Mexico — Page 4

Kayak Huasteca

April 1, 2009 By Jillian

We used Kayak Huasteca for our trip down the waterfalls of the Rio Micos. I think the best part about kayaking with Kayak Huasteca was simply how flexible they were. With only a day or two of notice we were not only able to join them on the river but were also supplied with all gear and three guides for our group of four. I had heard a great deal about kayaking the waterfalls of Mexico long before I entered the country and could not allow myself to miss it. Aaron, Marjie, and Tomato (Alex) showed our group a fantastic time.

For starters, my wife and I consider ourselves to be intermediate kayakers. [ad#final-review-ad]I shared this with Aaron when working out some details in advance and he told me that the water was low enough that even non-kayakers would be able to handle the water with some minor instruction. I was shocked that he would be willing to take a couple of newbies over waterfalls but after seeing the falls and having such a wonderful time I would have been disappointed if he hadn´t included our inexperienced friends. Instead of it being just my wife and I, two of our backpacker friends were able to join and had the time of their lives.
On the river, the guides took the time to show the newbies how to perform a wet exit (eject from the boat when submerged) and call for help while submerged. The whole time I felt that they really respected the ability of individual group members, never did they push or cajole our inexperienced friends to do anything they did not want to do or were uncomfortable doing.

Once that was taken care of we hit our first fall and were able to run it as many times as we wanted. Where possible the trio of guides took movies (on our own camera) as we went over the falls, gave us a push when we needed it, and told us the easiest way to climb back up to do it over and over again. They also had their own camera to take pictures for us.
In the end we had an absolutely great time while I can say this had more to do with the fact we were running waterfalls than anything else, it was the attitudes of our guides that really made the day. Had they been indifferent or inflexible our group would have been cut in half, the run much much faster, and without all the extra fluff (paddling behind the curtain into caves, jumping over falls, repeating falls backwards, etc) that can really make things memorable. Thank you Kayak Huasteca!

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Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Gas!

March 29, 2009 By Jillian

We left Chihuahua last Tuesday on an overnight bus to Zacatecas (see a pattern here?). A beautiful colonial town about 12 hours south of Chihuahua, Zacatecas was the silver mining capital of the world until the 1960s. Zacatecas is in a valley between two mountains and still sits about 3000m. The biggest mountain, La Bufa, has a church at the top as well as some monuments to Mexican Revolutionaries. At that altitude, nothing is an easy climb, especially the four flights of stairs to our room on the top floor of the hostel!

Almost as soon as we arrived in Zacatecas we headed to Eden Mines, the old silver mines of Zacatecas. Although the entire tour was in Spanish (woah!) and we only understood about 20% of what the guide told us and got almost none of the jokes, we had a good time playing with the fake statues and pretending to understand the tour. The Mines also have the unique feature of hosting a disco club at night… a little strange, but if it wasn’t so expensive to get in at night we may have come just to see it!

Tuesday we also made a trip to see (and use the bathroom of) the Quinta Real Hotel which is actually built into Zacateca’s old bullfighting ring. We couldn’t afford to stay there ($300 USD/night!) but we headed in for some pictures of the bull ring, where Danny played the part of the bull. We spent the afternoon at a meticulously manicured city park entertained by dancing fountains just like at The Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeee Gaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssss! Around dawn the next morning we were awakened by carnival music and eeeeeee gaaaassss. What on earth? Falling back asleep, we groaned as it happened again and again throughout the morning, until finally we got up. In the US we have trash collection in the morning, it makes a lot of noise, but its brief and moves down the street quickly. In Zacatecas they have early morning natural gas sales…seriously. We learned that a few years ago another guest of the hostel wrote the city council requesting that the gas salesman not be allowed to sell gas at such an hour. I guess it worked for a few years and he didn’t come by before 7am, but it seems that the restrictions are now over and Zacatecas will probably win the award for the most unique and most annoying alarm clock, Eeeeeee Gaaaaaassssss!

Thursday we took a hike with some people from the hostel up to the top of La Bufa. The views were incredible, but even better was the fact we were able to stretch our legs and do some climbing (actual rock climbing with our hands) and hiking. Later we headed down to the mask museum, where Danny, who has decided he wants a collection of masks from around the world to adorn his future “man cave”, bought our first souvenir.

