Month: December 2021

Up at 6:15 breakfast at 7:00

It was damp, cold and foggy but the air was very fresh. 

The elevation of Cerocahui is 1650 meters

The highest point on our way to Yurike canyon was 2300 meters

The first part of our trip was on a paved road but soon gave way to what can be best described as a good logging road with a steep drop-off on one side.

On the way, we stopped to shop at a stall by the side of the road. All the stuff is made by the local indigenous people “The Tarahumara”.

The Tarahumara people are very interesting. For a start, they own the Copper Canyon. You can own property there but it also belongs to the Tarahumara. If you have 10 hectares a Tarahumara family can build a house there also, “To take care of the property for you.” If they do this, they grow all the crops they need and then share it with you.  They are the world’s fastest, tireless runners. They run huge distances for whatever reason. They are also hunters, without guns or archery. They hunt by chasing their prey until it drops from exhaustion and then they pounce and kill it. 

When we got to the lookout point the views were spectacular.

Our schedule was to leave Cerocahui at noon but we left at 11:00 instead which caused a bit of confusion. 

Barrancas Hotel Mirador sits high on the edge of the canyon. Our lunch was included so that saved us some money. We had to wait a while for our room to be ready but well worth it. I’m sitting on our balcony right on the edge of the canyon. I’m muttering a few curses right now as we have no WiFi until I can buy some this evening. 

There was an optional tour to go down to the caves where the Tarahumara live. On the way, there were a lot of them sitting outside the hotel weaving baskets and selling their goods. 

The walk down was a bit steep and there were about 280 rock steps. We checked out the homes of the Tarahumara and Pancho gave us a choice of going back the way we came or going around the mountain and up to the top. We chose to go around. 

It was a bit of a tough hike but we saw a lot along the way and eventually reached the top. There was a bit of a photo-op going on so a few of us decided to find our own way back. Several times thought we were lost but battled on and eventually found our way back just ahead of the main party. The bonus was that we got some good exterior photos of the hotel.

We had a delicious dinner and then the music started. There was a two-man band mostly playing keyboards but one guy played the sax. For most of the evening, they played all the old norteño popular numbers. At about 9:30 they switched to music more popular with the younger Mexicans and did they have a good time.

These kids were late teens early twenties and they could really dance well. Not just jigging up and down, although there was some of that, but real dancing. It was fun to watch and Rosalie and I sat and watched for a long time. Eventually, we realized that we were the Norteños left in the place so we went to bed. Apparently, the party was still going strong at 1:30 in the morning.

I’m running late because we have no WiFi and I only just found out that we can buy some.

It was a bright and early start for breakfast. After which we took a tour of El Fuerte which is the home of EL Zorro. We were running low on funds so found an ATM and got some more. After checking out it was on to the train station. The platform was packed with travellers, mostly Mexican. We all wore out masks and tried to distance but it was a bit difficult.

For lunch, we had three choices, Tacos, flautas or hamburgers. They took our orders in our seats, and then we waited. Eventually, we were called to the table. We staggered to the dining car while the train was rocking like an old galleon in a storm. We sat with Pat and Sue, two very nice American ladies. We ordered white wine but Pat and Sue said they had been waiting for their drinks for about an hour so we didn’t hold out much hope of seeing ours.

Our meal eventually came. I didn’t quite get what I had asked for but that was okay as this is Mexico after all. By the end of the meal we still hadn’t seen our wine so asked what was going on and was told that they would bring it to our seats, which they eventually did. 

On the journey, we went over the highest bridge in the world, the longest bridge in the world and the longest tunnel in the world. Do you see a pattern here?

We connected with our ride to the hotel and climbed aboard. It took about 15 minutes to get to Cerocahui and our hotel. After checking in we went to hunt down a glass of wine. It was free time for a while but that soon ended with a seminar on ‘Barrancas del Cobre’ or Copper Canyon. Pancho also told us a lot about the Tarahumara, the indigenous people who own the canyon. 

After our seminar, we ordered a bottle of wine and found some other people in our party to pass the time with. Pat and Sue were at the bar so we sat with them sipping our wine. At dinner, it was noted that there wasn’t much left in our bottle. I wonder where it went? I would like to know as we paid about $36 Cdn for it. Oh well, they still had more behind the bar, so after dinner, we went there with Pat and Sue and Martina joined us. By this time we were having fun. We got another glass of wine each and I ordered what we thought might be a liqueur, ‘Azteca de Oro’ for Rosalie that turned out to be a kind of brandy she didn’t much care for. I had a tequila and sat chatting for an hour or two before bed.

