Jess the Blogging Wiz-Kid!

For those of you stressed and frustrated that my blog has been taking too long to update, which, even by my standards it has, I invite you to view Jessica's blog. Hers, for some reason, is fairly current. If you don't know it already it is jessandhootiegotomexico.blogspot.com. I hope you enjoy and I still will do my part of blogging, it will just be behind schedule a bit, but please keep checking in once in a while. Much love, Hootie.

All Aboard!! Riding the Chepe through Copper Canyon

After our exciting ride back from Batopilas, it was ALL ABOARD, the Chepe. This is the train the goes from Chihuahua all the way to Los Mochis, which is on the coast, it might even go beyond that I am not certain. There are two versions of the train, the primera class (first class) and the economica class. They run at different times and have different number of stops with the economica class having more. The a/c is supposed to be better on the primera class and there is also a bar car. The cost for the primera class is almost double that of the economica and it goes to the exact same places. Unfortunately for us the day we had to take the train was on a Wednesday and the economica class does not run on Wednesdays. So we had to cough up the dough and we made sure that we took full advantage of what the primera class had to offer, especially the Bar Car. We made sure of it!

This little boy we saw at different time in Creel. Here he was one last time trying to sell us some beads and things before we got on the Chepe. These kids don't let up. He was super cute though.

All Aboard!!! A little chaotic trying to get on the train, but we managed.

Ah the Chepe logo. In the red circle you see a sandal on a foot. Perhaps strange to have a foot with a sandle representing a train. Ah, but the symbolism of the foot and sandal. Our take on it is that is is a foot of the Tarahumara, who are known to be fast and endurance runners. Now doesn't that make a bit more sense. The Chepe will get you there and fast. Nice idea but not always the case.

An amazing view from Divisadero, a quick stop with a view. The Chepe stops here for 15 minutes so tourist like us can get a good view. For those who are rolling in the dough there are some nice hotels here. This view has a price for sure. Also at this stop as soon as you get off the train you are accosted by food vendors and trinket sales people, offering you some cheep food, which you must scarf down rather quickly as you are to not bring your own food on the train. The trinket sales folk make it almost difficult to get to the view point and back to the train in time before it leaves and they are wanting to sell you all that they have, "And for you I have good price, special for you, only today, 250 pesos."

We stopped off in a town called Areponápuchi, Arepo for short. We had read that this is a don't miss spot on the train line. This is one of the only stops that has a town that is a real town, more like a village on it. Boy did we luck out. We decided last minute to get off. We had no idea where we were going to stay, only had read that there are places on the cheaper side. There is also the really expensive, with hotels and views rivaling that of Divisadero, which was only about 5km away. Well we got off, walked down the street aways and kept asking people (Jess kept asking people) about Cabañas. People kept pointing further down the road until we found this place which was a super good find. Not only was it fairly inexpensive, there was a trail in back of our room that let to the edge of the Copper Canyon rim. It was a five minute walk and we had those expensive views all to ourselves with numerous trails going down into the canyon. The owners of the cabañas, Monica and Roy, were very nice and they served our meals in their home at the dinning room table. Monica is a great cook and we had fish for the first time in Mexico, delicious!

A local house of a Tarahumara family, this family obviously not living in a cave. They watched us from the window as we walked by, probably wondering "what the hell are these white folks doing all the way out here." It is a small couple of houses but what a view.

Might be hard to see but there is a house (casa) belonging to a Tarahumara family below these peaks. Another sweet spot for a home.

Chilling on the canyon rim, this is what you get!

A nice stone wall with an interesting turn style gate, allowing us smart humans to maneuver through it yet keeping the not so smart goats in bounds. Also notice the hiking poles Jess is using. As of Nov. 17th this has been the only time they got used. Glad I carried these poles and all our camping gear across this country. The camping gear still have yet to be used :(


On our way out of Arepo. Jess is sporting the double backpack approach.




The little church for the town of Arepo.

For some reason I wanted to include this picture of a woman selling baskets on the train tracks.


This would be a hard photo to take since I was riding the train. It is a photo of a photo, but this is what the train looks like in action.

Brace yourselves for some beautiful photos of an amazing area, Copper Canyon as seen from the Bar Car of the Chepe Train.

I think this is the bridge from that previous photo of a photo.

Here we noticed the river began to have much less gradient, my thinking was that there was a dam down stream and the water was backing up.

A beautiful spot the train stopped for a few minutes so us gapers could gape.

Gaping away!

There definitely was a dam and a pretty huge reservoir too. I believe this was used for a water source and for hydro-power to the surrounding areas.

Like I said before, we were in the BAR CAR!

A majestic view of the reservoir and the mountains around.

And a final shot of the mighty Chepe as we headed off into the sunset and for the town of
El Fuerte.