An OH MY GOD Bridge and Different Laundry Facilities

Thursday p.m.
Been working on my photos today setting them up to put on DVDs so we will be able to watch them on the TV when we get home. I know we brought some blank DVDs with us but have been gone through Jennie end to end and can’t find them. Grrrrr……
Didn’t do much of anything yesterday – have those days every once in a while. Didn’t even update the blog so figured I’d best get with it now.
Tuesday was another day of pleasant surprises in the countryside. We headed south through Mazatlan on 15 Libre and as we passed the area where I could see the harbor I noticed that a big cruise ship was in. Hopefully all the problems are now solved with the cruise lines and they will start coming back.
Soon we were on MX40 the road to Durango. We were heading to the little town of Chupaderos – kind of knew where it was but couldn’t find it on any maps. Somewhere after Concordia before Copala. Bill was looking for the person who carves the faces in the wood like he bought in Malpica a week or so ago.
We made a quick stop at one of the wood shops in Concordia to look at these coat trees again. These still need to be stained and varnished.

This one was getting its final sanding.

We found Chupaderos and stopped at a house to ask for directions to the carver’s house. Bill was asking I was looking around. And noticed some inventive ideas. This young woman came outside to get some water from the water tank. The tanks are usually up on the roof…..

And across the street was this house up on the hill. Ingenious use of tire to make a retaining wall.

And a little further down the road – roof hay storage. Keeps it out of the way of wandering livestock I guess.

We were close to the house we were looking for. We could see it down a ravine and across a small river but couldn’t get there from where we were on the main highway. Had to take a small dirt road down through the little village. Stopped and asked this guy to make sure we were going the right way.

Steep narrow dirt road leading to river

 Yep we were – it’s the orange house right there.

Very nice and interesting home

Got to the bottom of the road – there was the house across the river. Hum…..there was a bridge – an OH MY GOD bridge crossing the river. Made of concrete almost one lane wide - no guard rails.
Or we could go down the bank and ford the river. The Driver stopped and considered his options. Then he shrugged and very slowly inched Willie out on it.

Another name is Oh Sh*t Bridge

 I closed my eyes. Well I didn’t really but I wanted to. But then I just had to take this picture out of my window – looking down. Notice there is NO BRIDGE showing.

And after we got across the bridge and I started breathing again we discovered there was no road to the house on this side of the bridge! EGAD!

My thoughts were there better be a place to turn around cause no way was I going to stay in the car while it backed over that bridge. Oh phew! Yes there was a wide place in the road to turn around. But that again left us with the same two choices – Over the bridge we went again. The helpful young man was waiting patiently on the other side to tell we couldn’t get there from there.

We had to park by the river walk down a steep dusty trail and take the stepping stones across the river to get to the house. WHAT??!! Who would build a house you have to walk across the river to get to. And we found out the person who carves the faces [he was an American from Sacramento] – had died. But his widow still lived there.
So off we went down the hill, across the stepping stones and up the hill. I'm glad I wore my tennis shoes not my sandals.

Did get a good view of the bridge from there. In June and July when it rains the water almost covers the bridge.

Willie waited safely and patiently for us on the other side.

The lady of the house very graciously gave us a tour of her home. It was amazing. It is carved right into the rock side of the hill. The first room we went into was her husband’s work shop. Where he carved the faces. The back wall of the shop was the rock of the hill.

Work Shop - back wall is part of hill

As we came in the door we were in huge informal living area. The outside wall was all open - windows without glass. The back wall was rock.

There was a very modern kitchen, a small living room, a den/workout room and three bedrooms. The den/workout room was at the back of the house and again carved out of the rock of the hill.

back wall is the hill

It was almost cold in there (about 90 degrees outside.) The bathrooms were completely built of rock – very unusual and exotic looking.
Then she showed us some of the carvings she had left. Some really beautiful ones that she is keeping for herself. This is one of the carvings Bill bought.

She told us that her brother – who also was the one who built the bathrooms in the house – lived in Concordia and also does the carvings. She told us where we could find him.
So back across the river and into the car heading down the highway to town. We passed this roadside memorial – there are many many of them on this particular highway. This one had a piece of the wrecked vehicle with it too.

memorial

Once in Concordia it took us a while to find her brother. Part of the reason was we ended up behind these people. They were not in a hurry walking down the street.

Just strolling along

When we finally found her brother we discovered he was quite a bit younger than her. He has his carving shop out behind his house. 

I think some of his tools run on Tecate.

A couple of weeks ago I had read about an area in Concordia where the local women can wash their clothes in natural hot springs. In 1953 the government decided to upgrade the natural hot springs that runs through the area, and created a structure above the pools.

covered washing area

It also installed the concrete slabs and washing stalls. Well we finally found it. It was later in the day so no one was using it but the smell of laundry detergent was very strong. There are three deep concrete pools with wash tubs built next to them. The water is really hot.



Pools and wash tubs

This lady and her daughter came by while we were looking around. She says she washes her clothes here.

Just some laundry drying down the road from the tubs.

From there we came home and haven’t done much of any thing since.