Copper Canyon-Divisidero
We left Creel in a van instead of the train for this part of the trip. Ivan was our driver/guide, as he was the previous day for our tours to the waterfalls and Indian villages. He took us to some scenic overlooks for the canyons between Creel and Divisidero. We saw four different canyons. We got to our hotel and went in our room and the view out our window was breathtaking! The hotel is built right on the edge of the canyon and our balcony was hanging over the canyon! From our balcony we could see 3 canyons where they come together. The dining room has big glass windows and is also on the edge of the canyon. Having breakfast with the early morning sun shining on the canyons was beautiful. In the afternoon, we took a hike with a naturalist, down the cliffs below our hotel and saw some more Tarahumara Indian homes that were built right up against a big rock cliff. There was a small amount of water (just a trickle) flowing out of the cliff and they built 2 catch basins-one for the animals, and one for drinking water for the people. It was amazing to hear that this small amount of water was enough for 35 families.
The next day was to be one of the highlights of the trip because we went on the zip lines. We had been looking forward, with high excitement and anticipation, to doing this the whole week, and we were not disappointed. We met our guides, got our equipment on (harness, helmut, and heavy leather gloves) and went to the first station. There were 7 runs and each one went over a deep canyon, so it was a little scary looking down, but very exciting and fun. Several of them were over 4000 meters long, but it didn't take long to get to the other side when we were flying along about 50 miles per hour! When you are flying along the wheel makes a high pitch whine as it rolls on the cable and the wind was so strong it made my eyes water. The speed, noise, wind, and spectacular scenery made for an exciting and breathtaking ride. We had to hike a short distance from each landing station to the next take off station and there were 2 suspension bridges that we had to cross. Each one had a cable that we would hook on to with our line and shackle to make us feel secure, but it was still shaky and almost as exciting as the zip line. When we got to the last platform, there was a gondola to take us back up to the top. Then we went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, went to the train station, and hopped on the train again, and headed back down the mountains to the last stop, called Los Mochis, where we would get the bus back to Mazatlan. All in all, it was a fantastic week in the Copper Canyon.