Day 10 – To El Paso

3/27/2006 – Day 10 – To El Paso

We are on the highway heading back the El Paso.  We are seeing many Mexican Federal Police on the road, like these trucks waiting for something to happen or call comes through.

We have been driving for a little while and we come to this business.  There are many food carts set up at this place, but the title on the building translates to “Chihuahuan Transport”.  It almost looks like they are all waiting for people to stop by for lunch.  Even this one man that seems to be flagging the bus down.  I wonder how good the Quesadillas are? 

Smokie alert!!  Further down the road the Federal Police had someone pulled over and was searching through the car.  It is interesting that the car they pulled over is coming into Mexico and not leaving.  I wonder if they are expecting illegal purchases from the U.S. and not paying tax to Mexico.

We are not at the border yet and already people are being pulled over to have their cars searched.  I wonder if they inspect all cars heading north?  We however, continue on our way without harassment; for now anyway.

We are at the border and in line to pass through immigration.  Just in case you might have missed something you wanted to buy you get one last chance.  There is everything along the side of the road from drinks, CDs, pottery, jewelry further up the road, not counting the people roaming the street.

Coming into the U.S. was a different experience then when we came into Mexico.  With the bus directed to a bus parking area everyone had to exit the bus.  The luggage storage doors were opened and U. S. border guards along with dogs entered the bus and luggage area I presume sniffing for drugs.  We had to walk into the immigration checkpoint single file and get processed individually.  What a big difference from our entry into Mexico.  After passing through we cross over the bridge from Mexico to the U. S.

Our journey through Copper Canyon was an interesting trip through in Mexico.  The Copper Canyon train ride itself was remarkable, the scenery amazing, and the whole experience will become a lifetime memory. 

We end the blog here and thank you for following us on our trip through Copper Canyon.  Remember, this blog will always show the last entry first and the first entry last.  You can navigate the travel blog days using the archive on the left just under the photo gallery. 

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Day 9 – Chihuahua

3/26/2006 – Day 9 – Chihuahua

Since I took a picture from the room last night, I decided to take a daylight picture before heading to breakfast.  This way you can see the city.  

We are touring the city of Chihuahua and are seeing the mix of architectural styles, both Spanish and European.  Some ornately carved tike this one.  The columns are very Romanesque. 

We visit the Government building.  We go up to the second floor so we can have a full view of the building.  The large courtyard in the center of the building has one single column in the center.

Located in the Chihuahua Plaza Angel is the Angel of Liberty statue, which commemorates freedom for all Mexicans. 

A short walk along a pedestrian street and located just across from the Plaza de Armas is the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross.  It is said to be the finest example of colonial architecture in northern Mexico and built between 1725 and 1792.

Here are a couple of the statues on the front face of the Cathedral.  Notice the fencing over the statues and spikes at their base.  These are to keep the birds off the statues to better preserve them. 

We make a quick trip inside since our time at this location is running out.  Check out the elaborate chandeliers.  The ornately carved wall behind the dais serves to impress even more.

In one of the alcoves was this graphic depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Notice the amount of blood that shows on the statue.

As we are walking around the Cathedral, I see a number of pieces of cloth tied to the fence.  There is also this woman leaning on the fence apparently saying a prayer.

Walking along the pedestrian road, we have seen a few  policemen.  Then all of a sudden we notice these police all at one corner.  One even had a muzzled dog.  There was another group of four policemen these had m16 rifles.  

Finally some flowers.  I haven't seen very many flowers while in in Chihuahua, at least I can be near to take picture of.  This flowering tree was in one of the plazas during our walking portion of the tour.

The city was founded on October 12, 1709, by Blas Cano de los Rios and Antonio Deza y Ulloa, a Spanish explorer.  This is a statue of Antonio Deza y Ulloa.  The town’s name was San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, which was shortened in 1823 to just Chihuahua.

Our next stop on the bus is a visit to the Pancho Villa museum.  On one of the walls is this mural with General Francisco (Pancho) Villa in the front.

On Friday, 20 July 1923, Villa was killed in his car while visiting the town of Parral.  He usually traveled with a large contingent of bodyguards, but on this day only had three and two ranch hands.  Seven riflemen attacked his car killing Pancho Villa and several others.  Notice the bullet holes in the back of the 1922 Dodge car.

Continuing around town we go by the Trinity Methodist Temple. 

