Day 3, 11th Dec

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.