Kami Simi ?
Mi go o gomichi. Muje ru kam(i) mu simi ?
Wondering if my account got hacked or i got crazy to type in some crazy words ? No, They are not :-) These are the "Raramuri" usages for "Good Morning , Where are you going ?, I am going to the wing of the Stream. And where are you going ?" In English or "Buenos Dias, A Donde Vas ? Alla Arribita del arroyo. Y tu que donde vas " in Spanish !
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| A Tarahumara women with her tradtiional dress(except coat), Shoe with her Kid |
Fate of History:
You may now wonder on what is this Raramuri. It's a language of so called Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan family of languages used by Native tribes in western America and current Mexico before they were invaded by Europeans. Uto Aztecan stands for languages which includes the characteristics of Uteh language of native Americans and Nahuan languages of Mexicans. Still wondering on why did i start my blogpost in Raramari ? Let's go back to the history. From 8th century, Spices and muslin clothes from Asia and Africa used to reach Europe in a combination of sea and land routes and Venice and its surrounding republics were controlling it. 14th Century started an Era of exploration in Europe with shortage of gold, silver and Portuguese trying to discover sea routes across Atlantic sea to Islands of Madeira in the quest to find gold, silver, slave trade and to make direct contact with so called "Indies" people bypassing the supremacy of Arabs controlling the trade in Venice. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the spice or muslin route through venice was impacted and other Europeans were forced to start their sea explorations. Christopher Columbus reached current America in 1492(Quite controversial though as there are different variations to this story) and thought he reached "India" when he saw the local tribes there and called them Indians who are later called as Red Indians. Discovery of Mexico by Europe was rather accidental. There was a shipwrek of a spanish expedition ship near current Mexico and only 2 people survived it who were discovered in later years. There was a fresh expedition to Southern part of Mexico in 1517 by Fransisco Gonzalez who was a sailor from Santiago De Cuba (Second largest city in current Country of Cuba) . Wondering how Cuban is related to current picture ? Like many other countries, Cuba became Spanish Colony after the invention of it by Christopher Columbus in October 28 of 1492 ! During his seize, most of the men of Gonzalez were killed by the Mayan Army in the southern parts of Mexico. However he managed to save his life , come back to Cuba and Die shortly after that. There was a third attempt to reach current Mexico by another Spanish expeditor Heman Cortez who landed in current port of Veracruz in April 15, 1519. He and his party took advantage of alliance of local tribes against the strong Kingdom of Aztec and made use of public gatherings like ceremony of Huitzilopochtli(An Aztec god of war) to attack Aztecs and avoid fighting the strong warriors face to face as he might have learnt the fate of Gonzalez who faced Mayans directly. There was a widespread of Smallpox withing 6 months of arrival of Cortez which killed millions of Aztecs as they did not known about that before and did not have a cure ! Within 2 years of this that is in 1521, they attacked the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan with fire and modern canons destroying the remains of a one time wonder which was already destroyed by above 3 reasons. History also states that he killed the last Aztec king Cuauhtémoc, Coanacoch, the King of Texcoco, and Tetlepanquetzal, King of Tlacopan and imprisoned the remaining royal army ! Thus the Aztecs and Alliance fighting againt it were both swiped out :-( However Mayans were still strong and Spanish had to fight with them from 1551 to 1697 to finally defeat them and get the Yucatan from them which is a separate tragedy.
With the conquest over Aztecs, mexico became a colony of Spain and Spanish immigrants started coming to Mexico along with Clergy who converted the natives to Spanish Christians. Spanish started searching for minerals like Gold, Silver which they found in plenty in places like Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Jalisco where thousands of indigenous tribes were killed/converted again which we might cover during the Zacatecas Trip :-( After the state of Zacatecas, Spaniards came to the current state of Chihuahua and faced the native people their. These natives retreated as well as they could not defend against the combined alliance of Spaniards and other Mexican tribes who were under the control of Spaniards. But their civilization could not be erased like other ones as they had somewhat extra ordinary ability to run fast in difficult mountains and took shelter in high, difficult to reach mountains, caves which were inaccessible by other people. The place where they lived is currently known as Copper Canyon or Barrancas De Cobre and those people were known as Raramuris Or Tarahumara(current name) because of the language they spoke !