This is the San Francisco Temple and is one of just a handful of monuments in Chihuahua still standing since colonial times.  Construction started in 1717 and completed in 1789.  The church was established by the Franciscan order and with its plain whitewashed walls it has the no-frills style associated with the Franciscans.

After our city tour is done, we head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, wait they are all Mexican restaurants here.  Anyway, we are at our farewell dinner and again enjoy being entertained by a Mariachi band. 

We are almost at the end of our trip and there is nothing like a farewell meal, cigar, guitar, and tequila to end it all.  I wonder where I can get a sombrero like his?

Tomorrow we head back to El Paso in the U. S. where we started this trip.  We are leaving early, at 8:00am so we need to be up by 6 to have our bags ready by 7.  

Day 8 – To Chihuahua

3/25/2006 – Day 8 – To Chihuahua

This morning we are up early, early enough to see the sunrise coming up over the canyon.

Early to rise gets the sunrise over the canyon and village. 

We have seen many birds, but they do not stay still long enough for a picture.  This bird, I think it is a Western Bluebird, landed in a tree below our balcony while I was taking pictures of the sunrise.  It is far away, but I try to get a picture anyway. 

Since I'm out here on the balcony I thought I'd show you what they look like.  Looking down the row of balconies from our room while having my coffee. 

In the dining hall there are a number of masks hanging on the posts.  Some depict scorpions, others faces of what look like demons, and this one that is half demon and half pronghorn sheep.

The tour guide offers to go on a hike to the top of the cliff we see over the village.  We have decided to go along on the hike.  Here is Carmen as we look back towards the hotel. 

From the top of the cliff, we have good views of other parts of the canyons.

We are all walking around the edge of the cliff.  I am a little behind because I’m taking pictures, as usual.  But, I was able to get this picture of Carmen near the cliff edge.  That was as close to the edge as she would go.

Carmen and I are taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.  Standing at the edge of mountains, taking in the scenery and looking down into the deep ravines is truly breathtaking.

Back at the hotel and looking across where we just left and we can see another group has occupied the space we left.  Still seeing the tour group this way brings in a perspective to the size of the canyon.

Back at the room getting ready to leave I decided, actually I hadn’t thought of it before, to take a panoramic picture from the balcony.  We are still looking east and able to view as much of this section of the canyon as possible.

Having checked out of the hotel, we are wandering around until it is time to leave.  I see three generations of Indian women making and selling their wares. 

We have been seeing humming birds all around even at this feeder but never had my camera ready when I saw them.  Until now, because I know they would be at the feeder.

In the hotel’s dining area was this huge wall fireplace that obviously was once used to cook food.  If you got closer, you can still see the hole used to place the swivel hook to hang the pot.

On the way to the train station, we stop at this chapel.  The date stone over the door reads 1901, which I assume is the date the church was completed. 

Back on the train we head off for our next stop and as we pass one of the villages, I spy this Burger King restaurant.  Not your typical Burger King.  I wonder if they have the whopper? 

Speaking of store names, check out this store named WalMar.  Talk about a play on words similar to MalMart in the US.  It is even subtitled “An American Store”. 

We are traveling from the mountains and into ranch lands.  This rancher is plowing the field so that he can plant his crop.  See what the roads are like I can see why he is using a horse.

Again, we see very rugged landscapes.  We are also back by water. 

Having left the mountains behind us, we are now in ranch lands.  Here we see grass lands of this ranch with some horses and harvested hay in the background. 

The hills still want to have their presence.  This is one of several, of what look like cinder cones from reminisce of a volcano, that we have seen along the way as we make our way into the city of Chihuahua. 

We make it to our hotel in Chihuahua and get to our room; we are on the 14^th floor.  After dinner, we are back in our room and I decided to take a night picture of the city from the hotel room window.  Tomorrow we will tour the city.

 

Day 7 – Copper Canyon

3/24/2006 – Day 7 – Copper Canyon

Its morning and we have had our breakfast and now we are waiting for our ride to the train.  Carmen and I get a last picture in the hotel where we are together in the frame. 

We get to the train station, well what they call a train station, and while we are waiting for the train to arrive I check out the equipment parked along the rails.  This appears to be an automatic rail layer.

As we begin our journey on the train, we see this rancher herding his horse, mule, and cattle.

We pass many Organ Pipe cactus and this is one of the nicest and one that isn’t covered by other vegetation.  This one looks ready to flower.

As we travel along the river and approach the mountains, we begin to move up in elevation.  Up ahead is one of the 37 bridges we will cross. 

