| 11 cycling days | 711 km | 11.517 m ascent | 6 macaws |
Interactive Map of our Route from Mazatlan to Zacatecas
Mazatlán
So there we were – finally on the mainland of Mexico! A few times we had heard of the Baja California being described as “Mexico light” and being noticeably different from the mainland. And to be honest, after a little time we could feel what they meant by that. The Baja Peninsula felt very touristic and we can’t remember a day without seeing at least one European, American or Canadian number plate. Around La Paz and La Ventana we probably saw more tourists than locals. But don’t get us wrong – we thoroughly enjoyed our time there! Crossing over to the mainland almost felt as if we’d crossed a border all over again though! At least our sense of security had to readjust yet another time. When I started writing this post, we had already spent more than two months on the mainland and felt right at home. Everything is colorful, lively, loud, dusty, chaotic and simply wonderful. But from the beginning:
Early in the morning, we rolled off the ferry in Mazatlán and made our way to the hotel. On our way there we were surprised by the colorful and vibrant city centre – and were glad that we’d decided to stay the rest of the day and set off the following day. Sebi and I walked through the centre, enjoying the hustle and bustle without a proper plan. Later, we took a short bus ride to the lighthouse together with Kris and climbed way-too-many steps to the viewing platform. Apparently, this lighthouse is the tallest one worldwide! Well, not the lighthouse itself (it rather resembles a small house), but in terms of the height at which the tower stands (157m). The city also features one of the world’s longest beach promenades, stretching for 21 km.
The old Highway 40 between Mazatlán and Durango
Our plan was cycling from Mazatlán to Durango. Since 2013 a new “super highway” connects the two cities, which rendered the old highway 40 obsolete and made it a dream for cyclists and motorcyclists. With countless turns and through small villages it guides travelers from the ocean to 3000 meters above sea level, and from the tropics into the mountains. Unfortunately, since the construction of new highway, the old one got really popular with the two local, competing cartels and can be a bit problematic every now and then. Shootings betweens the cartels and/or violence between the cartels and the military can’t be ruled out – although it feels important to mention that the cartels often close roads themselves and tourists/civilians are rarely to never the target. Needless to say that we didn’t feel completely at ease thinking about taking the road, and at the same time it was hard to get information about the current situation. This road is frequently being discussed in our cycling community and for our plans no other option made a lot of sense. But we’ve teamed up with our friend Kris for this stretch and were in good spirits!
At the morning of our departure in Mazatlán, the three of us had agreed to set off on the new superhighway first and only switch to the old highway towards evening and stop in a small village to spend the night. On the superhighway, there are little to no possibilities to leave the highway to sleep somewhere. On the main road out of Mazatlán, we were hit with the next little culture shock – the smell! All along the highway, there was a constant stench of something, be it rubbish, urine or dead animals… definitely something you need to get used to.
On the new highway, we had a wide shoulder and were overtaken by everyone at a safe distance. Even the national guard passed us at one point and stopped shortly afterwards to talk to us. They advised us against cycling on the old highway; we should continue on to such-and-such bridge, where we could spend the night. However, they didn’t seem to realise that this might be way too far for three cyclists late in the afternoon. So we followed our initial plan, switched to the old highway shortly afterwards and didn’t regret it one bit. In Copala, we stayed with an elderly local, in whose garden we were allowed to camp under banana trees and who told us a lot about the current situation. We learned that the military had been in the area just a few days earlier and that the cartels had therefore retreated further into the jungle – we couldn’t have been there at a better time.
The next few days were beautiful, but at the same time incredibly exhausting. Upon leaving Copala the next morning, we spotted some macaws in the trees and everything felt very tropical; with trees, we had never seen before, birds, we had never heard before and a draining combination of heat and humidity. In two days, we covered 100 kilometres – with a total of 3500 metres of elevation gain! We passed many abandoned villages and restaurants. The reasons for this were likely both the new superhighway and the high level of cartel activity. In El Palmito, we saw a cartel vehicle for the first (and only) time, though its passengers didn’t show any interest in us whatsoever. The road was truly gorgeous. We could tell it hasn’t been used as a main road for some years, as some of the potholes could have swallowed my entire bike and thanks to overgrowing trees and fallen rocks, it wasn’t as wide anymore as it used to be. We saw very few people and vehicles. The higher up in the mountains we went, the more impressive the views became – lush green in every direction and one mountain after another, as far as the eye could see! At some point, the landscape changed from tropical to pine forest.
As we reached the little town of La Ciudad, the atmosphere changed slowly and we saw more and more people and life on the streets. Everyone seemed to be heating with wood, as thick smoke hung over the town and made it look like winter. For a change, we asked at a roadside restaurant if we could pitch our tent there and were given a warm welcome. We were allowed to use the entire outdoor area, which even had two toilets and covered picnic tables. When we continued on towards Durango the next day, it rained briefly. But only briefly. Finally, the route was more downhill than uphill. Upon reaching the town, we said goodbye to Kris for the time being, as we had chosen different acommodations.
Durango
Sebi and I spent one day in Durango, which we used not only for grocery shopping and doing our laundry, but also for exploring the town. We met up with Kris and the three of us went to the museum “Túnel de Minería” – a museum about the importance of mining in the region, located in a tunnel beneath the city centre where silver was once mined. It is very small and more a “show mine”, but still quite interesting. Back then, they actually believed that the tunnels would collapse if a women would enter the mine, which was used to justify a strict ban of women. We took a cable car to a small viewpoint – though the ride was so short we might as well have walked instead, and that’s exactly what we did on the way back.