I realize that we’re in Mexico and we haven’t really talked about food. Its been absolutely delicious, but having mexican every breakfast, lunch and dinner (nothing like chilis or hot salsa for breakfast, who needs coffee?) wears away your taste buds. Our first night in Zacatecas, our Swiss friend Severine, who is a chef, lead a dinner crew in the kitchen. Our meal consisted of delicious guacamole, a salad with nopalitas and pasta primavera. Wait you ask, what are nopalitas? Glad you asked and no its not an insect. We’re saving those delicacies for Oaxaca. Nopalitas are an edible species of cactus common throughout Mexico. They have a tart taste, but to be honest we most enjoyed playing with the salad as nopalitas have the consistency of ecto-slime.

Before leaving Zacatecas with another overnight bus ride to Valles, we first partook in the obligatory margarita night the Hostel hosts each Thursday. I don’t think there is much need for explanation about margarita night… lets just say that it was great way to top off our time in a great little town.

ah! Chihuahua

March 27, 2009 By Danny

We made it to Chihuahua after a short bus ride from Creel. Although the largest city we’ve been to so far in Mexico, Chihuahua felt immediately comfortable for us as upon our arrival at our host’s home we were told; “bueno, es tu casa.” We immediately got to touring the city with our hosts, Martha and her family, before going out for fantastic Mexican food, ensuring that we had the special dishes of Chihuahua – beef and tortilla soup. After dinner they gave us a walking tour of downtown Chihuahua where we met the the “Jedi Angel”, a statue of an angel in the town square that has a green laser sword…the first of many star wars references to be made around the world.

Later we hung out with Martha’s friends at a really cool local bar called La Roca where we had out first and last cerveza michilata. Turns out a lot of Mexican’s don’t like the taste of regular cerveza so they’ve learned to improve it…with crushed chili’s, salsa and salt. We poured in the cerveza, toasted and… well I don’t know what we were expecting, but woah. From now on regular cerveza for us.

The following morning, after a fantastic breakfast, we headed to the center with Marta as our tour guide where we met up with our friend Severine (whom we met en route to Creel and who we have continued to travel). We toured around a bit before heading back home (with Severine) for a very large lunch as it is tradition in Mexican households for a big, late lunch rather than a big early dinner. We ate our fill and just stayed put talking in Spanish for hours, finally we left to go to the city´s miradores where we drove up the side of the mountains mountains surrounding and in the middle of the city to gaze at the world.

Chihuahua is the center of Mexican independence and culture of north Mexican. It seems that Chihuahua is also the “cowboy” state in Mexico. Everywhere we went there were cowboys, or faux cowboys. After seeing one in pink boots and a flamingo pink shirt Jill asked Marta if she knew the word “metrosexual”. Martha laughed and said, “of course.” Turns out American culture exports itself rather quickly. The “special” display of cowboy boots in various colors (magenta for men, tiger print for men, etc…) amused us to no end.

We spent our last day in Chihuahua touring more of the city, going to the Las Grutas (the caves), and hitting the zoo where we were able to get far closer to the animals than in the US. For example, standing in front of the golden eagle cage one bird decided that he didn’t like Alvarro (our host padre) very much and swooped across the cage towards us, getting a talon through the cage and getting a stranglehold on Alvarro’s shirt. I would have taken a photo but I was too busy pulling the shirt away from the eagle’s talon. I’ve never looked into the eyes of a raptor before, only inches away while playing tug of war, and I never want to do it again.

Until we’d arrived in Chihuahua we hadn’t seen any signs of the drug related violence that has gripped US newscasts lately. Chihuahua has seen its share however and while the people have not let it drastically affect their lifestyles but they do certainly feel the pinch. The most direct evidence of this that we saw was actually at the zoo where there were two extra lions, confiscated from a drug dealer during his arrest only 2 weeks prior.

Hopefully it is clear by now that the best part of Chihuahua for us was our hosts. In case you’re wondering,we decided to cook them some frittata and a super secret really yummy dessert (thanks for the recipe Mom!) that we have come to love. In the end, we didn’t get to have an extended stay in Chihuahua but we certainly saw everything there was to see and had an absolutely fabulous time.

Creel & The Copper Canyon

March 25, 2009 By Danny

After having a great time in Baja California Sur we took the ferry to the mainland to begin the next phase of our journey, The Copper Canyon Railway. The train is a marvel unto itself as it passes through an area similar to our grand canyon, but through more tunnels and bridges than any other railroad in the world. Overall, the train was very slow but as we got deeper and deeper into the canyon the scenery changed from the Mexican desert to alpine forest, complete with crisp air scented with pine.

