En México, Me Llaman Ana

More from our trip on the Chepe train. Even three years later, looking at the photos on a screen, I am captivated by the views. I really really hope to go back here. February 17, 2020 This is one of the times I wish I had a better camera and some decent photography skills, because sunset at 8,000 feet over the Barranca del Cobre is one of the more beautiful things I've seen in my lifetime. However, I am a sea level kind of person. I was born at sea level and I live at sea level, and doing anything at 8,000 feet is hard on my lungs. I was trying to read a book from our patio but these views were so stunning that I kept getting distracted, so I just stared. The pictures are all from our hotel, except the one where you can see the little orange building—that was our hotel. It is clearly pretty inaccessible—not the kind of place you stay and go out to shop during the day or clubbing at night. They serve meals there and otherwise, there's nowhere to eat. It was about $200 US a night...

 from February 16, 2020 I love trains. I love Mexico. I’m at 8000 feet now and it looks like Tahoe. I’ve never been in a forest in Mexico before! Americans, even those of us who travel to other parts of the country besides Cancun, have ideas about what Mexico is supposed to look like. Usually those images include a tropical beach, a desert with cacti, or Aztec or Mayan ruins. This looks like none of those and I'm so happy that this country can still surprise me. The train was over an hour late and no one seemed like they care.At first we had our choice of seats and tried to sleep for a bit, since we had to be up before sunrise. Soon it filled up and we alternated between watching out the window and going to the dining car. Trains really are my favorite method of travel. There were different classes of carriage although none of them were more luxurious than a nice bus seat. Even though there wasn't a huge difference in class, I definitely feel uncomfortable and vaguely guilty wh...

In February 2020, right before COVID became ubiquitous, I went on a trip that I had wanted to take for years. A friend and I went to Sinaloa, Mexico to get on the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico, more commonly known as the Chepe. The Chepe is a passenger train that travels over 200 miles from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, up to Chihuahua City, the capital city of Chihuahua. It goes through the Copper Canyon, which is commonly thought of as the Mexican Grand Canyon but is a whole different kind of beauty. There are around six major stops and we got off at three of them: the actual Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), the pueblo of Creel and then Chihuahua City. It’s coming up in my Facebook memories so I thought I’d share what I wrote then, as well as some of the photos which of course did not do this trip justice. —- Feb 15, 2020  We made it to Los Mochis, Sinaloa. I got about 3 hours sleep on the 4.5 hour flight to Mexico City and then about 30 min sleep on the 2 hour flight to Los Mochis...