Mushrooms, frogs, monks and elephants in the Canyon

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After 14hrs + of travel and a transit through the US (always painful), we arrived in Chihuahua, Mexico and we drew the short straw when Scott’s bag was ‘chosen’ to be searched. After finding nothing of interest we were on our way to a cute little hotel and rather than the usual washing of car windows at the traffic lights we were treated to some fire dancing entertainment - great! Through a haze of tiredness we headed out for a quick dinner, whist looking for a recommendation we stumbled across a local place serving cold margaritas and good local fare outside, while a live duo sung some great traditional numbers. A fitting start to our 2 week Mexican adventure!
We were up super early the next morning but considering we were really still on London time 4.30am didn’t faze us. We boarded the Chepe Train (The Chihuahua al Pacifico), our route would take us through 5 climatic zones and from sea level to 8,000 feet of elevation. The train is now one of only two passenger trains left in Mexico, but more importantly it is the scenic route through the Copper Canyon. We rolled out on the dot of 6am travelling in darkness and once out of the city watching the sun come up over the rolling hills. We enjoyed a traditional Mexican breakfast on board of what can be described as nachos and tortillas, plus bottomless coffee - this would become a staple diet. We then relaxed in the bar cart (locals steaming into beers from around 9am, including what looked like a Bloody Mary beer!??!) , the scenery was lovely and it was a perfectly clear day. We arrived at our first stop along the line (Creel) about an hour late; this meant that we were held up getting to our hotel as all the roads were shut for a local bike ride/race. In the end we had to walk to the hotel, but it was only 4 blocks so not too much of a drama. That afternoon we had a poke around the town, which really is one main street, and had some lunch in a local little place. Later on it tipped down with rain, and we found out Hurricane Rick which was a category 5 hurricane was heading our way... what is it with us and bad weather? The next morning we awoke to a beautiful clear day, startling blue skies. We were picked up at 8am for a tour of the Copper Canyon, but not Copper Canyon itself : what we learnt was that Copper Canyon is actually a system of many canyons rather than just one, which is what I originally thought, ah-la the Grand Canyon.
The first part of the trip was a visit to the indigenous groups that live in the canyon area - Tarahumara. The women wear lovely bright yellow, pink, green and red dresses; they live in very basic houses on the rivers in the valleys. Some still live and or store produce in the natural caves in the mountains, they are very self-sufficient in the communities. In the first valley we visited we saw - mushroom valley, frog valley, an old church, monk valley. We then drove on into one of the many canyons they were all very different as you went through each one, either more green or different rocks. The one thing I found is it was a lot greener than I thought it would be, given it is called Copper Canyon one would think it was going to be redish stone. Before our amazing lunch (white table cloth, by a babbling stream), we hiked up a valleys stream to see a small hot water pool and a little waterfall surrounded by pancake rocks. The hike was lovely, but there were a few hairy moments jumping stone to stone across the river, nothing really compared to the next day’s hike. Just before the rains came down again we made it to our lodge for the next few nights. After a while we realised a couple of things 1) we were the only guests there, 2) there was not electricity. Yip, a vista over a river, kerosene lamps and wood fires, how rustic! The rooms were great and the common area lovely we enjoyed margaritas and a game of scrabble by an open fire that evening. The next morning was overcast, perfect for a 7hr hike with our local guide Jose - who was missing his front teeth and otherwise known as ‘deputy sheriff’ (that was written on the back of his cap). We never saw the front of his cap as he took off like a rocket, wearing only tires on his feet that had been very professionally turned into flip-flops. He was a hoot, laughing at us and to himself the entire time; he only spoke Spanish so it was arm gesturing and our small amount of Spanish the entire time. We traversed up and over a mountain before making our way down a canyon to visit a piping hot spring. Millions of years ago the canyons were formed through massive volcanic eruptions, thus this force is still bubbling away deep beneath the ground. Some of the pools were so hot they were boiling - amazing. The next part of the hike involved us criss-crossing the river making our way towards a very impressive waterfall. We must have risked life and limb, plus destroying our camera by leaping boulder to rock across the river half a dozen times. We arrived back at the lodge tired and sore, but it was a good hike, and we were more than ready for more margaritas fire side.
We had a lazy start the next morning, it was another crisp bright day, around 10.30 we headed back into Creel and boarded the Chepe train heading for El Fuerte (otherwise known, by me, as L’Fruity!). The train ride started slowly in terms of amazing scenery. But it soon improved when we reached Divisadero and had the most dramatic view over the Copper Canyon; in fact it was where the Copper met another Canyon. It was very deep and green (no copper in site) and the birds swept over head ... bueno vista! We then wound our way down through a stunning series of Canyons that were smaller but steeper; again they were very green and lush. Sometime after lunch and at a much lower altitude the forest turned tropical and it got steamy, plus cactuses started to appear. We retired to the bar cart and enjoyed the lakes at the bottom of the canyons with a margarita or two. Chico picked us up from the station on arrival, he was an old timer lived in and around the area for most of his life. One strange thing he pointed out on the way into town was the alcohol and drug rehab centre, it was no Priory that is for sure. The town was a lot larger and more modern than Creel, but the centre was just as sleepy absolutely nothing going on and hardly any restaurants. The following morning I took a quick dip in the pool before we had a lovely breakfast surrounded by tiny hummingbirds. Chico collected us and we were on our way kayaking down the river, which was moving very fast. We hadn’t been going long before we come to ground and started walking in land. We had no idea what was going on, we didn’t know we were making any stops. But a brilliant stop it was, ancient petro glyphs on the rock - jaguar, 4 elements, sun, women, man and a fox where very clear. There were a lot of bird life on the river and as we paddled down they flew past us. The next exciting thing was some rapids, rather large really, amazingly by swinging to the right I managed to stay on top of the kayak. Scott decided to take the middle path and wasn’t so lucky and ended up in the drink - he didn’t lose his jandles so all was well. That afternoon we walked a dusty road back to the river side and enjoyed the best prawns (camarons) and multiple margaritas and beers before our transfer to Los Mochis. The transfer was suppose to take 90mins, but it took 2hrs, it was a rather tense last 10mins hoping the flight wouldn’t be closed. We raced into the terminal to find that in fact our entire flight had been cancelled and no one had got in touch, hmmm. After much too-ing and fro-ing they finally booked us on a later flight on a different airline that had a touch-down on the way, excellent, we arrived around 90mins later into Guadalajara - the heart of the silver cities. Luckily our pick up was still waiting patiently, however we found out the ride to San Miguel was going to take 4-5hrs rather than the 3hrs we thoughts. The van we were in was huge so we were able to lie down and sleep as much as we could, there were huge trucks on the road so the pace was slow.

