 What do you think about this, man? Humans are weird, aren't we? Buenos Diaz. Oh, it's a little foggy now. Yeah, I'd say, I'd say it's a lot colder here. My bike is covered in frost and I'm freezing and I didn't sleep very well last night. Wow, oh God. Take me back to Mazatlán. Good morning, you two. Good morning. How you doing? Hi, Mira. Are you ready for the day? We seem excited to race out of the tent. Very excited. How'd you sleep, man? Good, you? A little bit of engine noise, but that's all right. All good? All right. All right, she's free. And ice cubes in my water. Did you find your morning stick? Give it to me. Give it to me. Do you want me to throw this? Finally, warm up my fingers. Man, I am so thankful to see that sun. It took a while for it to come up because we're in the mountains and it's been blocked for a while, but boy, when you're out camping, you forget how much you love sunshine. When you're sleeping in your house or whatever, if you just wake up and it's warm, you turn on the heater, no problem, but out here you're really, your movements are dictated by sun and warmth. Thank you, flat piece of earth for a nice place to rest. Durango's that way. How you feeling over there, John? You ready to ride bikes? Are you ready? I can't tell if you're excited or not. Show me a little excitement. Come on, here we go. It's Monday. The earth doesn't care that it's Monday. She cites every day, it's awesome. So we kind of hid ourselves back in this ranch land. Got to make our way out, get back onto the highway. No flatties, no crashies, no whammies. Yeah. Feels like we're in a completely different climate zone than the last two days. Feels like I'm back in Colorado. The morning rush hour has spooked us a little bit so we got off the road. We found this little parque ecotouristico and we're gonna get some breakfast and swing. Swinging. We're gonna do some swinging. Oh, this is so much nicer than riding a bike on a busy road. This might be the first hot tea I've ever ordered in Mexico. Seriously, but I'm very excited about it because it's gonna warm me up. I don't drink a lot of hot anything at home, but when it's freezing cold, I will take it. So John, what did you get for breakfast? Oh, I got some sweet pollo, nice egg here and goat cheese, beans. I think this is mole, mojacan cuisine. I could eat this every day. This is my favorite kind of breakfast, just eggs and beans and tortillas cooked with love by this nice lady who works at this roadside restaurant. All right, now we can start our day. We have bellies full of warm food and frrrujones. You know that slogan, don't mess with Texas? Well, it's not like a macho don't mess with us, brrrr, kind of thing. It's actually, was a campaign started, I don't know when, maybe in the 70s, 80s to prevent people from throwing trash out their windows of their cars and stuff to keep the highways and open areas clean. And I think Mexico needs a don't mess with Mexico campaign. As long as I've been traveling and traveling in Mexico and Honduras, this is the reality of the sides of roads. People just toss trash everywhere. And I'd say 90% of the trash are plastic bottles, which will never ever decompose and they're gonna be on planet Earth forever. That is the very unfortunate reality of plastic. So I try my best, not to buy plastic, but it's pretty hard to avoid sometimes. This is my favorite Mexican road sign. Manaje con precaución, su familia lo espera. Drive safely, your family is waiting for you. And I remember seeing these signs on my way home in 2005. And I don't know, for some reason it just makes me smile, makes me feel a little better. Hopefully drivers are taking this message to heart because there's a lot of roadside shrines of people who have gotten in car accidents and died and anything to make them think twice and be more careful. I'm a fan of that. So ever since la ciudad yesterday where we stopped for snacks, the road has been way busier. And that's because we're closer to the big city of Durango. I really want to get off this road, A. But also it makes it harder to film. I don't want to get the drone out because it's sketchy. I don't want to set up the tripod because cars are always flying by. But we'll be in Durango soon enough. No whammies, remember? No whammy. Good job. You have to carry for her. So you're carrying a heavy dog and- There's still H2O, but- That's true. But it is, it is heavy. Yeah, yeah, I don't believe. Yeah. Good job. The whole world is cheering you on, Mira. Yep. Everybody loves you. Oh, you like the salt on my hand? It's a big hill. It is a big hill and hot. No wind, really much. And then just hot asphalt. At least the cars are being nice this afternoon, which is good. Because this morning they were a little intimidating, but not like last night. Ooh, that was sketchy. And when John says asphalt, he means asphalt. Do all Canadians say it that way? I don't think