MotoAdventureGal update: Canyons, mummies, and butterflies

  Ready to cross into Mexico (Photo: Alisa Clickenger)

Listen to the sound of the butterfly wings. Plunge into a seemingly endless canyon. Visit a place where you only rent your grave. And learn to drive like a Mexican.

Alisa Clickenger, aka MotoAdventureGal, has done all of these things in the last month as she has embarked on her solo motorcycle journey to the tip of South America.

We last connected with Alisa at the end of October as she was still prepariing for her journey. Riding her 2003 Suzuki DR650SE, outfitted by Twisted Throttle, her ride is a personal adventure and also a fundraiser for breast and cervical cancer research.

Alisa missed her planned Nov. 15 entry into Mexico but finally crossed the border at Presidio/Ojinaga on Nov. 24, with the Copper Canyon her first destination. She described the canyon like this.

What it is is a series of canyons and you just keep going down and down and down, like 9,000 feet down, and it's just incredibly beautiful. It's a dirt road all the way down and you get to the bottom and there's this little town called Batopilas. Batopilas is spread out all along the river there. You get almost to the bottom and you follow the river another 40 km till you get to Batopilas. It's just crazy because you've been riding for 60 miles of canyon and dirt and steep corners and you get to this town and you're like, how the hell can this town survive here in the middle of nowhere?

We may think Mexico is warm at this time of the year, being so much further south than the U.S., but Alisa has found that not to be the case.

  Descending into Copper Canyon (Photo: Alisa Clickenger)

I was cold all this time. The weather here is really dictated by the elevation, not so mucy by where you are, and that's hard to tell from the map.

After a couple days in Hidalgo del Parral, she decided she was sick of being cold so she would head for the coast.

I had heard about El Espinazo de Diablo, the Devil's backbone, which is route 40 from Durango to the coast, whick kind of spits you out right below Mazatlan. I rode that and that was a phenomenal road. It was so twisty for so long I was, like, OK get me off of this. By the time I got to the bottom, it was the first time I'd ever made myself motion sick riding a motorcycle.

At some point stopped taking pictures and just hauled on the throttle. I'm driving like a Mexican now. I'm passing slow cars on the double yellow--it's kind of liberating in a way. The Mexican drivers are not so great by our standards but I understand where they're coming from. Everybody's in a hurry and why wait for somebody else, just go around them. More or less people do it safely but not always. I've been passed on the right in a curve.

Heading south along the coast then, the tables were turned and it was hot. Realizing she was missing a lot of what she wanted to see inland, Alisa headed for Guanajuato. Guanajuanto is known for its mummies.

With the minerals in the soil, within 3 to 6 years your body is mummified. They don't have cemetery space there so if you're not rich you get dug up in 10 years or so and they burn you.

Next stop was Angangueo, where millions of monarch butterflies overwinter, in an area set aside as a butterfly refuge.

  Parking in the hotel lobby in Parral (Photo: Alisa Clickenger)

I went north of Angangueo, missed where you go to butterfly refuge, and kept going up the billy goat path. At 11,000 feet on an overloaded bike and wet muddy ground, my bike would not go any more and I got stuck. I hiked up the last part. I got to see the butterflies. They're just everywhere, it was incredible. It sounded like rain in the forest but it was the beating of million upon millions of butterfly wings.

Alisa's route then took her on to Oaxaca and to San Cristobal de los Casas, where she spent several days before her intended crossing into Guatemala on Dec. 19. On the days when she rides, Alisa finds that 200 miles is about the maximum she can cover.

Between getting lost, sightseeing, stopping to eat and shoot pictures, getting more lost, I have trouble riding more than 200 miles per day. Also, the days are short now, so at 3 o'clock I need to start looking for a hotel. I just don't want to ride at night in Mexico.

Asked about the most memorable parts of her trip so far, Alisa immediately names the Devil's backbone. But even more than the places, what she will always remember and tell about are the people.

These people are incredible. And each person I stay with emails 20 other people and I get two or three responses saying 'Come here and we'll host you.' People are not like this in the U.S.

We'll hear about Alisa's experiences with the people she's met next.

You can follow Alisa via her blog or get the real up-to-the-minute reports via her Twitter stream.

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