La Carrera Panamericana

La Carrera Panamericana

The La Carrera Panamericana, or ‘La Pana’, is a multi-stage, multi-day, Mexican road rally with multinational teams competing. Dave wanted to spectate and we arranged our route so that we would camp at the start of Special Stage 9, just north of Guanajuato. That left a few days beforehand and we set off from ‘Pasty Town’ (Mineral del Monte) to explore the ruins (yes more ruins) at Tula – know for its impressive statues.

We then visited three Pueblos Magicos – Bernal, San Miguel and Dolores Hidalgo. Bernal is famous for the large volcanic rock (plug) that overlooks the town and which Dave climbed. San Miguel is a larger town with a beautiful historic centre and Dolores Hidalgo was ‘all right’, but is famous because it is where Mexico’s independence was declared.

Before visiting San Miguel, we visited the Sierra Gorda biosphere. Unfortunately, incessant rains also decided to visit and having taken a day to climb up into the mountains, we were interned in Big Bertha by the weather. Then, having decided to ‘abandon ship’ we could not descend back down due to multiple landslides and had to wait a day beside the road. We are sure it would have been spectacular on a nice day.

The rally organisers were quite surprised to find our truck parked at the start of Special Stage 9 of the ‘La Pana’. They asked us why we were there, and then how on earth we knew about the rally. They were very pleased to have spectators, let alone British ones. Freebies started appearing – baseball caps, water bottles, T shirts and stickers! We watched the the cars start the stage and, after the road was reopened, we tried our luck at camping at the rally service area at the nearby town Guanajuato. They allowed us in and the next morning we chatted to the two British crews and then watched the cars leave for the next day of their rally. We headed off towards Irapuato where we had booked a hotel for the night.

Then it was a long drive towards Guadalajara where we arrived on a Sunday and got caught of in a cowboy festival – finding a place to camp was difficult, but we were lucky and found a spot in a truck park. We visited the festival and, the next day, the historic centre.