so. Yeah, some probably do. I don't say schedule. I do say a schedule. But it's a climbing route, not a climbing route. I just found a diamond in the rough, a bottle of Topochico in glass. I think I've said this before, but even when you think you're in the absolute middle of nowhere, and sometimes you are, there is almost always a small tienda selling refrescos, sodas, and little treats. And I'm really appreciative of that, because it allows you to not have to carry a lot of food and water, because you know, everywhere, every tiny village has a tienda. We're screaming down this hill, and I look off to the right. And there it is, our first view, Durango. And it is a very large city. Oh, mira eso. Gracias. No se metan. Check this out. Elotes are ears of corn, and you can buy them pretty much on any street corner, anywhere in Mexico. And they serve them up in different ways. I kind of got the nacho version with some chips and cheese. And it's so good. It is so good. And I'm sitting here in this central park here in Durango. And I love Mexican central parks. There's so much life. Everybody's running around. There's kids. There's vendors selling goofy stuff and toys. And if you ever want to find the pulse of a Mexican town, you come to the town park. Even if it's a teeny town, there's always a town park with fountains and usually a church. And it's just fun to sit and watch people go by. And on a warm day like this, it is perfecto. So we got ourselves a nice roomy hotel room here in Durango right downtown, 600 pesos, 30 bucks. But dogs are not allowed. But the wonderful lady in the front desk let us sneak Mira in. But she's like, she can't cry or bark or anything. But we've been here for a couple of hours now and Mira needs to pee. So what do we do, John? Mission impossible. That's what we're doing, keying and stuff. We're gonna hook Mira up. I got myself my bedsheet. And you're gonna carry her like she's a baby. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So no one, including the guests, sees what's going on. Yeah, yeah. Nobody can know what's happening. Hold on, let me see. Let me see if this is going to work. Yeah, that's how we work. It looks like you have a dead body. It's so bad. This might be the best one we've ever had. Gracias. Removley. Oh my god. You made it. You made it. Yeah, you made it. The things I do for you, dog. Yeah, OK. We got her out. Now we just got to get her back in it a little bit. You have no idea what's going on, do you? Oh, yeah. OK. So we are now walking to a bike shop that John went to earlier to have his brakes fixed and to buy some new pedals. And we're going to talk to them about the route. The proposed route goes through Zacatecas on dirt roads. And everybody we've talked to here in town about it says, do not do that. It is dangerous. There's serious narco activity. And we just want to talk to the bike guys because they probably know. They know best, I'm guessing. Look at the pretty dog. Yeah. We want to go along this blue line. This route is through dirt roads, correct? Mm-hmm, yeah. So right now, all the Zacatecas areas have been heard in the news lately that there are a lot of drug traffickers. It can be a little dangerous that someone who is not familiar with these places can be exposed to being at risk or unnecessary. So I wouldn't recommend riding on dirt roads in the Zacatecas area. Well, it's very dangerous now. It's very dangerous now, yeah. What's going on now? Well, I don't know exactly the risk of the problem. But two or three months from now, the news has been that there is more control of the area. But probably war between the same drug traffickers is what I'm causing. So what is the other option? The other option would be to ride on the road where there is more traffic and also start doing it every day. And I don't think they're going to have any difficulty. Who was in this area? I don't know how many bands there are. There must be a lot. Friends of Chapo? I don't know. Chapo is very famous in the United States. It's not famous, I think. Have you seen Narcos on Netflix? Yes, I've seen it. Yes, yes, it's good, right? One of my favorites. Thank you, friend, for everything. You're welcome. Chocolate. Boom. We have to be safe. My mom would kick my ass if I got murdered in Mexico, especially after having this conversation. So we're going to take the safe way. We're going to take the highway. Thank you so much. Very amazing, friend. And yeah, who knows? We might get run over by a truck instead, but we're not going to get killed by Narcos. This is a great shop. They have all sorts of modern parts. They can fix your bike. They fixed John's bike. It can also give you good local intel where to ride your bike and where not to ride your bike. John, how do you feel about this? Well, I think we've decided, I think, to take the road. Yeah, is that what we're going on? Yeah, so I mean, yeah, I'd like to stay on