TRAINRIDE TO THE COPPER CANYON
It is not easy to find sleep. Our cabin swings back and forth and next to us rustles a ventilation. We’re in our mobile home on a cargo ship on its way from La Paz to Topolobampo, trapped between two trucks that apparently need to cool their cargo. But after a typical Mexican galley meal (tortillas, beans and rice) in the midst of the truck drivers and a few restless hours of sleep we arrive safe on the other side of the Sea of Cortez.
Here we get almost-royal visit from London. Our two friends Caroline and Heather escape the cold, English winter and would like to travel for the next couple of weeks with us through the highlands of Mexico. We met them a few years ago on our backpacking trip through Guatemala and have kept in touch ever since.
DISCOVERING THE CANYON
Because the two of them are traveling with a backpack, we decide to leave behind our home-on-wheels for a few days and take the train to the famous Copper Canyon. “El Chepe”, as the train is called because of its abbreviation “CH-P” (the initials mark the beginning of its route in Chihuahua to its end on the Pacific), winds its way up for several hours and curve after curve. The first night we spend in the small village of “Posada Barrancas” and enjoy an initial incredible view of the canyon. It’s supposed to be bigger and deeper than the Grand Canyon and we are, other than in the USA, almost the only tourists here. The following morning, we cross parts of this huge gorge via ziplines and suspension bridges. Seven (!!) times we jump into nothingness and hand over our lives to a thin, up to one-kilometer long steel rope, on which we race across the canyon several hundred meters above the ground. Stefan has a bit fear of heights and doesn’t like to look into the abyss and is therefore more than happy when he survived the last zipline safely. ?
IN THE MEXICAN MOUNTAINS
The next days we then spend in Creel from where we explore the area. At night, the temperature falls below freezing and we are grateful for the gas heating and the luxury of a hot water shower in our hotel room… All the more is the contrast as we visit an indigenous family that lives for several generations already in a cave that they fitted into their home. We almost can’t imagine how the grandmother dwells with her two daughters and a couple of grandchildren in those very simple and tight conditions defying the cold in the winter.
Time goes by quickly with excursions into the surrounding area to bizarre rock formations and waterfalls and before we know it, we are back in the train and return to our adventure mobile which we almost miss after those days.
Besides the incredible landscape we keep the many friendly encounters with the often-colorful dressed indigenous people and the lovely and authentic laughter of the children in our memories.
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