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| A statue of a tarahumara girl playing with her toys in Museo De Popular Arte, Creel |
San Juanito:
It's one of the major cities in the state of Chihuahua which you would get on your way to Creel. It has some interesting sign boards which you should not miss. For example, there are posters in the street with Super man named as "Super San juanito" for some product ! There are also sign boards in the federal highway which indicate Mexico in one side and Chihuahua in other side ! So, if you are new to this place, you may wonder on why it is so. of course it does not mean that Chihuahua is not in mexico :-) Chihuahua is in border of US and Mexico and there is a border crossing by name "El Paso" in Texas between US and Mexico. So, these signboards indicate that other direction is to go inside Mexico and way back is back to Chihuahua !
Hotel Santa Cruz:
When we reached our hotel Santa Cruz, guide told us that we need to assemble again at 3:00 PM for our next journey of the day and we are free till then. I initially thought of sleeping for some time as i could not sleep properly in the big tempo traveller in 15 of us had come to hotel.
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| Hotel Santa Cruz |
Restaurant Lipita
I was feeling hungry as well as i did not eat anything on the way. So, thought to get freshened up and go out for a brunch. Got ready in some time and went out to eat with the guide Oscar as he was going out as well. We saw hotel Lipita as it was very near to our hotel/lodge and i was looking into the menu to find some veg food. Mari carmen and her daughter Arielle were already there with other trekkers from saltillo. They offered me some translation help. But i already knew what i wanted. It was entomatada. It is Tortilla with tomato and local cheese and was very tasty.That day night as well we ended up in same hotel, with addition of other traveller in our group i.e Ommar. In night , i wanted to give a try for Enchilladas and that was good as well.
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| Restaurant Lipita |
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| Me with Guide Oscar and Driver Ricardo infront of the Kwira(Good morning) sign |
Museo De Popular Arte:
After Brunch, guide wanted to have a round of the city and asked if i could join. I had no other plans other than getting back to hotel and sleep for some time. So, we went ahead. The downtown of Creel is not that big and within 15 minutes of slow walk, you would reach the center/ends of it from wherever you start. We went to Musuem of Popular Arts or Museo de popular Arte in downtown(right behind the colorful letters of Creel) . It hosts a good collection of tarahumara things along with details about their tradition. So, it is one of the must visit places in the city for a nominal fee of 10 pesos for entry
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| Various Tarahumara collections at the Musuem |
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| Different balls used by Tarahumara kids |
We came back to hotel after that and had a sleep of an hour before getting for afternoon's adventures.
It is one of the caves very near to the town and so different. You can see beds inside some cave and cave has become homes of these Tarahumaras ! There are multiple families residing over there and has become a tourist spot. You can go inside, see their residence and come out buying some of the handicrafts they are selling outside. Guide was saying that it is the only place near to the city where they do so . But i believe there might be many such things somewhere else based on the history of Tarahumaras.
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| Entrance to the cave |
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| Inside the cave |
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| one more selfie with their permission |
You would get this on the way to the other valleys and a quick stop for few snaps
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| Infront of Elephat Rock/Piedra de la Elefantes |
Cascada Casurare:
We need to take an entry fee of 20 pesos per head to get into the Parque Casurare inside which Casurare waterfalls is there. The 3KM road from entrance till the beginning of falls is quite narrow and won't recommend coming in your car unless you have some solid vehicle like Jeep or 4*4.
It is one more place to enjoy the view and last 400 meters you need to go by walk where you can see so many tarahumara sellers selling their things in both sides of the road. If you are coming in Summer (like we did), you may not enjoy the waterfalls from the top as it has less water. But it would be perfect time to take the steps to reach down. It just has 100+ steps and i came down in 3 minutes hopping the steps. Going up also i reached in approximately same time as i tried jogging up to catch up with rest of the group. Even if you are walking slowly, you can reach up in 10-12 minutes. So, would recommend you to get down to enjoy the views
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| View of Cascada Casurare |
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| Cascada Casurare from the bottom |
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| one more view |
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| On the way to Cascada.. |
After visiting the Waterfalls, we came out and visited the Lake Casurare or Lugo Casurare. It is good for some more shopping or to enjoy the views. You can also do some boating/kayaking here.
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| Casurare Lake |
Iglecia de la san ignacio:
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| Iglecia/Church of san Ignacio |
You need to take an entry fee of 20 pesos to enter into the Valle De la Ranas(Frogs) and Hongos(Mushrooms). Once you take the ticket and start moving towards tarahumara villages, you suddenly see a church/Iglecia which is known as Iglecia de san Ignacio. As in the other places mentioned above, we have only seen tarahumara kids and girls, women selling their things with "Com pra"(the word they say when they come near you to sell their things). Did not see a single adult man in any of those areas. So, there were so many questions in my mind and so were in the minds of fellow travelers. So, our tour guide from Hotel Santa Cruz who was also driving our vehicle started explaining about them
1. why there are more taramara women than man in the valleys we have seen?
Men usually go to work in different places and send money to the money back. There are Mines and saw mills in the city with huge logs of wood. Men might be working in places like that while women and kids are taking care of selling things in tourist places
2.Who is San Ignacio ?
San Ignacio Loyolla is a saint whom the people worship like God.
on 31st of every year, they celebrate it as a special day dedicated to worship him.
3. Party in july 31st : Tejuinada
No outsider can live in these valleys on other days.
But anybody can go on the day of 31st July to be a part of the party and drink
The party is called tejuinada where men, women meet to get into relationship !
