Hotel Mary Batopilas

... been awesome. They are great company and the loopy humour fits well with me, good times! One night after dinner we tried our hand at light photography, where you leave the shutter open and write or paint with torches. If you look closely at the food picture you may see Fud and Nugs, some of the tasty treats I've been gobbling along way and washing it down with grandmas' hot choc. The food is starting to get real nice, proper burritos and charcoal chicken like I've never had before.

De Cusarare nous rejoignons la lac d'Arareko, après avoir traversé la vallée des grenouilles et la vallée des champignons, surnoms dus à la forme des roches.

Après avoir navigué en barque sur le lac nous décidons d'en faire le tour, sans nous rendre compte de son étendue ...

Nous installons notre base dans le petit village de Creel, d'où nous pouvons partir en excursion dans les alentours comme c'est le cas aujourd'hui à Cusarare.

La cascade et la vallée de Cusarare sont reposants et dépaysants, mais c'est surtout ...

Nach unseren langen Busfahrten auf Baja California sind wir froh, diesmal die schnelle Variante gewaehlt zu haben, denn wir fliegen mit einem 12 Sitzer zurueck auf's Festland, statt viel Zeit auf einer Faehre zu verbringen. Es dauert keine 30 Minuten, da sind wir auch schon in Los Mochis, dem Startpunkt fuer die Eisenbahn zum Kupfercanyon. Generell gibt es in Mexiko nur noch 2 Eisenbahnen mit Passagierservice (die andere traegt den vielversprechenden Namen "Tequila-Express"...!). Wir ...

... 10 blocks. Not much there but pretty nice, with a deluxe Best Western at the end (this is the luxury hotel chain in many towns). There were white cotton sheets hanging on the fences on either side of the church, hand-lettered in red paint, that made reference to a 'massacre' om Aug 10 of 13 people. We ran into a very sketchy, sun-shrunken American expat in his 50's with dark purple shades drinking beer out of a paper cup on the main street, and after ...

... pretty impressive; monoliths that resemble monks looking down on you in an oppressive manner make us feel small in a world of giants. Looking at the sun we figure we have little time to dawdle and so hot pedal it down to the lake. Needing to push ourselves, I discover a daredevil attitude as I speed down the inner forest terrain, littered with potholes, troughs and tree roots, feeling at one with my bike. I think of my friends Dan and Lizzie and understand what I've missed out on ...

... had to recognize that it took much more time to get to Creel, from where I can explore the area of the Copper Canyon, a mexican version of the Grand Canyon, at best. But that delay was also caused by the visit of the Cascada Basaseachic, the highest waterfall of Mexico. The arrival to Creel was delayed for about 4 hours because some people demonstrated against corrupcy by road blocks. Despite the presence of Police and the military, the action was held peacefully.

... the valley and the looming tree-carpeted canyon walls. We cross bridges over burst rivers with their chocolate orange waters flowing in multiple directions. Enjoying the wind blowing through our hair (well my hair and Eli's bushy ginger beard), we pull our heads and cameras in quickly from the stable-style doors as we enter tunnels and cut our way through the canyon walls. Bright blue skies, billowing cumulus nimbus and the lush emerald, jade and ...

The morning after our bike ride to the hot springs, Rich and I decided to hitchhike to the remote town of Urique, which hugs the banks of a muddy river at the base of the deepest cañon in the region. With a sketch map of the region we walked from our hostel to the highway. Within ten minutes we had our first ride. A Mexican family from Texas took us as far as Divisadero, where we took some photos of the barrancas from a ...

On leaving Chihuahua my friend Gusano wished me a good voyage on his radio program. A great start to a great journey. The bus ride was excellent. Beautiful scenery and the guy sitting next to me played his guitar and sang the whole way. I´m finally experiencing Mexico as I´ve imagined it. Right now I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Creel, reflecting on an amazing day. Along with an English guy, a German, and a Swiss girl, we rented mountain bikes from the hostel and ...