The Copper Canyon
Trip Start
Mar 24, 2008
1
4
5
Trip End
Apr 18, 2008
Los Mochis,
Mexico
Saturday, April 5, 2008
After nine days in the whale soup it was a bit of a shock to be back to civilisation. The next step of our journey entailed crossing to mainland Mexico via the Baja Ferry. We were a little apprehensive when we arrived at the ferry terminal, it was definitely not a tourist route, and the place was swarming with what I can best describe as itinerant workers and their families. Loads of kids and even more luggage, the place was littered with piles of those huge, square, check, plastic zip up bags, nylon sacks of clothes, taped up card board boxes, the odd DVD player or kettle - they were obviously travelling to the mainland with all their worldly goods.
The ferry itself was a pleasant surprise - we had expected little more than a rusty hulk but it was similar to our cross channel ferries, if stuck in a seventies time warp. When we saw the melee at the terminal we opted to spend an extra £38 for a four berth cabin so at least we would be guaranteed a space of our own. It was well worth it, if only to get away from the incessant music that blasted out in every seating area. It was quite amusing though - Pete / Jen / Derek and myself in four bunk beds, in a tiny cabin, inches from each other - we decided it was like Home and Away Club with men!
We spent one night in Los Mochis before being driven to El Feurte for a night where we were catching the train. El Feurte was a lovely town, established in the 1500's.
The Chepe
It had a lot of nice colonial buildings and a very pleasant square in the centre. The next morning we were transported to the train station which was a rickety wooded platform in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately there was a large group of Americans travelling on our train and the ensuing embarkation was a bit chaotic to say the least. Still the journey to Divasadero was spectacular and had some interesting trainy bits like looping the loop, backing into sidings to let the longest goods train I have ever seen pass and going round very steep, tight bends. If we thought embarkation was chaotic, disembarkation was even worse - a tiny wooden platform, an assortment of battered vehicles and sqillion suitcases being dragged through the dust and grime.The hotel had a spectacular location, perched like an eagles nest right on the rim of the canyon. All the rooms looked out over the view and had a balcony to enable you to enjoy it. Unfortunately it was a "rustic" in décor and only geared up to the mass tourist market - one sitting for meals, no choice, that sort of thing. Still its location made up for its shortcomings and we had several very interesting and beautiful walking and driving tours around the canyon.
The following day we were to board the train for the next stop, Creel. When we heard from our driver that it was actually only 35 minutes away by car (1 ½ hours on the train + another 1 ½ hours waiting time as the train was habitually late, + that awful scrummage with the luggage) we negotiated to be driven door to door and we arrived unstressed, about 2 ½ hours before the pack.
We had been warned that Creel was a one horse town and by Jove they were right.
Typical Countryside
To cap it all the hotel we had wanted to stay at was fully booked and we were booked into another which we were assured was *** at least. Well it was the biggest dump and Jenny and I were not happy bunnies. Just to cap it all, the bar had no gin, no wine no anything except beer and coke! We negotiated a long trip out the next day to get away from it all.Considering Creel is such a dump, the surrounding countryside is stunning. It's just a few miles from the main rugged canyon, much greener, loads of trees and interesting rock formations. We visited a Temara Indian reservation including some families that live in caves, a lake, a waterfall with no water and a Jesuit Mission. We returned to Creel for lunch and then on the train for the last time, a five hour journey to Chihuahua.
What this journey lacked in spectacular scenery as were almost out of the canyon now, it made up for in human interest value. The foothills gave way to bigger fields and much more livestock (some of it dead by the train tracks!) there were ranches and people on horseback. That in turn rolled into huge fertile plains which seemed to be devoted to fruit growing. I love these sorts of journeys; you spend all your time surmising what crop is what? Who's going where and why? What's going on...... before we knew it the countryside gently gave way to suburbia and the train arrived at Chihuahua, without a hairless dog in sight.
