Hammockeering Around: The road to Durango

I've made it off of the Baja Peninsula. It wasn't easy but it finally happened. The ferry to Mazatlan was damaged in the storm so I took a different ferry to a port 400 kilometers North of Mazatlan. Three and a half oppressively hot and steamy days later I arrived in Mazatlan to find out that the ferry was running again and also arriving that same day. I was happier biking in the sun than waiting anyways. Plus I got to spend a nice night in my hammock on the beach during that stretch.

Mazatlan was a tourist destination for beach goers. It was nice but I passed through quickly, in a hurry to start climbing away from the heat. A couple from Mexico city that I met on the ferry recommended I take the toll road to Durango and what a great road it was. I spent two days climbing up to 8700 feet. Starting in a jungle environment I ascended until I was in a forest of fir trees then came down the other side into a dry scrubby canyon landscape. The road the whole way was fantastic. Light traffic, wide shoulder and constant good views. This is a little information from Wikipedia on that stretch.

The construction of the new highway between Durango and Mazatlán will shorten time between the two cities by as much as 6 hours.^[7] The highway will pass under and over the Sierra Madre Occidental through 63 new tunnels and 115 new bridges.^[8] The most important is the Baluarte Bridge (finished in 2012), which is now the highest bridge in North America at 390 meters. The bridge is located at the border between Sinaloa and Durango states formed by the Baluarte River. The clearance from the river bottom is over 1,300 feet (400 m), and at over 3,600 feet (1,100 m) long it is the highest suspension bridge in the world. The route from Mazatlan to Durango has 115 bridges, eight over 900 feet (270 m) high, and 63 tunnels nearly 11 miles (18 km) long in total.

How could I not love a road like that!