Recuerdos: El Chepe (Parte Cuatro)

This trip was epic and is turning out to need plenty of blog posts! This one is mostly just photos though, and photos which really don't do the place justice. I want to go back.


February 18, 2020
 


We got on the train again today and I just stared at the view until it was time to go. I've seen a lot of beautiful nature in my life (it helps to live in California) but this is one that I feel like changed me, even though I can't explain how. It is maybe like when people see the ocean for the first time (I was a baby so don't have that experience) or Yosemite for the first time (too young to remember that one also).

The train station was just a cute little wooden platform with an awning and many many women and girls selling baskets. This leg, from Divisadero to Creel, is not nearly as long as the others, Creel is a "Pueblo Magico," one of the cities or towns that the Mexican Tourism Department designates as having a special history or tradition or something like that, in an effort to bring in visitors. There are 132 of them and I think I have a new life goal.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Speaking Spanish in Mexico

Image
I’ve worked for most of my life to learn Spanish. Languages don’t come easily to me. In fifth grade, I had classmates and friends who were daughters of migrant farm workers and spoke very limited English. This was back in the day when immigrant kids were placed in classrooms depending on their language skills, not their age (we didn’t really do bilingual ed back then) so at ten, I had classmates ranging from nine to sixteen years old. No kidding, sixteen. She had been placed in kindergarten at ten when she came to the US. I’ve always wondered what happened to her; I’m assuming she didn’t finish school because who wants to stay in high school into their mid-twenties? I spent time at their homes, which were often one-bedroom apartments for families of five or more. My friend had her own room—it was a closet. And not a walk-in closet. And they said it was better than they had in Mexico. Obviously, Mexico has all levels of income, just like the United States, but many who came to the US we...
Read more

Recuerdos: El Chepe (Parte Tres)

Image
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...
Read more

Recuerdos: El Chepe (Parte Cinco)

Image
Someday I'll finish writing about the Chepe train trip and move on. That day is not today.  This is from Creel, an adorable Pueblo Magico in the state of Chihuahua. It was COLD at night and it was definitely the off-season so things closed down early and we ended up having to go to a pizza place for dinner because there really wasn't anything else. But the pizza place specialized in queso menonita (Mennonite cheese) which is a cheese specifically made in the state of Chihuahua, and came from the Mennonite community there. From February 19, 2020 We took an amazing tour today, covering things outside Creel. We went to Valle de los Monjes (Valley of the monks; beautiful rock formations), a waterfall that I forgot the name of but that involved many many many stairs to get to the bottom of, Elephant Rock, and a Jesuit church in the area where the Tarahumara/Raramuri people live. They, of course, tried to convert the indigenous people, as the Spanish padres tended to do. (An aside; i...
Read more