Cerocahui

Yesterday morning (Friday) we loaded into a bus and took a 2 hour ride along the Copper Canyon rim toward a town called Divisadero. Along the way we stopped at several Miradors (overlooks) to view the canyons and to buy Tarahumara crafts. The Copper Canyon may be bigger than the Grand Canyon but it is so different that it is hard to compare them. Where the Grand Canyon is a sudden drop off and the span of the canyon is huge, the Copper Canyons are more gradual, less wide and much deeper. The Copper Canyons are covered with trees and bushes with little exposed rock walls. Native Tarahumara populate almost all areas of the canyons. I've been writing the plural because there are many canyons that make up Copper Canyon. At one mirador we could see 3 canyons -- Copper, Urique, and Tararecua.

We were supposed to ride a gondola out over the canyon but the company chose that day to close the gondola for preventative maintenance!!! It would have been an awesome ride. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant with a balcony overlooking the canyon then stopped in Divisadero to shop while waiting for the train. Divisadero sits between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean watersheds.

The train ride on the ChePe Railroad (Chihuahua al Pacifico RR) from Divisadero to Bahuichivo was only about 2 hours then we had a 40 minute bus ride to Cerocahui (pronounced sair-o-CAW-wee). This is a very small town situated near Urique Canyon. Our hotel used to be the San Francisco Jesuit mission near the church. There is also a Tarahumara girls boarding school for about 75 girls next door run by the nuns of Sacred Heart. This area also has a nice vineyard but we weren't too crazy about the wine they produce. Dancers and musicians entertained us before supper.

This morning (Sat.) we had an early start and were in a bus climbing the mountains on a bumpy gravel road to the Urique overlook. The Mexican government is trying to make this a tourist destination so they have unfinished bathrooms and a tiled viewing platform without railings. But the view is fabulous with ridges and crags as far as the eye can see. The Canadians are doing some mining in the area, harvesting copper, silver and gold. We got on the train just before lunch time, so had a great hamburger in the dinning car. We took the train all the way back to Creel. At one point the train made a loop as it climbed out of the canyon to an altitude of over 8000 feet before descending down to Creel.

Tomorrow we head back towards the USA with an overnight in Cuauhtemoc.