Chihuahua Pacifico ( Copper Canyon Rail)

A few memorable stops along our way, first was San Carlos - on the water, but too built up for us. Several marinas, lots of fancy homes & restaurants. Close by was the city of Guaymas, more interesting with old buildings, a malecon, a market & a town square. Strange sight on the hiway - a half ton truck, 2 guys holding a ladder, one guy up on the ladder fiddling with the power lines & one fellow flagging traffic - only in Mexico!

We headed into the hills to Alamos, a colonial silver mining town, founded in the 1680's with cobblestone streets, interior courtyards & many arches. It is one of many of Mexico's Pueblos Magicos (magical town). We were lucky to watch a festival with performances by several children's groups, the little cowboys were so cute! In case everyone thinks that we only eat tacos we did enjoy a very fancy meal in a lovely old hotel with some new friends. We took in a tour of the town, lots of history & Robin actually bought a souvenir, a unusual horsehair belt.

We are enjoying the hiways, 4 lane, mainly lacking shoulders & rough patches, but an improvement over last winter. Agricultural area, cattle, lots of corn crops, tomatoes. Hard to get used to all the manual labor, large fields being sprayed with back-pack sprayers!

Another Pueblos Magicos, El Fuerte, the station to board the Copper Canyon Rail, this one founded in 1564. We were the only RV in the motel & RV park, but a safe place to leave the motorhome for the 3 days of our trip.

The Chihuahua Pacifico Railroad is quite spectacular - 39 bridges, 86 tunnels (longest 5981 ft.), it took us from cactus to pine forests, over large rivers & into deep canyons. There are 7 main canyons, the area is 4 times larger than the Grand canyon & is deeper. Our portion took us 8 hours, our destination being Creel in the state of Chihuahua. The cost for First Class, we splurged, was $150 round trip per person, well worth it. We had comfy reclining seats but we spent most of the trip outside on the platforms between the cars with our heads sticking out over the half door. You could touch some tree branches & you were quick to pull your head back in before tunnels! The diesel exhaust & dust left us pretty grubby but the scenery was unbelievable. There weren't many people in First Class, most of the Mexicans rode in the Economy cars. The remote canyons are home to the Tarahumara Indians, also known as Raramuri or" those who run fast". They live a simple life, many still live in caves or small houses, they walk most everywhere, kids may walk 4 hours to school where they stay for the week.  We were lucky to been shown into a cave home on one of the tours we took. The women wear very colorful skirts & blouses, often carrying babies on their backs. The traditional footwear, worn by many, is tire tread soles with strips of leather for straps. The men dress in regular clothes, jeans. At one train stop the women rushed to all the train doors, holding up beautiful, colorful handmade woven baskets for ridiculously low prices. They are also present at all stops on any tours, no matter how remote. One girl walks 2 hours to get to a canyon overlook, if it gets too late she sleeps in a cave.

The main stop on the train to gaze into the canyons is at Divisadero, also the sight of a gondola tramway & ziplines. Almost as interesting were the food stalls where they cook over fires in 45 gallon drums, preparing delicious gorditas.

We stayed 2 nights in a pretty, colorful hotel in Creel that included 2 tasty Mexican meals per day. We definitely needed the heater, there was frost & ice outside in the morning. We went on two tours, the highlight being the Tarahumara cave home where 10 people live. Also visited was Arareko Lake, quite similar to Jasper area, Cusarare waterfall, quite spectacular - but we had to drive thru 4 creeks to get there, mainly on a "goat trail",  a 300 year old mission church & several strange rock formations. I bought a pretty, but useful pine needle woven basket, plus several colorful baskets which hopefully we will find a use for.

outside view of cave home

inside the cave, 10 inhabitants!

The second tour took us to several canyon overlooks & back to Divisadero where we took the gondola tram - 2750 meters long, no towers. Great views into 3 canyons & down into the valleys where there are Tarahumara villages (no roads, just paths). Beside the tram is a zipline, 2600 meters long, you apparently reach speeds of 130 km/hr. Quite glad that we had no time to try this out! The admission price was reduced if you bought & then donated a toy, quite similar to Santa's Anonymous.
The return train trip was much quicker, mostly downhill, Creel being at approx. 8000 ft elevation. At one point the train makes a 180 degree turn inside a tunnel. The ride & the experience were most worth it, another item off the "bucket list".

We have traveled further south, now being 80 km north of Mazatlan, on a beach, sorting & deleting some of the hundreds of pictures taken in the last week and trying to catch up on some overdue emails. Hard to believe it's almost Christmas - Feliz Navidad!