Copper Canyon 2

The train trip through the canyon is a real treat. Lisa has always really liked trains and we spent a great deal of the ride in a small space between the cars hanging our bodies out over the precarious cliffs and tunnels right next to a giant sign reading “For your own safety, positively no standing in this area!!” It seems a good manifestation of a really big difference between Mexico and the US. It is said here in Mexico that “Mexicans live outside the law, while Americans live inside the law”. There are laws in Mexico, but basically it is a free for all. People sort of do what they want, as long as it does not get out of hand. What that really is I don’t know….but it is a interesting and unique difference. In the US, we are so anal about rules, laws, scofflaws, permissions, keep off this, do not enter that, buckle-up it’s the law, you must wear a helmet!!! etc etc. In Mexico, it’s more like...”Just behave, and live and let live” and basically people do. Anyway…I digress….it was a lovely illegal space to enjoy the unobstructed view of the canyon.
We started the ride at around 650 feet in elevation, and in approximately 250km I think, it rises to 7,800 feet! Its amazing…you can actually see, hear, and feel the train pull up slopes I would have a hard time biking up hills that long and steep! The rails sort of switch back, but more like going around a mountain a few times, rather than straight hairpin turns. There were many, many really cool sharp turns, but mostly you could not tell that much. Many tunnels and a bunch of great bridges, some quite tall river crossings. And the scary thing was…at every bridge, if you looked down either at the start, or the end, there was always 3 or 4 old rusty crashed railcars down below on the river bank…hmmmmm?!
We got off the train in a town called Bauhichivo. It was about after 4-5 hours, and a total rise of 5,000 feet. From here we were met by Tito Munoz from San Isidro Lodge. (checkout http://www.coppercanyonamigos.com/index.html) It was a really nice place tucked back in the mountain near the great canyon rim of the Urique Canyon which is the main deep canyon on the area. We stayed in a private cabin, 3 HUGE meals a day included, and they even tossed in a nice margarita happy hour around the campfire each afternoon. A very friendly well run, knowledgeable, family run place. They provided a family member to take us out on bird walks into the canyon, nature hikes to the rims so you don’t get swallowed up and lost, and just good service!

The two highlights of the 3 nights we stayed were 1) Lisa and I signed up for what they called the Copper Canyon Safari. Basically it is 2 bucket seats bolted precariously, but sturdily to the top of a Toyota 4Runner. We rode the entire 5000 feet down the hairpin single lane rocky dirt trail to the base of the canyon and the town of Urique on the interior! Unbelievable! We almost could not stop laughing it was so much fun. Its not exactly like us to jump on what looked to be a “touristy” way to go down the canyon…but it so intrigued us, and made Lisa laugh, that we decided to go for it. As it turns out, we started by riding in the truck for the first ½ hour to get to the spectacular point of the start at the rim, and once we got out and up onto the top…everything changed. The sounds, the view, the 360 degree access to the walls, canyons, the hairpins, and scary rocky narrow overhangs he careens around made it like a 2 hour fair ride down a mile into the center of the earth!! Very fun! And then…we find out when we were leaving, we were the first, and only 2 to ever sign up for the Safari!!! Too much fun.See pics.
Secondly, we were very much treated to a world famous athlete, and one of the most revered Tarahumara Indians in all of Mexico. Victoriano Churro, at age 55 years old, took on the world’s most elite 100 mile Ultra-Marathoners in Colorado to win the first race he ever ran….and he beat the pack wearing home-made sandals made from cutout rubber tires from the dump found the week before the race. The Tarahumara are world famous distance runners. There is a lot on the web about him, and the running and Tarahumara, check out this quick though: http://www.ss-tours.com/tara-indians.html

We not only met him, but he gave us a tour of his modest bachelor pad. He is now 70 years old and lives alone in a very traditional 2 room mud-adobe house, with a garden and a small log food storage locker for his corn and apples that he grows and lives on. Very humbling. BUT…the other part is, Victoriano is also an acclaimed rain dancer and hunting party dancer, and he joined us at the camp fire at the Lodge and performed 2 Tarahumara Rain, and Rabbit dances for us. There is NO WAY I could have kept up with his dancing and hopping for 20 minutes in a pair of flat rubber sandals…this man is made to move and just keeps moving. A very powerful, entertaining, and memorable day and night. (see pics)