Los Tarahumara
Feb 26, 2020
Welcome to the train ride. I have started this leg of the journey by traveling by bus from Chihuahua to Cuatemoc. The bus ride is a mix of open meadows and rolling hills with cows, feedlots, and mostly ranching country. I had intended to stop for a while in Cuatemoc to visit the Mennonite village and tour their museum, taste their cheese, and see what else they have to offer. Time was flying and it was already afternoon when I arrived there so I decided to keep moving as I got into Cuatemoc.
I bought a bus ticket for the three hour ride to Creel for $130 pesos ($7 US) and in 15-minutes was on my way. The city is not a classic colonial city like many in Mexico. The streets are laid out in a rectangular pattern, they are wide and in many places there are multiple lanes.
The road leaving town takes you through farm country dedicated to tree fruits. In this climate, probably peaches, apples, cherries, plums and that kind of thing. I was surprised not to see any vineyards. This was large scale farming, several thousands of acres spread across the entire valley. Each field has tall posts with cables and nets spread across the cables. It is for bird control though in this dormant season the nets are bundled up.
- I looked up this area and the stirrings of a fall visit to see the ripe fruit on the trees would be something to consider. (Any takers? Anyone want to travel down with me to see this? Maybe visit the Mennonites while we are at it?)
My destination is to a village named Creel up in the mountains in the state of Chihuahua in a mountain range called "Sierra Madre Occidental", loosely translated to mean -"Majestic Mountains of the West". Elevation ranges between 4,900 feet and 9,800 feet in elevation. I can tell you, it has been cold here. Today's high was 51*F and compared to the 85-90*F temperatures on the Yucatan, it has been a shocker. I have been wearing layers to stay warm.
This mountain range is home to an indigenous tribe called the Tarahumara and the marathon/ultramarathon runners, Raríamuri. They run in basic sandals, I think the sandals are called Huaraches.
I am in the town of Creel, waiting a couple of days for a ride on the train that will take me down to sea level on the western side of the country in the state of Sinaloa. The train, at least the old version of the train that has been running for over 25-years is called "El Chepe". It is still running 3-days a week over the 400-mile range of track. The newer one, which I board Thursday, is called "Chepe Express". For this first part of the trip I am only going to the next stop in the village of Divisadero. It is just a few miles away but it will take a couple of hours to get there through the canyons and gorges.
A brief background of the train is that it crosses the states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa and in that path crosses 86-tunnels and 37-bridges as it travels through "Copper Canyon" or Barranca del Cobre as it is called here. The scenery, and I will soon be able to confirm, is supposed to be some of the most spectacular in North America.
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| Creel Train Station - El Chepe Express |
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| These stoves are still made and sold in Cuatemoc |
To start out my exploration of this area, I was able to go out on a guided trip with a local guide to see a few things today, Thursday. The first part of the trip was to visit a house of one family that lives in a cave. It reminded me of the dwellings of the Cliff Dwellings in Gila, Bandelier, and Mesa Verde. The next part of the trip was to see parts of nature and includes some Tarahumari women and children selling some of their crafts. As I mentioned, it is a cold day and many of these kids were wearing plastic sandals with no socks. It had to be below 32*F in some of the valleys. I will let the images speak for much of what I experienced.
Cave Family
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Under this rock and in the cave is where the 4-generations of a family lives.
The black mark on the cliff wall is where the heater vents smoke. |
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| A closeup of the cave |
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| The heater that is used for cooking. It was burning this morning and warmed the rock ceiling. |
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| This is the Tarahumara family that lives in the cave. |
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| Scenery that we drive through on today's road trip. Pine forests and mountains. |
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To get to the waterfall, you drive through the river, then along a trail, then down into the canyon which has 256 stairs down. At the bottom is a pretty good view of of the waterfall. The girls follow you down, keeping you on the right path. Most don't go to school. The anthropologist in me reminds me: Who are we to judge a culture of 1,000 years, using my own as a standard. A good time to think about what is real in the world.
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| Water flowing toward the waterfall below. |
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| Young girls whose mom's are selling crafts on the trail. They follow the tourists down hoping for coins with the pics. |
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| The morning mist rising into the sunshine. |
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| Tarahumara with traditional skirt. 4-years old? Difficult to gauge as they are very small in stature and almost all moms and sisters are carrying babies on their back. |
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Crafts: the black under the rock is from fires to keep the vendors warm.
It is very much colder here next to the waterfall. |
Frogs and Mushrooms
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| Ruby - I didn't know you lived here! |
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| Picture Frame In Stone |
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| Village houses in the background |
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| Toad Stools - Women selling crafts in the background |
Church
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| No Benches inside |
This is an odd form of construction. Patched, very basic. The interesting part to me is the symbolism. There are three white marks on the wall. The one on the left represents the sun and that represents the male of this culture. The lower right symbol represents the moon and night and the female. The third one on the upper left represents the stars and that is all of the ancestors that have passed before those still on earth. The moon and night represent sin and from here it is a bit sexist.
As with many indigenous cultures, the Catholic Church "allowed" a few local cultural customes to be included to help with conversion efforts. You see it in some of the churches along the Rio Grande like Santo Domingo and San Felipe. You also see it in the Penitente Hermandad which came to the church from the Arab world.
