Had an amazing day. I rented bikes with the German girl and the two Hungarian guys, and spent the day exploring the area. We covered some of the same ground as yesterdays tour, but it was much more interesting from the bike. I got a much better sense of how everything fits together, and saw so many more beautiful houses nestled among the cliffs. I'm not sure why I find it so strange, but there are so many people walking all over the countryside.
We rode through the valley of the frogs and mushrooms, and past the mission tht we saw yesterday, but then continued on a few more kilometers to the valley of the monks/phaluses. It was magnificent: huge rock spires at the top of a beautiful valley. Limestone I think.
From there we rode through the forest to a large lake, where we rented a boat for 60 pesos ($5) for an hour. The German girl headed back to town to catch a bus to Chihuahua, and the three of us headed down theist beautiful valley I've seen so far, along a dirt track on the faded flat grassy velley floor between high limestone cliffs with Tarahumara houses nestled at the bottom. We criss-crossed the river for 5km until we couldn't ride any further, then left the bikes and walked further, hoping to reach the same waterfalls I'd visited yesterday, someone had told us that this was an alternative way there. We passé a couple of small falls, but never reached the large falls, and turned back because we didn't want to run out of daylight. I realized later that it was a totally different valley and set if waterfalls. I'm still gla we ventured that way, it was so beautiful and fun riding.
I spent the evening at the hotel feeling exhausted and sun-baked. A Swede ha taken the German girls bed, and there's a bunch if older French people who I spoke to for a while, using French tht I've not spoken for years. Somehow the whole drug gang violence doesn't seem so bad when you're trying to explain it to someone else in a language that's a struggle to remember.
I found an article about what happened. Pretty heavy. But reading it makes me feel safer. It doesn't seem like te kind of thing that would spill over to tourists. It makes me feel better about being so conspicuously touristy! No one could mistake the gangly hiker with the bright red backpack for a member if the military or a rival gang member.
Tomorrow I'm planing to take the bus an hour west to Divisadero on the edge of the canyon. It's a very popular stop on the train with a $100 a night hotel. I'll get there early enough to hike down into the canyon to camp for the night. I hope it's a bit warmer there. It's pretty much freezing here at night, but very hot in the day.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/666193.html
Apologies for the bad spelling/capitalisation/etc. This is all being typed on my phone.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
20th march. Creel
It's a really strange atmosphere. As I arrived in Creel on the train I came upon three crowds.
The first was the smallest: the people greeting the train trying to get the tourist business. This was much less intense than I expected, certainly not as pushy as I've experienced in Thailand. (on a tangent I've been thinking a lot about Thailand, which led to thinking about the constant comparisons with Thailand and this trip. It's a bit like dating someone new after a big breakup. As much as you want to enjoy the new girl/experience purely on it's own merits, it's impossible not to make the comparisons. Tangent over.) I already knew which hotel I wanted to stay at (casa margarita) and immediately found the guy for there, got in their minibus, and was driven less than 20 meters! I guess the minibus is just a cattle pen, to stop the stupid tourists from going astray.
After sorting out my room (100 pesos, or $8) and a tour for the afternoon (250 pesos) I came across the other two crowds in creel.
I'd heard about the brightly colored clothing of the Tamuhara women (the indigenous people of this area) but had not expected to see so many in the town. There were girls and ladies everywhere, but about 40 clustered around the bank. I learned later that the government was giving out some kind of money that day, so people had come from all over the area to get it. On the tour that afternoon I saw many of them walking miles back out of town.
The third crowd was a funeral. There was a procession leaving the church next to the hotel, accompanied by a military vehicle with 5 soldiers standing on the back. Later that evening a German girl staying at the hotel told me that seven people had been killed in Creel the previous evening as part of a drug war that's happening. I'm not sure if this is true, or if the funeral was related to that, but I'm a bit freaked out.
