The train is very expensive so we bussed the first part to El Fuerte (see my last post) then caught the train from there. After so much planning around this part of the trip, it was very exciting to see the train pull into the El Fuerte station.
Due to the recent changes in timetables, we had no tickets but it wasn't hard to get a seat, thank goodness. We got settled into our lovely carriage and the train slowly pulled out of the station. We had only gone about five minutes when the generator for our carriage broke down! There was a lot of fiddling with something underneath our carriage and this must have worked because we were soon on our way again.
This guy looked like the Fat Conductor telling people what to do!
We had previously met John and Debbie at our hotel and soon we all met up in the bar car. The windows here were larger and gave better views so we just stayed here for the trip. It was great fun!
Sadly, the windows were double-glazed and moisure had built up inside them so some of our photos weren't perfect. It was pretty poor really.
..... and through tunnels.
Sometimes we switched right back over our previous tracks.
A couple of times, a big, burly security guy walked through the carriage. He had handcuffs and a gun and looked very serious. John decided that we should get a photo with him (we usually find that scary looking security-type people are really friendly). We couldn't find him at the time though, so John asked the staff in our carriage if we could get a photo with the security man. A few minutes later, this older, completely-not-scary security guy turned up! We had no choice but to get him to pose with John. We weren't going to ask him to go away and get the scary guy! It was very funny!
We pulled into the station at Divisadero, our overnight stop. The women of the local tribes here wear very colourful skirts and blouses. Many of them were selling woven baskets, something they are well-known for.
Note the sandals on the lady above. These people are also known as exceptional long-distance runners, and they run wearing these simple sandals!
Our accommodation this night was in an old hotel that looked a lot flasher than it was. It's so weird to build a castle-like hotel in a tiny town like this!
The best views on the whole trip were from around this town. The canyons were simply spectacular.
Blue jays were commn here.
We went to the nearby flash hotel and had a drink on the balcony to check out the view. After a while we spotted something brightly coloured on the clifftop nearby. There was some binoculars on a stand there so we looked through them and saw it was a local woman, just sitting on the clifftop weaving! Zoom in on the photo below and you might just see her orange top and blue skirt. Talk about a workplace with a view!
Back at our hotel we saw the most amazing sunset we've seen in a long time.
A local dog joined us for the walk. He was so friendly. He had the most amazing white/blue eyes I've ever seen on a dog.
Every now and then we'd hear a rapid "knock-knock-knock" noise. It was a woodpecker!
The big excitement of the day though was that we were going ziplining! There is an adventure park here, set right at the most spectacular part of the gorges. You can do all sorts of activities but we chose to go ziplining. Our hotel transported us to the park, along with some Mexican tourists. One of them, Lulu, had lived in the USA and spoke perfect Engligh. She was a real character. We ended up doing the ziplining with her and her friend and we had a blast!
We all kitted up in the gear.
We were shown what to do then we were led to the first zipline. They just put us on it, made sure we were attached ok then gave us a bit of a push. At first we headed out over rock but suddenly the rock dropped away and we were whizzing through the air, waaaaay above the ground. It was terrifying but great! A lady there had a drone and she filmed my first run. Sadly, I can't locate the video on my camera. I'll add it in later.
Lulu takes off.
John coming in. The runs were long!
We worked our way down the runs. One of them was over 1km long and 480 metres above the ground. We reached speeds of over 100km/hr. It was all incredible but I think the best thing of all was the spectacular setting. The views around us were sensational!
There was a series of seven ziplines with a few suspension bridges inbetween. These were almost as much fun as the ziplines!
The last zipline was the best one as the views were astonishing. If only I could have filmed it! (Not surprisingly, it's not allowed. You need your hands for the ziplining!) After having ziplined a total of about 1200 metres down in altitude we finished at the bottom of the cable car run.
We then rode the cable car back to the top.
Wow! What an adventure!
On our way out I bought a bracelet from this little girl. We later learned the local tribes here are quite unsociable and this girl was quite shy.
The train only comes once a day and we had time to go back to our hotel, grab our gear and return to the train station. This station is only small, yet there were still the inevitable woven basket sellers and stray dogs.
This was one of the few areas in Mexico where the dogs weren't healthy and well-fed. This little chihuahua made for a cute photo though!
Brightly coloured ladies and girls sold woven baskets and things.
The train stopped for 20 minutes at a station at lunchtime. The locals are all geared up for this and manage to get a whole trainload of people fed in 20 minutes. The food was delicious! We had cheese-stuffed chillies (they're mild, like capsicums) and gorditas (tortillas stuffed with various meat fillings.)
We proudly wore our ziplining bracelets for the rest of the day!
The conductor saw John and I swapping seats as the views were better on one side of the train or the other so he took me to the door at the end of the carriage. He opened the window for me so I could stand at the door and see out without the obstruction of the window. This sign was right beside me........
Tired but happy we arrived in the town of Creel. This town has a kind of wild frontier feel about it. It's also high up so it gets very cold at night. We had to drag out the warm clothes again. It was a strange place with a mix of Mestizos (what most Mexicans are - a mix of Spanish and Indian blood), local tribes and tourists.
It wasn't so much Creel that we had come to see though - it was the areas around it. The next day we hired bikes and did a 22km ride out to some amazing places. The area is full of cool rock formations and the local Tarahumaras who live in simple homes and caves.
First up was "Mushroom Valley" where rock formations looked like mushrooms.
We were quickly learning that wherever there were tourist attractions, there were local Tarahumara people selling stuff.
We also visited the appropriately named "Frog Valley".
