Copper Canyon

After lots of work on the boat, we took a break, rented a car and drove to the colonial town of El Fuerte where we could catch the train to the Copper Canyon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Canyon). Dina’s former colleague and dear friend, Felipe Valenzuela, met us for dinner. With Felipe’s wife, Magda, and his two sons, we walked around the beautiful old town. We celebrated Felipe’s son’s birthday with a delicious cake at a café on the town’s main plaza.

The next morning, we boarded the scenic train to the Copper Canyon. The trip climbed up 6,000’ through beautiful canyons and along rivers.

We left the train at the Barrancas stop and were picked up by Dolores, owner of the Cabanas Arepo Barrancas. We dropped off our bags and Dolores pointed us to our first hike. The views of the canyon were spectacular.

The next day we went to the beautiful Hotel Mirador, perched along the cliff of the canyon. Every room has a balcony with a breathtaking view!

We hiked to the Adventure Park and signed up for the zip-line tour of the canyons. There were 5 zip-lines and 2 wobbly suspension bridges stretched over the canyons, finishing with a gondola trip 2,750 metres back to the Adventure Park. The longest zip line was over a kilometer long. It was heart-pounding fun!

We wish we had planned to stay another day as it would have been fun to hike or take horses down to the bottom of the canyon where the Tarahumara Indigenous people were farming along the river.

We boarded the scenic train and continued up to the town of Creel. It is a pine-covered mountain town that usually has several snowfalls per year. There was no snow when we were there, but it was cold! We stayed in one of the rustic pine cabins of the Creel Mountain Lodge Hotel Villa Mexicana.

The next morning, we boarded the train to return back to El Fuerte and drive back to Guaymas.