In the initial planning of our trip to Central America, we thought one place that we would love to see in Mexico would be the Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre). Situated in the country´s North West, the rim of the canyon is accessable by train. But to really see the canyon you need to employ the services of rickety old local buses or hitch a ride in the back of a truck. The really scary thing is that some trucks and buses don´t make it. Some evidence of this was the white truck that Dave had spotted which had obviously tumbled off the edge and fallen a few hundred metres before getting caught between trees. While many on the bus had probably prayed to Jesus that we weren´t going to, we just hoped that our bus driver had less tequila than us in his many stops.
We were taking the west to east journey that starts in Los Mochis and finishes in Chihuahua. We were both really excited about the propect of seeing this area of the world and it certainly didn´t disappoint for one second. The Copper Canyon is really like no other. Eight major Canyons several times deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona and four times as large. Richie Benaud could best sum it up as "Shimply Shurperb".
Weather can sometimes be unpredictable.... we found in the Copper Canyon that this was never the case. You can set your wrist watch to a specific time (2:00pm first clap of thunder or 3:35pm first drop of rain or even 4:00am the dogs in the town bark feverishly at each other and continue to do so until morning). The only variable was the temperature and humidity (Bloody hot up top and bloody humid down the bottom!!).
Some of the highlights included:
Urique:
1. Sitting outside our hotel on the main street watching the local kids on their bikes hammer around while we drank beer and listened to music. Note - This happened 3 days staight (I know it´s a tough life).
2. Day hikes around the bottom of the canyon and following the river in both directions. Destination: a store to buy a bottle of Gatorade.
Pasada Barrancas:
1. Our little guide that spoke no English, but mention the word "rapido", and he went off like a frog in a sock.
Creel:
1. The Ride.
2. The Scottish room mates that dispelled the myth that tequila made from 100% agave gives no hangover.
