Creel and Copper Canyon ... back in time

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Hi Guys!!!

Firstly, Mum and Dee, thanks so much, messages are getting through. Sorry that I havent actually emailed as such but we have been packing the days with so much stuff that it is hard to get a minute on a computer. Love youz!!!

I am being a little list-like and writing a couple of different entries so that points turn up on my map. ¿Points on a map are just like lists that dont run down a page, arent they? Its just a collection really. When last we spoke we were just about to head off for the Copper Canyon. In the guide book it said that the Copper Canyon, in size, makes the Grand Canyon look, well, frankly, a bit puny! We decided to take the bus to Creel, which is where the canyon starts to start. This was somewhat influenced by the fact that the train left Boom-chicka-chihuahua at 6am. (mmm, that was just not going to happen). We stayed a couple of nights in the most fabulous, cute little hotel in Creel. It was a tiny little town--just one main street and the railway running through. After all those years of working in the paint industry and saying boring things like "that is not a colour that you can use outside", I wonder why I bothered. Here they do. All those amazing yellows and hot pinks and limey greens that fade in the sun are used anyway and fade beautifully. If I was still in that industry I would probably come home and tell everyone to just do it. Our weather definitely can handle that strong colour, and it looks so good. (Sorry in advance to anyone who will be put through the torment of looking at my photos--there is no shortage of photos of colourful houses). But at home, I am sure someone would come back after 6 months and say "the colour you sold me has faded", and not understand that was the point!! And then I would get fired, and then I would have to work in the travel industry until I cried, and then I would have to go and work for 000, and then I would go on a holiday to Mexico ... things work out the way they should in the end!!

Anyway back on track: We hired a couple of bikes in Creel and went out to explore wacky rock formations--frogs and mushrooms and monks--and the lake in the area. It was so nice to be on the bike ... it would have been so amazing to do this on a bike, but we wouldnt have seen nearly as much as we are. And the heat would have probably killed us (oooorrr, mmmm, made us skinny(er)). ¿Have I told you about the fabulous thirst quenchers they have here (besides strawberry margueritas)? (I love spanish questions!) I think I did. The next day we got on the train. It was a 9 hour journey and there is really only one place in which you get a vista that is Grand-Canyonesque (El Divesidero), where you stop for 15 minutes. Aaaaahhhhhh!!! The rest of the journey is actually through one of the canyons. It was fantastic. The train goes through tunnels and over bridges. At times you can see the track in the distance but turn away in another direction, only to find you turn up where you sighted it, but no where near the way you thought you would. You twist and turn for 15 minutes only to look down and see where you were 15 minutes ago below you.

The last 3 or 4 hours were across the flat, hot coastal plain down to the Pacific Coast. For 9 hours I looked. Thats a lot of looking and it takes it out of you. Looked from the windows, looked from the bistro car, looked from the open tops of the doors between carriages, looked from the back of the train. It was an amazing day that ended in .... next blog.

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