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| A tarahumara man with his traditional attire(dress, shoe and cap) |
Why i planned to go to the City of Tarahumaras:
By now, you might know how important are these Tarahumaras to Mexican history as they are the only surviving link to Mexican pre-hispanic(before the advent of Spain) history ! But the initial reason which motivated me to go to their place was not above part of the history :-) Although it was one of the reasons i found later, initial spark came from the days i arrived in Mexico. In my initial days here i was exploring the Museums in Monterrey, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Parras.Surprisingly most of them were pointing to Mexican history after 17th Century and i was wondering on what happened before. Was wondering if there was no Kingdoms as in India, England or Emperors as in China, Egypts as well . If they were, where is their history ? Got a chance to visit Cancun where i got to know about Chichen Itza and Coba which had pyramids built by Mayans who existed in Mexico before the invent of Spain and my quest for Pre-hispanic history increased. Visit of Circular pyramids of Guachimontones(more in next blog posts) increased it further. But i was still missing the flavor of history in current day Mexico as the local languages were almost extinct because of Spanish and dressing, culture were extinct as well. At that time i got a chance to participate in a 21 KM run event organized for the welfare of some tribal people by name "Tarahumara". I asked my colleagues Jorge Garcia and Jorge Rodriguez on what is this "Tarahumara" for which the event is being organized. They informed me that they are brilliant runners who live in Mountains and currently living in a poor state of life. The event is being conducted every year to help them. We get a chance to run with them. As i never ran for 21KM in my life before, i wanted to give a try anyhow and started preparing for that. The day of race came and i was totally surprised to see bunch of indigenous people running in their traditional leather footwear known as "Huaraches" !
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| Huaraches , The footwear of Tarahumara |
Barrancas del Cobre:
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| View From Barrancas Del Cobre Hotel View point |
Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barrancas del Cobre) is a group of six distinct canyons made by 6 rivers in Sierra Madre Occidental currently known as Sierra Tarahumaras. Famous ones are formed by Uriche and batopilas rivers. All 6 of them merge into Rio Fuerte. There is a train route by name Chihua Pacific Railway(Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico) with Short and popular name as "Chepe" express. It travels everyday at 06:00 AM from Creel to Los Mochis stopping at Divisadero and El Fuerto. In one way, it seperates the set of canyons into 2 set of canyons.Some people also call the set of canyons as 7 canons based on the viewpoints from which they can be seen.
South and East of rail road:
- Urique (south of Urique village)
- Sinforosa (Río Verde or Red River)
- Batopilas
- Urique midpoint or Copper Canyon
North and West of Rail Road:
5. Candameña (below Basaseachi Falls)
6. Chinipas
7. Oteros.
Most people prefer to watch these at Mirador(Viewpoint) in Divisadero which is in Urique and Copper Canyon which is at a distance of 3KM drive from Divisadero.
Chepe Express:
In our 2nd day of travel(let me come back to first day experience soon..), we had to get ready at 05:30 in the morning as we had to catch the chepe ecpress train from Creel. Although our hotel was close to the railway station (10 minutes walk), our guide Don Oscar wanted to make sure that we are there on time and don't miss the train in any cost. So, we had our packed breakfast of burritos (Rolled Tortilla with some Frijoles made from beans inside) and Naranja(orange) and left in our vehicle to reach the small station of Creel. The Majestic train of Creel was already there waiting for us and we were eager to get in after taking some selfies. Guide has printed our tickets already and train was not damm packed as written in some other blogs/experiences and we had plenty of empty seats in it although there were other travellers boarding the train from Creel apart from our group.
It left Creel station exactly on time at 06:00 AM and we were welcomed by the crew Paul, Ruben and other crew in the train.
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| With crew member Paul in Chepe Train |
View of the train passing through the tunnels and valleys is very good and view of sunrise is majestic as well. You can look in my youtube channel for the videos in the train.
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| View of Sunrise as seen from Skybar in Chepe train |
It has a skybar as well and crew invited us if we wanted to have our breakfast or tea over there.
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| Skybar in chepe train(Me with co travellers Ommar, Roberto , Jovany) |
Cost is bit high (100 pesos for a bread and coffee/juice) was worth considering the views it was offering on top of the train). Journey from Creel to Divisadero is quick one and completed in 1 hours 10 minutes.
Train stops in Divisadero for 10-15 minutes if you want to enjoy the views of Canyon from there and get back to the train to continue your journey.
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| With crew member Ruben at Divisadero |
People also continue from their till El Fuerto or at the last stop Las Mochis. Some people prefer the reverse journey as well. But our train trip ended in Divisadero
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| View of the Chepe Express Train |
Divisadero:
Our Guide Oscar and driver Ricardo already arrived in van and were waiting for us in Railway station ! As i told, it Divisadero offers brilliant views of the Canyon and has uploaded the pics from there to give you an idea of what you would get from there. You can find Tarahumaras selling Artesanas(handicrafts) in the railway station and near the viewpoints.
