Bike trip to the Falls

Tres Amigos has a rental shop in Creel...bikes, horses, cars, motorbikes... We settled on mountain bikes and, with Matt and Katie from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set off to find a waterfall.

Perhaps we should have listened to the note on the little map we got from 3 Amigos, the one that said "guide required."




We didn't bike on the steep slopes, and we didn't find the waterfall. :(

Part of that might have been because we were there during the dry season and everyone told us there wasn't much water coming down. Part of it because we got lost.



p.s.: small world...we had to go all the way to Creel to meet Katie, Pat Portz's second cousin. For non-family, Pat is married to Marv's first cousin, Rolly!

Around Creel

We met a wonderful couple, Javier and Paz, from Spain on the Chepe train, and toured some of the geological sites near Creel with them.



Children are shy everywhere!

Modern-day cliff dwellers, a Raramuri family settled into a natural cave.
A view of Creel from the hill where the Cristo Rey statue stands.

Out of the Canyon

What goes down, must come up. Much more slowly, however.

Into the Canyon

We stayed at the Casa de Diaz guest rooms in Posada Barrancas and one of the younger sons took us on a four-hour hike down into the Barranca de Cobre. This area is home to an estimated 30,000 Raramuri peoples (of the Tarahumara Sierra). Homes are scattered throughout the canyons, a flat spot selected for farming and the house built nearby. There are some places where, with more room, three or four homes are clustered on the flat top of a mesa that has sharp-edged cliffs on two or three sides. The hillsides are laced with trails and it is not uncommon to see someone on the far side of the canyon, making their way up or down.

Posada Barrancas

Vertigo is not a good thing to have in the Copper Canyon. The drops are precipitous and there are no warnings, fences, or barricades to keep you back.

Posada Barrancas

If you take the first class train (which we inadvertently did, since the economy class did not run on the day we were going), you can "stop over" at towns along the way. The conductor makes a notation on your ticket and you get off the train, spend a day or two in a spot like Posada Barrancas and then catch the next first class train that comes through.

Train from Los Mochis

Train buffs from around the world get excited hearing about the Copper Canyon trip. Chepe, the Mexican line, snakes back and forth through spectacular canyons and 86 tunnels, climbing from sea level at Los Mochis to Creel at about 7550 feet, then on to the grand city of Chihuahua.