A bit further on was the San Ignacio mission church, built in the 18th century and now seeming to form a focal point for a cluster of small buildings around it.
It was then a long pedal out to the "Valley of the Monks" or, as the locals call it, "The Valley of the Erect Penises!"
This place was really cool!
We had some Mennonite cheese with us (there are Mennonites in the area) and we gave what was left to the local lady who was sitting near our bikes. Her daughter was so cute!
We were so glad we had our phone with us - the signs on the post above John had completely faded and the other one had rusted!
Our last destination was Arareko lake. It was nice enough.
We were riding back along the main road and I was getting very tired. We saw a small tour bus parked outside a track lined with souvenir sellers. We asked someone what it was and they said it was a cave. It took a moment for the penny to drop - it was a Tarahumara cave house! We went up the track and got talking to a lady who lived there. She had previously lived in the US and spoke good English. Bonus!
The family had covered the front of the cave with mud bricks and added a door.
At least four family members lived inside. The cave was high enough at the front but quite low at the back where the beds were. It was surprisinngly warm.
We learnt that the lady's father had died when she was three. He had been digging dirt for mud bricks and soil had collapsed on him. She was later adopted by an American family and lived there for a while before returning to her home town and family. Her mother had signed her adoption papers with a thumbprint!
I struggled with the last few kms of the ride but it was a fantastic day!
We had met an English couple, Sian and Gavin, at our hotel and we all had dinner together. They were good fun.
We had read about a spectacular drive to Humira Bridge with some interesting stops along the way. We wanted to do it the next day but soon learned that we couldn't hire a car in town and I struggled to find a suitable tour. At the last minute I found a guide's phone number that a waiter had given us at one stage and we arranged for him to take us out the next day.
The trip didn't start well when he turned up late. First stop was Cusarare waterfall. It's dry season at the moment so we there wasn't much water but we expected that. What annoyed us though was that we had to take a local boy as a guide even though the track to the waterfall was quite clear. The boy had no interest in interacting with us. Likewise, the souvenir sellers weren't interested in us if we weren't buying. We were starting to feel quite unwelcome. It was like they just wanted our money and didn't want to give anything in exchange.
The road into the waterfalls was quite rough - we even had to ford the river - so we were very surprised when a bus passed us! I think this is a local community bus.
The scenery was stunning along the road.
Small villages huddled in dry valleys. I don't know how they survive out here in dry season.
Our destination was Humira Bridge and the river was beautiful here.
Our guide wasn't very good. He could drive us around but he wasn't very forthcoming with information. This, plus the unfriendliness of the Tarahumara people and their continual begging was getting to John so we opted to only visit one Tarahumara village instead of two.
The village we chose to visit was called Basihuare and was set along a beautiful valley lined with weeping willows. There were cave houses along one section of the valley.
We pulled up at the village and immediately had to pay a small fee each. Our guide talked to someone and found out that there was a celebration happening at the church. (It was a Sunday). It was part of the Semana Santa celebrations, a country-wide religious celebration which largely happens in another couple of weeks but starts earlier in some places.
A man took our money and told us to follow him. He walked into the church and a service was happening. He walked right up to the front of the church and I followed him. I soon realised my mistake, especially as he took the money to a man on the left of the church and all the women were on the right. I was really embarrassed and back pedalled to the back of the church. Our guide reached above everyone else and took a photo so I did the same but my flash went off. Another embarrassment! After turning off the flash I got a much better photo.
John disappeared at this stage. I'll come to his story later. I watched for a while then wandered outside. Men in traditional costumes hung around. Apparently they had been dancing earlier. The guy on the left has a bow which incorporates a fox skin. There were a few of these around.
The church service finished and the women's clothing created a riot of colour against the white church.
A man in traditional clothes. Most men wear western clothes now.
The three village leaders.
Our guide was the most informative he had been all day. He took me to where they were cooking up a feast for the entire village. A whole cow was in these three pots. I know I'm fussy about my meat but the large blobs of white substances in this looked pretty gross.
Women hung around waiting for the feast to start. Apparently, part of the meal will be offered to God then it would be salted and everyone would join in the feast.
I found John back in the car. He had had a very different experience to me. He had left the church and wandered outside. Three times, people had thrust their hands in his face, asking for money. Someone even tried to block his way. He'd heard about the proud Tarahumara people and was disppointed in the reality which we saw, though this is probably more evident in those who have been "tainted" by tourism. This was such a contrast to the infectious friendliness of most Mexicans and of other indigenous groups we've visited in Mexico and elsewhere.
We decided not to catch the train for the last leg of the trip as it was terribly expensive and the bus drive was just as scenic. In fact, the bus trip took us across spectacular wide open plains. We later drove through mile after mile of fertile agricultural land reminiscent of parts of Australia.
Our final destination in the copper canyon was Chihuahua - yes the place the dogs come from! In fact, this was on one of the city's buildings.
We checked out the museum which was housed in a spectacular building.
There was a room dedicated to famous people who came from Chihuahua and Anthony Quinn was one of them! He went on to become a sculptor later in life.
We went to a restaurant that was ok but it had a spectacular location overlooking the square and the church.
Every now and then a bell-ringer would come out and physically ring the bells using a very long rope.
People that we had met in Creel later turned up so we had a good night chatting to them. Gary is English and has lived in Australia for many years and Lourdes is a Mexican anthropologist who has worked on many of the ruins we have visited in Mexico. How cool!
We stayed in a lovely place which had a great rooftop terrace with wonderful views.
The same building you can see in the above photo was just as gorgeous at night.
What a fantastic part of our journey the Copper Canyon was!
Heather and John
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