Girl selects her man in the party. way she selects him is interesting. She selects him is by throwing a stone at him! If boy likes the girl, he will throw it back. Then they would be couple.
In mexico(rest of the country), men takes the first step.
4. What do they drink on party? tejuino :
Tejuino is an alcoholic beverage. made of corn. To covert corn into alcohol levadura(spanish name) is used. During the party, tarahumara use this drink.
5. Early pregnancy in women:
One more point guide was mentioning is about women getting pregnant very young(13 or 14 years). Govt sends docs to talk to them on how to avoid it. But it appears as if they don't care as its tradition.
6. marriage does not exists.
Men and women can have as many husbands, boyfriend, wifes, girlfriends as they want.
They don't get married
7. people can't live there:
only way to live there is to have a tarahumara girlfried or boyfriend!
8.Chabochi:
Tarahumaras calls rest of mexicans/others as Chabochi/o which means that white bearded man.
For women they call it as Chabocha (?)! It sounds like fabrosa (a spanish word which means tasty).
After the Iglecia , we went ahead into the valley to see Valley of the Frogs. It is called so because of stones there which resemble the shape of Frogs. It's a good sunset spot
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| valley of Frogs(see the rocks at my right) |
Valley of the Mushrooms(Hongos)
It is one more valley near to the first valley and would be the last stop for that day's trip. So, here we can take various pictures of sunest and do some more shopping with Tarahumaras.
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| valley of Mushrooms |
2nd Day:
In the first post, i wrote about Parque aventura brrancas de Cobre. There is one more interesting fact about that park and Chihuahua i would like to mention. That is Menonites or Menonitas(in Spanish)
Menonita:
These are one variety of Christians from Germany and Poland who used to live in Russian Empire. They came to chihuahua and started to live apart from rest of the people in chihuhua. As per one survey, there are 100,000 Menonitas in Mexico and 90,000 of them are in Chihuahua ! When you go the park, you might see the ones with Blond skin and ladies/girls with white scarf tied to their head. I saw many of them in park and also in market and saw them speaking fluent English and German and initially confused them to be foreigners ! But they are not and Menonitas instead !
They prepare the cheese and sell it in chihuaha.. They are famous because their cheese is of high quality. You may see so many food in Creel like Quesadias, Entomatadas, Pieza tres Quesos(Pizza of 3 cheeses one of which is called Menonita Cheese made by these guys) , Enchilladas containing these Menonita cheese and they are super tasty !
After the Park and local Market, we were coming back and guide suddenly took a diversion in a place and we were not knowing on where he was going .
Piedra De Fertidilidad/Rock of Fertility
He just stopped infront of some rock and said its Piedra De Fertililidad.
I went near it and could not make out the reason for its name !
I was wondering if its because of its colours or shape or for what reason. While descending , i saw one more stone and went near it . When i went very close, i realized the actual stone which our guide meant as Piedra De Fertilidad !
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| Piedra De la Fertilidad |
Our Trip winded up after that and guide told us that we need to be ready at breakfast table by next day morning 07:30. We are free till then ! I Did not wanted to sleep without Lunch and look for something in Dinner. So, wanted to go out to have lunch. So, asked my newly found friends Ommar and Roberto if they want to come out to have a walk and eat something.They joined around 3 and we went out to explore the downtown which we had seen already as we had nothing else to do !
We went to one more musuem of tarahumaras which was kind of place to buy Tarahumara things at discounted price. When we were asking them on if there is any other places to see nearby, they mentioned about a viewpoint at the top of a hill which was 20 mins walk from there. We got the directions. But Ommar did not wanted to walk so far and we came back. Meanwhile i got some local ice cream to satisfy my appetite. When we were coming back, we saw Robe's family taking Elotes and we joined them as well near the board of Kwira. Elote provided me more energy and filled the gap of not having lunch. After that Robe's sister Jovany joined us and they wanted to take QuadBike and were asking if i knew how to ride a bike. Having a bike in native ,i was sure of it ofcourse :-) And we went in search of cheaper quadbikes in the other direction till the city lasted ! Although we found a pizza place for our dinner, we did not find the cheap bikes we were looking for :-) We came back to have a closer look at Chepe Express. Still we had enough time to spend the evening and were not known what to do and i brought up the topic of Mirador. As we had no other options, everyone wanted to go there and Robe seemed to like the girl in Musuem and wanted to ask the address of Mirador again ;-) So, went back in same streets to help him :-) We got the address of Mirador again and headed towards it.
It is in top of mountain and you can see the whole city of Creel from there. Not many people are aware of it and less people visit here unless they have so much of energy left after previous days explorations. We reached here within 15 minutes of walk from center of Downtown as it is a single route from there and only one right turn is needed when we see a large transmitter. From there , there is water pipelines going upwards and you would find a shortcut to go to the Mirador. It's worth the climb up there
Hotel Best Western Creel:
Its another good place to hang out and watch the football as we enjoyed watching Mexico v/s Escotia match that day where Mexico was leading by 1-0 till we left. We also enjoyed the Fuseball over there which has an entry fee of 5 pesos for 5 balls :-) The delight of the day was Piezza tres quesos which was pizza with 3 cheeses including the local Menonita Cheese. I also enjoyed the Desert by name Coyota Piloncillo which was kind of Sweet roti made with Piloncillo. After the dinner, had to head back to hotel.
Morning was good as well with nice breakfast for us and wishing us happy journey for a 1100 KM journey from there till Monterrey.
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