However, before learning all this, I spent a great afternoon on a tour, being driven with three Mexican tourists around some beautiful parts of the region. The horseshoe lake (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), a rock shaped like an elephant (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like frogs (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like mushrooms (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like phaluses (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), and then the real highlight was a really beautiful high waterfall (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts). It was a mile or so up a rutted track, past women washing their clothes in the stream and lines of brightly colored clothes drying on fences, skinny donkeys, beautiful cliffs, pine trees. And the falls were magnificent. And although it was a bit odd having people selling stuff everywhere we went, it is such amazing craftwork. They make baskets woven from dry grass, beautiful jewelry, snakes from bent sticks, wooden spoons. I'll definitely take some home.
I spoke to the guide at 3 Amigos. He cautioned me against going into remote canyons alone because people involved in growing drugs wouldn't welcome a stranger. But he thought that going to divisadero and hiing down into thecanyon there would be fine. Going to bopitalas and asking about the situation before hiking should also be fine.
The first was the smallest: the people greeting the train trying to get the tourist business. This was much less intense than I expected, certainly not as pushy as I've experienced in Thailand. (on a tangent I've been thinking a lot about Thailand, which led to thinking about the constant comparisons with Thailand and this trip. It's a bit like dating someone new after a big breakup. As much as you want to enjoy the new girl/experience purely on it's own merits, it's impossible not to make the comparisons. Tangent over.) I already knew which hotel I wanted to stay at (casa margarita) and immediately found the guy for there, got in their minibus, and was driven less than 20 meters! I guess the minibus is just a cattle pen, to stop the stupid tourists from going astray.
After sorting out my room (100 pesos, or $8) and a tour for the afternoon (250 pesos) I came across the other two crowds in creel.
I'd heard about the brightly colored clothing of the Tamuhara women (the indigenous people of this area) but had not expected to see so many in the town. There were girls and ladies everywhere, but about 40 clustered around the bank. I learned later that the government was giving out some kind of money that day, so people had come from all over the area to get it. On the tour that afternoon I saw many of them walking miles back out of town.
The third crowd was a funeral. There was a procession leaving the church next to the hotel, accompanied by a military vehicle with 5 soldiers standing on the back. Later that evening a German girl staying at the hotel told me that seven people had been killed in Creel the previous evening as part of a drug war that's happening. I'm not sure if this is true, or if the funeral was related to that, but I'm a bit freaked out.
However, before learning all this, I spent a great afternoon on a tour, being driven with three Mexican tourists around some beautiful parts of the region. The horseshoe lake (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), a rock shaped like an elephant (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like frogs (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like mushrooms (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), rocks shaped like phaluses (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts), and then the real highlight was a really beautiful high waterfall (with Tamuhara women selling beautiful crafts). It was a mile or so up a rutted track, past women washing their clothes in the stream and lines of brightly colored clothes drying on fences, skinny donkeys, beautiful cliffs, pine trees. And the falls were magnificent. And although it was a bit odd having people selling stuff everywhere we went, it is such amazing craftwork. They make baskets woven from dry grass, beautiful jewelry, snakes from bent sticks, wooden spoons. I'll definitely take some home.
I spoke to the guide at 3 Amigos. He cautioned me against going into remote canyons alone because people involved in growing drugs wouldn't welcome a stranger. But he thought that going to divisadero and hiing down into thecanyon there would be fine. Going to bopitalas and asking about the situation before hiking should also be fine.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Barrancas del Cobre/Copper Canyon, Mexico
I'm heading off to hike around the Copper Canyon area of Mexico from the 19th to 29th of March 2010. I've no idea what the internet situation will be like there, but if I can, I'll write some updates while there.
Some background info:
Map: This is the area in Google
General info: Wikipedia article
I'm going armed with a little more information than that, but there's not too many details available. I have a guidebook from 1994, a compass, a GPS, and a schedule for the beautiful train that runs through the area from Chihuaha. I'm hoping to pick up some proper maps when I get to Creel on Saturday.
Some background info:
Map: This is the area in Google
General info: Wikipedia article
I'm going armed with a little more information than that, but there's not too many details available. I have a guidebook from 1994, a compass, a GPS, and a schedule for the beautiful train that runs through the area from Chihuaha. I'm hoping to pick up some proper maps when I get to Creel on Saturday.
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