Days 30 & 31: Hidalgo del Parral to Durango

Our ride from Hidalgo del Parral to Durango was close to five hours long. We left in the morning at our usual time, had a quick lunch break in the middle, and then arrived at our destination in the afternoon. We stayed at a Best Western PLUS again, but much cheaper than Creel at 840 pesos (~60 CAD), but with similar great amenities and a concealed parking spot for the bike. After checking in and getting cleaned up, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at a nearby mall. There was an Applebee’s restaurant there so we had a nice long dinner before heading back to our room.

The next day, we took the bike to the city center, parked it in a safe and visible spot on the street, and then explored the city on foot. Durango was also another city that turned out to be a lot nicer than expected; however, in this case it is mostly due to the fact that the name of the city is often associated with violent crime and government advisories often advise against non-essential travel to the region. Make no mistake in thinking that we are intrepid travelers as we both have a tendency to over-think and assume the worst – we just plan our route carefully and avoid doing anything stupid because stupid has consequences, and we quite enjoy being alive and able-bodied 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the midst of our exploring, we stumbled upon a restaurant called Vancouver Wings. The name had “Vancouver” in it and the logo had a maple leaf so we had to go in for lunch. We got two different flavours for the wings – Vancouver (duh!) and Chipotle. Both were delicious. We also got some poutine, which was acceptable.

 

 

After some more exploring and some ice cream, we headed back to the mall we had spent the previous evening. We had some coffee at Starbucks (naturally) before Phil got a haircut and we headed back to our hotel for the evening. Dinner was delicious seafood pasta at the hotel’s restaurant accompanied by some refreshing lemonade.