Durango to Valparaíso
From Durango, Sebi and I continued on without Kris for the next bit, as Kris wanted to stay another day in the city. We passed through small villages and enjoyed getting used to the Mexican life outside the bigger cities. The roads were an adventure in themselves and the transition between smooth pavement and rough unpaved sections was fluid and frequent. Just like the smell, the constant noise took some getting used to. Trucks and cars are generally much louder here, quite a few cars drive around with big loudspeakers on the roof and are either advertising something or playing music at defeaning volumes. On top of that, dogs are barking, somebody is firing flare rockets, and someone is constantly trying to sell you something. Some people ride into the village on their horse, which seems to be pretty normal. In Chalchihuites, we were stopped by local police and we first thought we were being scammed by fake police. However, they only asked if we needed help and gave us their contact should something happen. In Mexico, there are so many different police units that it seems impossible to always know if it’s a real officer or not!
After having been spared for so many days, the bad weather caught up with us once again. As we began the climb out of a small village, the sky got darker and the wind picked up. Luckily for us, the rain waited for a while, but when we arrived at a fairly deserted settlement after a few hours, it was truly unpleasant. It was cold, it was windy and it was pouring with rain! Couldn’t it at least have been warm for the first proper rain after such a long time? It was quite late anyway and we looked for a wildcamping spot in the nearby forest. We continued cycling uphill the next morning, all the way up to 2847 metres – our highest point in Mexico at that point! Unfortunately, the descent was very bumpy and felt like it went on forever.
Final mountain range before Zacatecas
Between us and the city of Zacatecas was another mountain range, so uphill we went again. In Valparaíso, we went to a small fruit and vegetables shop. We started chatting with the owner and not only did he offer us some coffee and tea, but he also insisted on giving us half of our shopping for free! For some reason, everyone seemed very interested in us and our journey that day. As we cycled out of the town, somebody accompanied us on his scooter, and when we stopped at a gas station to take off our jackets, another four men started talking to us. It turned out that the man on the scooter cycles a lot himself, but “at this time of the year it was way too cold!”. It was 22 degrees Celsius in the shade.
Even though we were in a relatively remote area in the mountains that evening, finding a place to camp was rather difficult, as every single meter alongside the road was fenced off. In the end, we simply pitched our tent next to the road, slightly hidden behind a tree. Sebi heard just one car all night, but that was it. That must have been the quietest night we had had in all Mexico. No barking dogs, no donkeys, chickens or turkeys, no car noise, no music, no fireworks, nothing. Not even wind or rain!
The following morning was cold, but beautiful. The morning sun rose slowly behind the stunning rock formations, and we looked around in awe as we cycled. At some point we reached paved roads again and the descent into Jerez was a pleasant one, for a change. This town is one of Mexicos “Pueblos Mágicos”, towns in Mexico that have been nominated by the government as particularly worth visiting. Again, we were approached by several people asking lots of questions about us and our bikes. By the way, Sebi’s Spanish is getting better and better – at least I can let him handle all the small talk on his own now! The last few kilometres towards and through Zacatecas were particularly exhausting. There were lots of lanes, even more confusing exits, and even a small tunnel that we had to go through. Our Warmshowers accommodation was right in the centre. Up on the roof of the house was a small room, a bathroom, lots of space and views over the entire city. So cool – and we were allowed to stay for as long as we wanted. Downstairs was a restaurant owned by our host’s son, so obviously we couldn’t be bothered to cook ourselves that evening.
Zacatecas
Zacatecas took us completely by surprise. When we’re cycling, we have so little time to plan anything ahead and usually we just manage to plan our route for the next few days. As a result, we often get to cities without any plans or expectations – and in Mexico, every city we’ve visited so far has been a pleasant surprise! One day was blocked for bike maintenance and working on a blog post, the other one for sightseeing. Kris arrived a day after us and stayed with the same host as we did. Together we explored the city, starting at the museum “Mina El Edén”. In contrary to the mining museum in Durango, this one is located in the actual former mine – and you get to enter it by train! A very small one to be fair. Gold, silver, iron, bronze, lead and zinc used to be mined here. There’s also a small mineral and rock museum underground, with really cool fossils and fluorescent rocks. Apparently there’s even a nightclub, which we didn’t visit though. Afterwards, we took the cable car up to Cerro de la Bufa. There was plenty to see and do there. We mainly enjoyed the view and visited the small museum “Toma de Zacatecas“, which is dedicated to the Mexican Revolution and the associated battle in Zacatecas in 1914.
We walked back down into the centre and after cooling off with some fresh ice cream, we visited one last museum – the “Museo Rafael Coronel”. Unexpectedly, this turned out to be our absolute favorite. This overwhelming museum is located in an old convent, which alone would be worth a visit. Among other things, the museum displays works by Rafael Coronel himself – a well-known Mexican artist – as well as his collection of masks, which seems to be the largest in the world. The sheer number of masks was impressive to say the least! On top of that there were several rooms with different exhibitions, such as pottery from various regions in Mexico or works by Diego Rivera.
Published on April 19, 2026
Experienced from 16.01.2025 – 01.02.2026