PHOTOS

We awoke in San Miguel stepping out of the vehicle and looked up to see a magnificent church, but we were soon asleep in our lovely room looking out over the other major churches in the town. When we got up we found ourselves in a very pretty hotel called Posada Carmina, right on the main plaza, it had a stunning court yard with flowers dripping down the walls. We had a relaxed breakfast meeting up with some of Scott’s friends from NYC and relatives of the bride and groom. We were in San Miguel for Amy and Rob’s wedding, and what a location beautiful old houses, churches painted bright colours on cobblestoned streets. It did feel like there were churches on every corner, and one Starbucks (there are a lot of American’s living here). I spent 1hr on the phone with Mexicana Air since we had been given the heads-up that our flight to Mexico City had also been cancelled, after with speaking with 6 different agents and being told the flight had in fact been cancelled I was hung up on. It was hard to stay too mad in such a beautiful town and after a late lunch at a small place with a great view we booked ourselves on a bus to Mexico City, fingers crossed we get our money back for that flight. That evening we attended the rehearsal dinner, this was another big American wedding planned and executed brilliantly. That evening we had a fun night with some of the other guests at a local club. The wedding itself was amazing, sadly it rained, but the Casa where the wedding and reception was held felt like it was straight out of a magazine shoot for Mexican decor! We were both blown away. The ceremony was Jewish, very personal and very family oriented and all rather moving. The best part was the burro (donkey) all dressed up for photos afterwards, hilarious. The first dance was also very moving; Rob’s parents sung a song called ‘Once’. Photos and a couple of movies below...

PHOTOS

Ceremony
Once

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