When we first got to our rooms they were freezing cold but there was a large wood stove and lots of logs. Pancho said he would get it lit for us but me being an expert dived right in. In 15 minutes I had to go and find Pancho as the fire had gone out. Oh, the shame!

Up early again in the morning.

Up at six-thirty made some tea then woke Rosalie at ten to seven. Showered and finished packing. 

Ruth was to pick us up at 8:10 but I was a little concerned as the roads here are still really bad with running water and mud. She arrived on time and I didn’t have to get Rosalie to push us out of any deep puddles.

Our first stop was Barra to pick up a lady who was coming with us. Her name is Martina originally from France.

We got to the airport in Manzanillo and waited in line for about an hour to check-in. Ruth had done a great job, our boarding passes were all printed ahead of time and she handed them to us in the car. The flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 am but there was a lot of air traffic over Mexico City so we left at 11:30.
We had booked early and Ruth had us in the good seats at the front of the plane, first class no less. Most of the rest of our party were back with the peasants (where we usually are.) We think this is because we booked early.

Mexico City was the usual gong show. The board showed our flight as area ‘M’. I knew where that was as we came this way before. So, we waited for the gate number to show up. But… they then changed it to ‘room D’.  After finding ‘room D’ it was a while before we found which gate to go to. We finally got it figured out and got on board. 

At Los Mochis, we were met by Pancho our tour guide. He counted us all and took us to the bus for a two-hour drive to the hotel. Los Mochis is the largest producer of tomatoes in the world. It’s very flat here. Please don’t tell the flat earth nut jobs about this.

Los Mochis is in the middle of the snoring desert. No wonder I kept nodding off. Wait…Rosalie said it’s the Sonoran desert but I still nodded off.

We arrived at La Fuerte at ‘Hotel Posada del Hidalgo’ which is very old and also a five-star hotel. We could tell how good it was when we saw the prices on the menu. We met up with Martina and enjoyed a nice meal with her. The bill was a bit pricey by Mexican standards but the ambiance was great and we probably paid what we would have paid in Canada at any local restaurant.

We heard that La Fuerte is the home of El Zorro so we will have to wait to find out if that is true or not.

Sent from my iPhone

We have a lot of birds in El Rancho. Not as many as last year because the parotta trees are no longer with us. (I crossed myself at this point even though I’m not catholic, just in case.)

The lawn here lights up at night with fireflies. But they are getting less and less because there is a flock of some sort of blackbirds gathering almost every day and chomping down on them.

The songs of the birds are very intense and really quite nice. They are loudest in the morning although there are some we can hear chirping at all times of the night.

I don’t count the chickens that sometimes wander in if we leave the gates open too long. You’d think they would leave an egg or two.

A few days ago at lunchtime, we picked up Jim and Ylda and went for a drive to Playa de Coco. There is a lovely little restaurant there called ‘La Palma Negra’ (The Black P alm.)

Palma Negra is way out of the way and when they first opened out there vlast season, we wondered whether they would make it with no other customers in sight. That was put to rights on this day as the place was packed with almost all Canadians. The food is really good and we had a great meal. Jim and Ylda knew a few people from playing pickleball and there was a bit of a festive air about the place.

After the bill had been paid it was decided to go to Colomilla for another drink and to admire the view from La Vista Restaurante.

We want to take a trip to Europe in 2023 for our 25th anniversary year, so have to be careful about our BC Medical. The rule is, that to maintain our medical we have to stay in BC for 153 consecutive days. It’s not been a problem so far but this trip was for July which is in the middle of the 153 days.

“No problem” we thought, because there are exceptions that Rosalie has been investigating, but now the fun begins. Without going into details I have come to the conclusion that there is, in our bureaucracy, a department that is responsible for coming up with the most convoluted and stupid ideas. (I should get a job there, I would be good at it.) I suspect the person who comes up with the stupidest idea would get a nice fat bonus out of the taxpayers’ money at the end of the year.

However, a new decision was made to take the trip either in April or September before or after the 153 days. It’s safer that way and a lot less stressful.

The flyer from Coppel arrived today and I almost bought some winter clothes for walking on the beach until I remembered where I was.

Our trip to Copper Canyon starts on Thursday December 9th, so watch for some hopefully interesting blogs, unlike the drivel I’ve been putting out lately. Bye for now.