the dirt. I mean, I love the dirt. You go out in the countryside to see the birds and the people and all that kind of stuff. But look it, the world isn't the same all the time. And so this, there's obviously some higher risk here and we're just going to deal with that and make a change to our route. So I'm not disappointed. It's just part of travel. So it happens to be traveling in Mexico and that's what we're doing right now. We're going to be smart. Yeah, and I have traveled all over Mexico and I always tell people I've never had a problem, but you do have to travel smart sometimes. If locals are telling you not to go somewhere, maybe you shouldn't go there. Because there's so many wonderful people at the labs you have seen in my videos all over this country and we're going to find all of them along the way and avoid the bad guys. And many of them won't require us to use a bed sheet. Going back home. Bye, Mira. Bye, Mira. Gracias, Erika. See you in the middle of the process. I can't believe how chill she is. All right, we got her back in the room. We've had a good day, my man. We haven't. We woke up in the freezing cold, which is hard to believe because now it's very warm. We rode 45 miles. We got into Durango, he fixed his bike. We got some very key intel on the route and tomorrow we will head out on the highway more pavement towards Zacatecas Viva Mexico. We are up in Adam early because we're hungry. Our bodies are burning a lot of calories. We want to go find some gorditas. That's the first mission of the day. Then we're going to head out. We've been riding around Durango, looking for a place for breakfast. Really hoping for gorditas, but nothing is open except for gas stations. So we found some muffins, mantecares. I got some yogurt and apple juice. What'd you find? I have coffee, which is the most important meal of the day. And also vanilla. Needless to say, we're a little bummed. So this is just snack number one. Hopefully we'll find something on the way out. But we're just having a little picnic here in our favorite cast station, the Oaxal. There's cute little Mira just waiting for us sitting in the box. She's so patient. Does she ever get antsy and want to jump out or is she? No, no. I mean, that's why the box is so padded. It's comfortable for her. But she's such a good girl, honestly. Couldn't want a better dog, really. So, look at her just watching the world go by. We love you. We'll be out soon. Made it to the outskirts of Durango on Highway 45, Zacatecas, and we've traded the potential danger of narco violence for being on a busy road and pavement. So, you know, I love dirt, dirt's my favorite. But this is what we're gonna be on for the next 180 miles until Zacatecas. So that's gonna be three long days. One of the great things about riding highways is that there's people ready to serve all the truckers and drivers, travelers coming through. So they have these gordita stands, taco stands in many, many different places. It's usually on the outskirts of towns and they are ready to go with their ingredients. They heat it up, boom, you sit down, you listen to some good Mexican music and you're feeling good. And I love bouncy Mexican music. It just makes you feel good. Even at 10 in the morning. It's always time to party here. We've got a sleeping mirror. Yeah. Just looking at dad eat gorditas. Oh, he's sharing. Hola amigo, hola amigo, hola. Y mira, mira la sombrita es tan grande que tiene sombre. We have a new rider on the bike. ¿Cómo te llamas amigo? Jorge. Jorge, mucho gusto amigo. Bienvenido a la aventura. Adiós amigo, adiós, adiós. Oh man. I love making these friends just for a matter of moments. We have a little brief human connection. We smile, we give each other high fives. Then we go on our way. Probably we'll never meet that little baby again or his mother. And you string all those together and you've got a pretty rich life of connecting with humans all over the place. What are you taking a photo of, John? I'm taking a photo of I think our favorite saint maybe. Our patron saint. Yeah, someone who likes dogs. I think, first bike packer. I think Mira is the saint. Yeah. Someday there will be a statue of you. Yes, there will be. There sure will be, honey. Quite sure what we're riding up on here but it looks like either a bomb was dropped or somebody's taco stand just blew up. It's a lot of black smoke. So it looks like one of the fires is just a grass fire. And you see those along the highway a lot but the black smoke, whew, you can smell it now. Yikes. Whoo. Check that out. It's just a pile of tires. Ooh, that's hot. That's really warm. Looks like it's just a pile of tires. I guess that's how you get, that's one way to get rid of plastic. Being on this road today really reminds me of my trip through Mexico back in 2005. These are the types of roads my friend Jeff and I took the entire way through Mexico. We've been riding for