filtration for showers. The biggest perk of this campsite is that once the water park closes to the public at 6pm we have free run of the entire park and we take full advantage, enjoying an evening soak in one of the heated pools!
Adam Olterman
You can read more on our travels here!
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