Traveling solely with a backpack filled with supplies, a tent, and many goals, Bertha Corte is pedaling her way from the northern part of the country to Guadalajara in an effort to retrace the steps of what can be called “the return of the Caballo Blanco.”
Bertha Corte arrived in Puerto Peñasco, having come from the Golfo de Santa Clara, for one of her stopping points. She had cycled over 150 kilometers along the Coastal Highway, which is a road full of nuances given its natural scenery filled with sand dunes, desert, and the sea.
“Wonder, astonishment, and disbelief would enter my eyes from time to time, along stretch to stretch. I couldn’t help but stop various times to capture images of the scenery as they appeared, provocative and extraordinary. That’s how the whole route was, all the way to Puerto Peñasco…,” exclaims Corte.
Ecologist by profession and originally from Mexico City, at 58 years old Bertha will traverse more than 2400 kilometers in striving towards yet another goal on her bicycle, defying hazards along the unknown highways, cars, and fauna itself moving about in its natural areas.
But it’s worth it because in addition to learning about different corners of the country, she takes time to promote culture from every area; adventures of her travels can be found on her Facebook log as well as in her recently published book “Un desafío a la Mexicana” (A challenge, Mexican style).
This present goal is just one more of what the cyclist has undertaken; during her stay in New Zealand and Australia she spent weeks traveling through towns and cities in order to present the natural beauties of Mexico, its culture, cuisine, and sites of interest in an attempt to counter the poor image Mexico has in these countries.
Along her route through the state of Sonora, Bertha has visited San Luis, Puerto Peñasco, and Caborca and will be passing through Hermosillo and Obregón before jumping over to Sinaloa on her path toward Guadalajara – in an effort to complete the “return of the Caballo Blanco.”
The reference to Caballo Blanco hints to the popular Mexican song “El corrido del Caballo Blanco” in which José Alfredo Jiménez details the trials and tribulations of traveling with his “White Horse” from Guadalajara to Ensenada. It is said the song is actually about a white 1957 New Yorker Chrysler Imperial.