From Divisadero, we saw a gate with signboard "Teleferico" which means ropecar at a distance of 3 KM. Spanish friends told that it opens at 10 and we need to go back as we were too early (still 07:30) for that. So we wanted to hang in in Viewpoint for a while and have our burritos. Meanwhile guide went to the gatekeeper and asking something . As i went to take the photos from that point, i could hear the guy saying benti sinco per persona(25 pesos per person). Initially i thought we need to walk the 3 KM and was happy to do that so see some new place . But Guide told to walk back to the van and we can go in van. I had no idea on where we were headed and went anyhow to explore some new place as Barrancas de Cobre meant the train journey which was already done :-)
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| View of Canyons from Divisadero |
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| Panorma at one more view point in Divisadero near entrance to Teleferico |
We went inside a park by name Parque Aventura Barrancas del Cobre(Adventure park of Copper Canyon) which had a beautiful view point welcoming us. Nothing was open over there including the restrooms as we were the first set of people to reach there :-) There were 2 Tarahumara girls preparing to open their business and came to the risque of female travelers in our group for their early morning emergencies. As there were no restrooms in Divisadero station, opening of restrooms in the viewpoint might have provided them a great relief. Although i did not wanted to mention this explicitly , thought it might be helpful for fellow travellers who take the similar route !
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| View at the first view point in the park |
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| View points are crazy here ! |
When we drove for some distance a view of many cars standing there surprised me as that was not the exit as i initially thought it to be and was a new place !
Hotel Copper Canyon:
We got down at that new place and had option to walk towards Piedra Volada or towards the hotel Copper Canyon and involve in the adventure activities over there. Along with food and beverages, It also offers various adventure activities as in link here like Zip Rider, Rope Car, Adventure activity to explore 2 caves and some rope hanging via Ferrata, tirolesas, bosque Aero, Rock climbing etc. It also has a glass view of the surrounding and a place where you can walk on top of glass to experience the scary/majestic view of canyon beneath you ! You can find all timings, costs and other details in above official link of the park.
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| A view from glass floor in hotel . The one in bottom is adventure ladder path to see the cave via ferrata ! |
Longest Zip Rider in the World:
My Friend Ommar went in ZipRider which costed 800 pesos and is the longest in the world with arppox 2 KM of zipline and 700 meters of hike after that to reach the point of Teleferico. But as i told my mom was insisting me not to take the crazy risks after my crazy stuff in Matacanes, i decided to avoid it. Don't forget to take the water they give you here and not to take any cameras, mobile in hand unless you have a go pro in helmet or gear to hold your camera/mobile safe at very high speeds !
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| Ommar Getting ready at Teleferico |
Teleferico/Rope car
Is also one of the longest Ropecar in the world as well as the longest is Peak2Peak Gondola in canada with 3.3 KM.
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| Rope Car or Teleferico in Copper Canyon(Me with mexican co -traveller Jovany and her Mom) It has a nominal cost of 250 pesos(compared to 1000 pesos for Ferrata, 800 of Zip Rider) and operates every 30 minutes. |
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| View of Sierra Tarahumara from the Rope car |
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| You can see the tarahumara houses, their farm and people from Rope car |
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| View of Other cable car going towards other point while we were returning towards hotel in parallel lane |
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| Aerial view of mountain from Teleferico, Zoom for more details |
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| View of Hotel while we are returning from Rope car |
Zip Rider is for the adrenaline guys as the speeds in it can go as high as 84miles per hour in some point ! you can also see the Tarahumara hadicrafts once you reach Teleferico and there is a running track across the mountains as well . There is path to Tarahumara village as well by name Bacajipare to which you can go from here
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| Handicrafts at copper Canyon |
Piedra De Volada:
When you are coming out of Hotel, you see a strange rock formation towards your left known as Piedra Volada. Although there are meshes prohibiting you to reach till the dead end of it, you can go to a significant point in it to enjoy the views. But walk with caution here. It is also known to host the highest waterfall in Mexico in rainy season although there were no signs of it when we went :-) Probably you may enjoy that as well if you are going here in rainy season.
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| Piedra Volada |
Divisadero Local Market:
After spending our time till 12:30 here, we headed back towards our hotel. While coming back from barrancas del Cobre we exited the entrance where we took tickets and travelled for few meters and saw a local market towards our left. It is the local market of Divisadero which we did not see while coming out of railway station as it was in other side of the road. It has so many shops to buy the souvenirs and traditional clothes from here. You can also buy some local traditional food here. As i was not hungry at that point , i did not experiment on it although Ommar and other friends liked to taste the food over there.
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| Stone masks at sale in Divisadero local market |
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| Handicrafts at Local market |
Probably we are reaching too much of content for a blogpost. So, let me continue my experience in creel for first day and remaining of second day in my next post.
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