Mexico's Copper Canyon

A 'Soft Adventure' trip to the rim of Copper Canyon by Train.

Copper Canyon and the Hotel Mirador,

Posada Barranca, Chihuahua, Mexico

Photos by Carl Morrison

Be sure to stay in the Hotel Mirador (above) at Posada. Each room has a large balcony with a view of the canyon system...most expansive view from a hotel I have ever experienced, and the best location. You detrain at Posada, 10 minutes from Divisadero. At Divisadero, there is a 20-minute stop because the canyon view is just a walk (through a block of locally staffed open-air shops) to a nice canyon overlook and there is another hotel there with an overlook, but I perfer the traditional Hotel Mirador at Posada. If you are with a group, as we were, a bus from the Hotel Mirador will pick you and your luggage up and transport you to the hotel where you can enjoy the lobby balcony (above) while the luggage gets sorted out as well as any other nged.

Shy mother on the opposite side of the train. The average age for the Tarahumara Indian girls to wed is twelve! If they are lucky, they have gone to the girls boarding school and learned basketweaving using the long needles of the Apache Pine tree.

Photo Credit: Don Roe

View from the Posada Mirador Hotel lobby porch.

Don and east-facing room balconies.

Sue Stilwell and an old Indian man who said to her, "I don't see very well, but I fall down good."

Life expectancy of these Indians is 45.
4412

Old man's descendants.

Their house and our hotel above.	View from the hotel down to this house, lower right of picture. In the moonlight later we could hear children laughing and see their cooking fire. Don mentioned, "The international language of children is laughter."
Corner of their house, corn and canyon below. Their souvenir stand on the right.	The husband was making more adobe bricks to expand the house, and they were drying near the outhouse. Outhouses have nice views of the canyon.

Sue and Carlos led us on an afternoon walk from the Indian home, along a trail on the rim.	We cut back to the lodge for dinner.
Humming birds were already dining on the hotel's panoramic-view patio.	When no one was near, there were 15 or more humming birds at the feeders. I found fill-flash the best method of photographing them

During dinner, I noticed a sunset developing, so I excused myself before the traditional flan dessert, and shot photos south...	north, including an inspirational double rainbow, and..
east including a rising full moon and canyons below. Traveling companion, Pastor Don, joined me and we silently reflected on God's great creation. Facing the canyons, we experienced an environment as silent as inside a cave.	Basket weavers on the hotel steps early the next morning before the dancing and racing demonstrations.

Day 4 - September 7, 2003 Bus tour of Canyon Rim, Divisadero, and train from Posada back west to Bahuichivo.

Dancing Indian man with cacoons with pebbles inside as noise makers around his ankles.
	Traditional sport - kicking a wooden ball. Only the accompanying stick can be used to retrieve the ball if it goes off the trail. Some races are 72 hours long with corn beer being given to the athletes along the way - like a marathon.

The women's sport is to use a stick to fling 4 woven rings ahead, then run and fling again. These demonstrations had 2 per race each in different colored clothing and matching ring color.

Liz, San Francisco, found the shopping good after the dancing and racing
demonstrations. Wooden balls like the men used were for sale, as well as necklaces, baskets, woven belts and woven mats.

On our bus tour to another canyon overlook, we stopped at a historic cabin.

Tour Guide, Carlos, demonstrating Balancing Rock...(No, Sue, I did not try this!)

Basket weaver and her raw materials. All Indians wore
this type of sandal with leather straps and soles by Goodyear.

Our bus tour took us to Divisadero, only 10 minutes away from out hotel by train, so we could see more overlooks into the beautiful canyon system and see the train stop, shops, and hotel where the two trains each way daily stop for 20 minutes for the overlook since it is the closest the train gets to the edge of the canyon system..

Indian baby. With her mother (right). Average age of marriage is 12 yrs of age for the girls. Most felt the mother, right, was 12 or 13.

The four daily trains stop so riders of both the east- and west-bound Economy and Express trains can have lunch during their 15-minute stop for eating,...

shopping, and the canyon view at El Divisadero.

Edie Gresham, Oregon, enjoys my own form of marketing: 'Photo CD of this Trip For Sale for $200 pesos'

International sign for RR crossing at Posada Station.
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