26 December 2012

Recap: Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) (w/ pics and vids!)


We departed Alamos on 11 December, taking a bus to Navajoa, then another bus to Los Mochis where we stayed overnight in Hotel Monte Carlo. Los Mochis is a very bustling urban city, and we enjoyed a nice dinner before heading into the mountains for a couple of weeks. We boarded the train (El Chepe) early in the morning in Los Mochis, and arrived in Bahuichivo just after lunch. We then took a local bus down the steep and winding 54 km dirt road to Urique. The views of the Urique canyon driving down were spectacular.





The town of Urique at the bottom of the Urique Canyon

 We arrived in Urique after dark and spent some time with the bus driver and the local taqueria tracking down the locals who run Entre Amigos. Entre Amigos is an American run hostel, however the American owner had returned to Oregon when we arrived, so we interacted with the local staff: Tomas and Maruca. Entre Amigos consists of several small adobe buildings scattered around a compound: small cabins, hostel, kitchen, wood-fired shower room, outhouses, and a main house. The grounds also have terraced vegetable gardens and an abundance of citrus fruit trees, and guests are welcome to eat any fruits and vegetables in season (we ate several large sweet white grapefruits a day, fresh lemonade and orange juice, and fresh veggies in pastas and soups). We had a tortilla making lesson with Maruca and were shown the adobe brick making process at another home in town. We stayed in the hostel the first night, but found it a little creepy being the only ones there (also, there was a mouse!), so we moved to our own little casita for the following 3 nights. A couple from Alaska stayed one night while we were there (from whom we learned much about homesteading), but otherwise we had the place to ourselves. This tranquil setting allowed us to spend entire days planning for the future, talking, and debating about  society, government, religion, civic duty, energy – largely a result of our catalytic experience in Alamos with Robert.






Shrimp, lime, habanero - Mexican instant noodle flavour!

Three nights in the casita

Tortilla lesson with Maruca


250 year old cactus tree

Concrete mixture compression testing for the local bridge at a neighbour's house.


Laundry room

Hot shower

Happy newlyweds!



The trip out of Urique on 16 December also proved to be quite exciting, as we took a ride in the back of a local truck, rather than taking the bus back to Bahuichivo. The video pretty much says it all!





 
We then took the train from Bahuichivo to Creel. In Creel we stayed 4 nights at Casa Margaritas, which ended up being a great deal since the price includes breakfast and dinner and internet (~$28/night). While in Creel, we rented a scooter and rode it about 20 km each way to Cusarare in order to hike to the Cusarare Falls (which we didn’t quite find since we took the wrong trail!). We also spent a day hiking around the Raramuri ejido (communal landholding) of San Ignacio, 200 sq km of land with about 4000 Raramuri people living in caves and small houses. We visited the Museo Casa de las Artesanias which had some interesting exhibits about the Raramuri culture. 



San Ignacio Mission Church



Lago Arareko



Ooh, the internet...


We left Creel by bus and headed to Areponapuchi on 20 December, drawn by the canyon views there and the quaint cabanas at Cabanas Diaz. We were not disappointed by either, and even enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Hotel Posada Barrancas Mirador.



Blazing fire + inside toques = mountains are still cold in MX!



Beautiful craftsmanship



Mexican construction workers also staying at Cabanas Diaz


We finally returned to the boat in Topolobampo (after being away for 2 weeks!) by train on 22 December, excited to be back at our home aboard AEOLI for Christmas.




(The album has many more photos than shown in the post)

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