Day 36. Mexico 2022. Creel

Today we started our trip up and over the Sierra Madre Occidental. The first leg was a bus ride from Chihuahua to the mountain town of Creel, which I would equate to a drive from Modesto to Sonora, with a few more curves and miles in between.

We got seats because we took the bus at the main station, but by the time we had made a few more stops on our way out of Chihuahua there were quite a few people standing in the aisle. Welcome to Mexico! The bus was OK, although I think the shock absorbers should be replaced; it was more like riding a boat than riding a bus. Fortunately, the road was in pretty good shape (it was a dirt track when I was in Chihuahua in 1980). The ride took about four hours, and it reminded me very much of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, with some scrub oaks interrupting the carpet of green, and a few montane valleys where agriculture was flourishing. I recognized pistachio and almond orchards, plus vast extensions of corn that brought words of admiration from the children.

Creel is a bit more primitive than Sonora, but serves the same purpose as the hub of a network of roads that crisscross the Sierra. Lots of crafts shops along the main drag, as well as a few restaurants, hotels, and tour companies. We quickly made a deal with Mr. Eber to take us to our hotel in his truck, and then drive us around to see the rock formations of the valley. The highlight was the Valley of the Monks, so called because the Creel Ignimbrite (the whole Sierra Madre Occidental is an enormous sequence if ignimbrites several thousands of meters thick) has weathered into a series of pillars that extend across the valley as so many tall and lanky monks in procession. We climbed all over the place to take photographs, braved a minor storm, and came back to the truck happy and tired. I tried a cup of tesghuino, the fermented corn beverage the Tarahumaras use for ceremonies and parties, and joked with the lady about the reputation that Rarámuri women of becoming aggressive devils when they drink tesghuino, to which she responded by saying that someone had to put us Chabochis in our place. The whole crowd exploded into loud laughter.