The hostel in Creel was a nice enough hostel filled with backpackers and other interesting travelers. I mention it though not for this reason but for the strange messages we found there. On the ceiling some had written “Detras de las voces des mundo es la risa Mexicana” (behind the voices of the world is the laugh of Mexico) and on the wall was a National Geographic map that said “Voices of the World”. Naturally, I took down the map (everyone else was looking at me as though I had two heads because they hadn’t noticed the connection) and found the below image behind it. Our first postcard will go to whoever comes up for the best meaning of this sign.

We began our Creel bicycle trip the next morning once we re-negotiated the price of the bike rentals from the hostel and headed off to the ‘reservation’ of the Tarahumara. These are indigenous peoples, related to the Apache and Hopi in the United States. Mostly they keep to themselves but the ninos are always willing to come to you and put out a hand and as for un peso while the ninas say compre as they hold up some handicrafts to sell. These children don’t actually speak Spanish, they just know enough to ask you to buy things or give them money.

Overall the biking was not too terribly special, mostly fire-roads through the wilderness that this mountain biker would not have called mountain biking. Having said that, about 30 minutes into our trip Jill slipped and sliced the back part of her calf on the gears of the bike. We have run countless adventure races, are trained in wilderness first aid, and always carry a very large first aid kit- which was safely stashed back at the hostel. I know, we’re idiots. Luckily, despite the depth of the cut, it was just in the flesh and made it into town for a visit to the clinic where we were told stitches were not required.

The clinic however was another story in that it was filled with Tarahumara whom we believed were there for routine care. Jill however was ushered straight in and take care of immediately, we assume because she is gringa and therefore could pay. Of course they wouldn’t let me back with her so Jill had to manage by herself, in Spanish, with only her Italian to get her through. Ahh, I love my wife. The nun did an exceptional job of digging all the dirt out of the cut with a bar of soap and some water. Luckily, when they needed to know if she was pregnant they thought to play charades rather than just speaking slowly!

Once we got Jill taken care of Sévérine, our new traveling companion, and I (it was only noon) continued with our bike tour, quickly finding the hidden trail (there was a sign) that other travelers said was impossible to find. We made our way to a waterfall (which wasn’t there) and to the lake which was nice, but filled with Tarahumara children who wanted to sell their wares, we gave them some apple instead. We then headed back as we weren’t wearing bike shorts and things were beginning to hurt where they shouldn’t.

Creel was certainly a nice place to visit and one could spend more time there but it had been enough for us. I think the most memorable part of the stay was later than evening when two stray dogs, or rather a perro and a perra, began to follow us. We changed direction, crossed the street, entered stores, got them to cross the tracks but no matter what we did they just kept following us. Eventually we realized that the perro was only interested in the perra so we know it was her that was following us but we still don’t know why. Finally we gave up and headed back to the hostel for dinner, an hour later when we left it took less than 30 seconds for them to find us again. We’re not sure what it was about us (Jill and Sévérine think it was me they were following) but it made for some good fun.

Copper Canyon Railway – Ferrocarril Chihuahua Pacifico (Chepe)

March 25, 2009 By Danny

Despite its status as merely a train, the Copper Canyon Railway or Chepe as it’s often called in Spanish, is a destination all by itself. Initially planned in the 1800’s to link Kansas City to Mexico’s pacific coast, it was finally finished in 1961 and only goes as far north as Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. The railroad has 37 bridges and 86 tunnels and because it never exceeds a 2.5% grade actually completes a 360º loop over itself as it makes its way down from The Sierra Madres and into Creel.[ad#final-review-ad]

The train ride, while comfortable, is long and slow. Much of the scenery at the beginning is of the desert and is consequently similar to many other parts of Mexico. While the scenery did improve as we moved into alpine forest, this traveler did not feel that the scenery was worth taking the trip on its own. If taking the train be sure to plan to get off in Creel, Divisadero, or another stop along the way so that you can actually enjoy the land rather than just viewing it.

The second class train is a far greater value than the first class train as it is nearly half the price and the only difference is the food options available on board. The first class train has a full restaurant while the second class has only a snack bar. Regardless of the train chosen, be sure to ask for seats – at the ticket office – on the right side (facing south) of the train as most of the journey features only a rock wall on the left side. Additionally, if taking the second class train be sure to pack some food for the trip. Lastly, the terrain from Creel to Chihuahua is nothing special and buses serve this route many times a day for a much lower price, be sure to check out this option of stopping in or near Creel.

Kayak Huasteca

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Gas!

ah! Chihuahua

Creel & The Copper Canyon

Copper Canyon Railway – Ferrocarril Chihuahua Pacifico (Chepe)

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