To gain altitude, we are have had to use switchbacks.  Some of the scenery we are seeing is now in reverse and was behind us on our way to El Fuerte 

The mountains here are very rugged, with what seem to be steep limestone cliffs. 

Here we are just entering a tunnel.  You can see by the plaque it is tunnel number 71, of the 86 tunnels along the track, and is 176 meters long.  We are counting the tunnels backwards already passing through 15 tunnels.  Notice I am not the only one taking pictures of the train going into the tunnel.

After passing several switchbacks to gain elevation, we are nearly at the top of this section of track.  We began in El Fuerte at about 350 meters and now we are around 1800 meters.  Along the side of the train tracks is this notice that tells the story of the construction and commemorated to the 50^th anniversary of the revolution.

The rail line took almost 90 years to complete and over $90 million (1960 US dollars) or 743 million pesos.  It is no wonder that it took so long building a rail line and how difficult it was build through terrain like this. 

After a number of switchbacks to gain elevation, we get up to where we have an open view back along our path.  You can see the bridge we used to cross the river below.  We have gained a bit of elevation in a relatively short amount of time.

The train stops at Bauichivo (I think) and once again I get a picture of the Federal Police guarding our train car.  You can clearly see the rifle this federal officer has. 

While we are waiting for passengers to get off and on, we again have a number of women hawking their woven baskets.  This woman is clearly in her late years and is still peddling her baskets.

Once someone on the train buys a basket, many others come to show their baskets to sell.  Here four women crowd the window where some in our group are looking to buy a basket.  Not sure who the young boys are, but there have been young boys around most of the women selling baskets.

Again, we are traveling the rails and back to viewing the scenery. 

Remember when we were in Creel and I mentioned we saw flat bed cars waiting to load motor homes?  Well, here are some of those loaded flatbed cars now.  Notice this first flatbed.  The car, normally towed behind the motor home is loaded first.  One of the owners is sitting in a lawn chair watching the scenery go by. 

We arrive at our next stop, which happens to be our hotel for tonight.  Heading up the steps leading to the hotel lobby there are several Tarahumara Indian women weaving baskets and selling their inventory. 

After getting the keys to our room, we head along the outside corridor to our room. 

Quickly dropping our stuff in the room we head down to one of the banquet rooms for a basket weaving demonstration by several of the Tarahumara women. 

Each of the women weaves a different size basket with varying patterns.  This is one of the baskets partially completed to show the work of the weaver being passed around.  You can see the pattern of the narrow and wider sotol leaves cut in 1/16 and ½ inch strips.

Following our basket weaving demonstration, we head to our room to freshen up before dinner.  We finely get a chance to look where our room is located.  Looking out of the balcony attached to our room, this is looking west. 

Looking left from the balcony there is a cliff with what looks like a Tarahumara Indian village at the base.  There is a path from just around the hotel to the village and if we have time we’ll try to go.  You can see the canyon beyond the village as it continues north.

With a little bit of time before dinner we decided to take the trail along the canyon rim.  As we walk just below the rim, we can see many rock formations such as these rocks.

Near the end of our hike before turning back, we came upon this construction.  It looks like someone is making a small dwelling on top of this rock and the only way up is this roughly cut ladder. I tried to go up the ladder, but it was a little wobbly and I need to finish our trip – pun intended.

As we make our way back, we have a full view of the cliff where the Tarahumara Indian village is located.  To get a good understanding of the size, you can see several people just to the left of the large building in the center.  That make the cliff about 70 – 80 feet tall, or more, just to the building in the center.

Well after dinner I guess we have plenty of time or at least plenty of daylight.  So we are heading down the trail to the village.  We first see several huts along the path as we get close and I can now see the huts we saw from the room.

We must be here on laundry day.  All of the washers and dryers are taken. 

As we walk through the village, I see this man playing a fiddle.  The fiddle looks like he might have made it.

I saw this woman standing next to her house.  I did not want to be too obtrusive so I took the picture from my waist.  After straightening the picture this is what I have. 

Walking back up the hill, we can see the hotel.  We are in one of the rooms to the far left.

We get more views of the canyon as we work our way back up to the hotel.

Flowers along the path back to our hotel.

A homestead appears out on one of the outcroppings.  Quite a view from the back yard wouldn’t you say?

Before arriving back at the hotel, we get our last view of the canyon.  The sun seems to set late here and when he sun sets, it will get dark quickly.  Tomorrow we get back on the train and ride to the city of Chihuahua.