Tuesday, February 20, 2007, Day 8

Today was an early start at 7 a.m. and we traveled down to 100 feet above sea level. This is a picture of one of the cut backs with a waterfall in the background. There were so many tunnels and one was over 1 mile long and had no lights inside at all. Occasionally one of us would turn on headlights but the light didn't travel very far. Many of us were outside sitting in our lawn chairs to enjoy the views. It was cold when we left but warmed up as we got to lower elevations.

Snow yesterday and the tropics today. The hillsides were covered in beautiful flowering trees. We say all sorts of fruits growing in the valleys. When we made it to just outside Los Mochis it was all farm land as far as the eye could see and all growing in various stages. Corn, tomatoes, beans/peas, peppers and many things we didn't recognise from the train.

Arnold and JJ enjoying the ride outside their coach. This picture was taken by one of the security guards that are riding the train with us, they move freely between cars but we all just hang on and stay on our own cars until we are stopped. Notice how close to the edge the drivers side is. This is the was of all the coaches. We must also have our steps retracted when the doors are not open so that the guards can walk by.

Tonight we are on the rails for the last night. We have been parked on a siding and will be moved into positions for driving off in the morning at 7 a.m. Already we can hear train cars being moved about and engines going back and forth, this will not be a quiet night for sure. We have a short drive to our next stop, an RV park for a night, then down the road to Mazatlan.

Monday, Day 7

This morning was started with an early breakfast at the hotel. The usual American fare as well as Mexican. Very good and enough to last us through the day. We left the land of the Tarahumara Indians and the selling of their wares. These are a very shy and unasuming tribe of peoples. We never did see any of the men, at least, we don't think we did. Todays trip was a bit more "rocking" than we've had so far as we traveled over bridges and through tunnels.

This was the color of the sky this morning when we got up so we were not surprised to see some snow and as we rode down into the valley it turned to rain. The sky this evening was also red so we are hoping for fair sky's tomorrow. It should be dry as we will be traveling across the desert.

Today we also crossed the La Laja Bridge at an altitude of 6,750 feet. You can even see the tunnel that we had just exited before crossing over a deep gorge.

We ended up our day in a little town called Bahuichivo and we are overnighting on a side railing. Most of our coaches have high rock walls on either side of them so we will really hear the trains tonight as they pass. The town is up a very high hill so most of us decided not to do the climb. There are no restaurants in town so we all ate in our rigs.

Sunday, Day 6, February 18, 2007

We left the town of Creel about 9 am and headed to the Canyon, Divisadero. About 11 am we got our first glimpse of the Copper Canyon. Our tour guide was here, having driven up in a bus, to take us on a tour of the area and to visit interesting sites and explain the area history. The Canyon is formed from volcanoes and earthquakes, millions upon millions of years ago. This area is home to the many Tarahumara Indians. The woman carry their baskets and woven scarfs up from the canyon floor to sell to the tourists.

The baskets are made from grasses found in the region. Their method of weaving is unique and much sort after by museums. At the canyon floor you will find an almost tropic climate and this is where they spend their winters eating the mangoes and avocados and citrus fruits found there. The men do the wood carvings although we have yet to see an Indian man. They are very shy and tend to stay away letting the woman do all the selling, and the work.

The children learn at a very early age how to beg. They are all over trying to sell the baskets that their mothers have made and have even learned how to make a "photo" opt. This little girl made a haul when she walked over to our group with a baby goat in her arms and posed for pictures. Everyone gave her some pesos and she was very happy.

The area has well adapted itself for tourism, this is an airfield on the top of the Canyon rim for small craft to fly in rich tourists. The train runs two passenger trains, one for tourists and one for the Mexicans. You can guess how different they look as the Mexicans are know to even bring along livestock.

We crossed the Continental Divide, again, and reached the highest point on the line, altitude 8,071 feet.

Saturday, Day 5

Our day started very early this morning when our two engines arrived at 6 a.m. to start moving us around to make one long train. We left the yard at 7:27 a.m.. The hooking up went much smoother than we expected, very gentle. With a little steam we were off and watching the countryside change as it went by.

We saw streams, canyons, mountains and plains and we all took lots of pictures of ourselves as we rounded curves, first one way and then the other. We did go through the second largest tunnel on the trip today and it was almost one mile long. It had no lights inside and it was so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face.

After being dropped at a side track in the town of Creel we took a tour of the mouth of the Copper Canyon and visited the cave of a Tarahumara Indian family. The man in the center is Edwardo, our guide. This family lives in this cave year round and there is a large opening up in the roof. They have lived this way for centuries.

The day was finished with dinner at the Best Western Hotel in town and then it was back to our coaches to get ready for the next day. So our ladders are up and we are ready.

Friday, Day 4, February 16, 2007

Today was the day. Train day. But first, we spent the night in Mennonite country. Now this is apple country. Along the road we saw these strange tepee type "things" and found out later what they were used for. This area has a lot of spring storms and to protect the apples from HAIL they cover them with this netting. Most of the fields have these tied up nets.

This is our Wagon masters coach being the first loaded onto the rail cars. We took about 3 hours to load 22 coach's onto 22 flatcars. Driving the rigs onto each flatcar is by ramps between the cars and they are not secured all that well. There is a "train person" that guides you as you cross the ramps and keeps you extremely close to the left side so that you will have room enough to exit your coach on the passenger side, where the rail is.

There were three lines of flatcars that we loaded one by one. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so don't forget to visit our web album at www.picasaweb.google.com/mimmexico/MexicoCaravan.

Just click on the above link and it will take you there where you can enjoy our journey.

Thursday, Day 3

This morning we went by bus to downtown Chihuahua City and the home of Poncho Villa, the state capital building and the home of the Governor. We were impressed with how clean the city was and all the little parks located throughout the city. We went in a couple of shops but did little shopping. Most of the homes here have stone or concrete walls around them but behind the walls and in the middle of their homes they have beautiful courtyards, some with fruit trees.

Chihuahua means sandy and dry. And yes, the little dogs of the same name are named after the city. In fact, they have a parade and dress the dogs up. They also have many little statues that are decorated around the main square in town.

After traveling about 65 miles we are camped in a RV Park in a Mennonite community. They had dinner for us and entertainment and the park owner gave us a brief history of his people and community. Now we are all busy getting our rigs ready to be loaded onto the trains in the morning. We are also expecting freezing weather tonight so we are preparing for that too.

Wednesday evening, still Day 2

After getting set up at our campground we went by bus to a Mexican restaurant in town where they were expecting us. We were greeted with margaritas. There was entertainment of dancers with their history and culture.

Each group of dancers represented a different culture.