Today we actually boarded the Chepe (a term of endearment for the Chihuahua al Pacífico scenic train). We had a hurried breakfast at 7 am, and at 7:30 walked the couple of clocks to the train station. Raúl is unrepentant about carrying 20 kilograms of minerals in his backpack, but he gimps so slowly that I felt obliged to help him carry his suitcase. We had booked seats in the tourist class, and had been goaded by a friend for being cheap and not buying First Class, but we found the wagon clean and roomy, well ventilated, and with comfortable seats (later we met a couple who had travelled in First Class, and they assured us that it was not so different from our own Tourist wagon).
The trip was short (1.5 hours) but very scenic, and by 9:30 am we pulled into the Divisadero train station. The view was … stunning! Fortunately, our Hotel Divisadero Barrancas was very close to the station, and the balcony of our ground-floor rooms is at the very edge of the cliff. We are paying a pretty penny for the privilege, but it is the best location ever. Imagine being at the very edge of a barranca as large as the Grand Canyon. Now imagine two of these immense barrancas coming together and turning east to join with a third great canyon to form the Rio Urique on its way to the Pacific coast. I can tell you we are going to spend many happy hours meditating and enjoying this magnificent view.
We met a couple of our own age, Antonio and Maria Eugenia, and together we hired a guide and his car to take us to see the sights, which started with the mirador that sees the junction of the three canyons. We then walked to the cave/house of the older Rarámuri Doňa Catalina, who sells a few crafts, conducts limpias and natural cures, and is just a smiling Tarahumara woman who openly invites you to enter her home and look out her window at another fantastic view of the canyon. I though I should thank her in a more substantial way and gave her some money. She was grateful and happy, invoked a blessing of the heavens over my head, gave me a big hug and then broke into laughs and joked about not being able to hug me tightly because I was too fat. Everybody laughed, and then taking photographs hugging her became the thing to do. Nice lady!
Our driver, Abel, then took us to the Mirador del Cielo, to the highest point in the rim, where we could easily feel that we were flying over the barrancas like soaring eagles.
We ate dinner at the hotel and then went for a walk of about 800 feet to another cave/house along the rim. By now we were in easy conversation with about five different couples, who took full advantage of having two experienced geologists among their number.
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