Copper Canyon Trip
14 December 2011 | East of Topolobampo, Mexico
Karyn/clear but colder
After getting our bearings at Los Mochis and finding out where the bus station was, we are heading off to the Copper Canyon with the Watsons. We leave Topo on the bus, transfering in Los Mochis to el Fuerte where we stay a couple of nights. We were quite a site runnning across the highway with our duffle to get on the bus. Another drama in Los Mochis as Bob was already on the bus and I was frantically looking for him in the market. Whew! He gave me a scare. We have been reading and talking to other cruisers to figure out what we are going to do. The suggestion was to stop in El Fuerte and stay at the Rio Vista. We arrived and found a taxi. It took us to a very unlikely location up a narrow road. But the view from the top was beautiful. Some brothers have built a little hotel there on land that the government gave them. The owner is Nacho and his brother Chal is to be our guide. You will see both of them in the Gallery. The place looks quite picturesque on the outside with many artifacts from long ago. Inside is a different story. Very!!! basic and very!!!cold. It is winter here and snow is coming. They bring each of us a little (12" x 12") heater to our rooms and extra blankets. Showers are cold and meals are al fresco. The guys are running it themselves and you have to give them an "A" for effort. We are surrounded by farm animals and river views. We arrange for Chal to take us birdwatching and to see the petroglyphs in the afternoon. He is really knowledable. We enjoyed the trip very much. We go on the river in a little Panga, crossing to the petroglyphs. He says he interprets without a degree. It is wild, everything from ET to his dead brother coming back to him. He's delightful and wacky. We return down the river at sunset and you can see just how peaceful and beautiful that was. The next day Chal takes us for a walking tour of the town. Lovely town. Mexico is suffering from this image of "danger". We were often the only tourists there. Beautiful hotels with no one in them. Unfortunately we found out they charged the same as we were paying for Rio Vista. Live and Learn. We ate in town so as not to freeze again. Chal has a friend in the copper canyon. He recommends him as our guide for the next part of our trip. We are sold and ask him to firm up the arrangements. Unfortunately we didn't ask enough questions. More about that later. The next AM we are delivered to the train station (cows, horses, roosters, chickens, dogs) The train is nice. Staff dressed to the nines. We begin the scenic trip up the canyon to Bauhuichivo where we will disembark to meet Mario. The trip is beautiful. Canyon is heavily forested with an occassional waterfall. Very poor little towns along the way. Very rugged and isolated. I don't know how people get to their homes. Bauhuichivo is a blurr as Mario begins the wild drive to cabanas de San Ysidro. It is advertised as an "alternative" tourist location. :-) We had decided we would ask to see the hotel before agreeing to stay there after our Rio Vista experience. But 24 kilometers later it wasn't to be an option. If we thought that Rio Vista was basic, we had more to learn. Only this time it was more expensive. We asked for a chat and renegotiation. It wasn't going to happen. He had us captive. We couldn't leave without him to take us. We decided to just roll with the punches. Thankfully all of us are pretty good at that. There were many things that we wanted to see in the Posada Barance Canyon. Mario had his own ideas. The next day he turned us over to a 65 year old Tarahumari runner for our hike. We hiked across (up and down) the Urique canyon for 3 hours. Mario picked us up on the road and took us to another location where we hiked another hour down to the bottom. This guide was like a gazelle. He spoke no english but was fun to watch. We visited a school. It was their last day before vacation. You will see the pictures. Each child was washing their plate and cup at a cistern. Played soccer with them. At the bottom we came off of the trail just in time to see a medivac airplane hit a dog on the street/runway attempting to take off with a sick child. We investigated and walked through the town to a hostel run by a grown up "hippie". It was lovely, but not the silver mines, villages, and church we had expected to see. Lunch was a hardboiled egg and rolled tortilla with Fanta. Then back to the lodge. The roads are dirt and wild. It took us over 2 hours to get back. We walked the property and readied for dinner. More guests arrived and we got together a bit. They were leaving the next day as well. However, they had just been where we had wanted to go and told us all about it. Once again, live and learn. I hurt my knee on the last part of the hike after a fall. Their physician checked it out and her partner (who did healing touch) gae me a treatment. I'm happy to report it is improving rapidly. We grabbed a quesadilla at a little shack and bought snacks to take on the train. A whole day of junk food. The train trip back was
uneventful. We relaxed and read our books. There is much more to see, but not this trip. We were able to buy some of the baskets that the Tarahumara Indians weave out of pine needles and reeds. Magnificent work. Also jewelry and cloth. We got back to the boat after 11pm. Glad to see Realtime again and have clean predictable surroundings. It doesn't take much to satisfy us these days. I"ve been working on the photos all this am. Hope you enjoy them.