a couple thousand miles. Our legs are doing great. Legs are doing great but the arms are getting a little weak so we're gonna, I'm gonna show you how to do some arm exercises while riding the bike. Oh yeah, two. And it's bringing back a lot of good memories for sure. But right now, 17 years later, these roads kind of suck. I would much rather be out there in the dirt but that's where we were warned not to go. We were told it's safer to be on the big roads because there's just more people and more towns but I'm struggling a little bit. It's hard to have this traffic off to my left side all day. I don't know how I used to do so much road touring but now that I've done the dirt stuff, the bike packing. So today I'm just looking up in the sky trying to distract myself with these beautiful clouds. They are definitely beautiful, wispy like a little paintbrush painting these white poofs through the blue sky. And yeah, just trying to get through today for sure. And stay safe at the same time. Overpass. Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole. Sometimes you gotta do stupid little things to put a smile on your face when you're just struggling through the Mexican desert with the slight headwind. Mira, I need a hug here. Come on up here. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mira. I know you haven't been able to run nearly as much as you usually do. You're so excited to be out of that box. Oh yeah. Woo, John, how you doing, bud? Okay, yeah. Okay. Yeah, it'd be nice to ride on the dirt, you know? But we're doing what we have to do. Yeah. We'll be back in a couple more days and then we'll be in Zacatecas. Zacatecas. Okay, so that sign says we're leaving Durango. We're coming into Zacatecas and it's time for a happy dance. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. We're on the side of the highway and the cars are, hello. Okay, that was a half ass happy dance but I didn't want to set up the tripod because this car's coming like crazy. But here we go, Zacatecas, high five. Oh yeah. Boom. Hey, she was gonna give you a high five. Are you gonna give me a high five? High five. Or give me a lick. This is a high five. Yeah. You're so cute. You're so cute. Back in the back. Time for daddy to pull you. Free ride. We're all into a pueblo mágico called sombrerete. Pueblos mágicos are usually nice towns, colonial, small. And we're gonna find a place to stay here tonight because we've gone 79 miles. We're searching for hamburguesas, Dani, when we stopped about 30 miles ago in a little comador. This guy's like, my cousin has a restaurant in this town and he has the best hamburgers in the whole state. She's here for me. She's in there. She's for me. She's very friendly. She's called Mira. What are you eating? Coguetas. Coguetas. Yes, we speak English. And she too, the dog. She speaks English. Well, she doesn't speak English, but she understands English. Okay, oi esta bien, bueno. Oh, mucha color. Mucho. So these are the best meseras in Mexico, no? They're our waitresses and they've been helping us out here at hamburguesas, Dani. I'm a vegetarian. They actually have a veggie hamburger with lots of mushrooms and stuff. Johnny, what'd you get? I got the named burger, the Danny burger. We're here, we're done. We finished the day 80 miles. Bam, buddy. High five, boom, fist bump. Boom. Bueno, muchas gracias por la comida. Muy sabrosa, rios pati. Gracias, gracias. This sound right here erases all of the hectic highway noise of the day. There were points today where I was just like, ah, get me off of this road. This is so obnoxious. But now I've taken a shower. I'm in a beautiful town. I'm listening to the birds here in Central Park. My blood pressure has just, whew. There's John. Where are we, John? We are in Hostel de Luna. Yeah, how'd this happen? Trial magic, buddy. Trial magic. Yeah, 30% trial magic. So we were talking to the owners of hamburguesas, Dani. And she was like, you can try this hotel or this hotel. And then this guy who was ordering a hamburger overheard the conversation, and he's like, he came over to us and he's like, I know a good place. My son owns a hostel. That's this guy right here. Nuestro héroe, gracias amigo. And now we are here at this hostel. We're the only ones here, so we have the whole place to ourselves. When's the last time you slept on bunk beds? Uh, it's been a while. Yeah, man. It's been a moment, yeah. We even have an air hockey table. Dude. Yeah, it works, dude. Oh, it does? Oh, yeah. It's tournament time. Are Canadians good at air hockey or just real hockey? Come on, dude. What kind of question is that? I have no idea. And the first one to crash is always Mira. Where did you find, John? Well, I found, let's see, how many we got here? We got four puppies. Really? Yeah. Just on the side of the road? Yeah, just by this power. Oh. What's this? We got the Jesus. Let's just drop them off in the box. Oh, nice.