Diversion to Mexico's (truly grand) Copper Canyon
The Lonely Planet sold us with its pitch of “astonishing vistas at every turn” along this maze of almost unknown canyons that covers four times the area of the Grand Canyon and is, in places, over 1800m deep. So instead of taking the ferry from La Paz (in southern Baja) to Mazatlan (a bit further south on the mainland), we sailed north to Topolobampo. From there, we drove to El Fuerte where we stayed in an elegant 400-year-old hacienda with beautiful gardens, where Hailey managed to negotiate a few night's say for a record-breaking bargain.
The next morning we left Babo at the hotel and rode the Ferroccarril Chihuahua Pacifico (or Chepe for short) railway through some breathtaking scenery into the highlands. This impressive feat of engineering spans 656km, 37 bridges and 86 tunnels, starts at sea level and rises to over 2400m.
We descended to Urique, a town at he bottom of the canyon, that was celebrating the recent election of a new municipal government and doing justice the guidebook’s comment (that there are more Tecate [beers] being passed around here than educations). We hiked along the rim at Areponepuchi and serendipitously bumped into this year’s winner of the renowned Urique ultra-marathon (100kms of canyon trail running - at 2000m). There may have been a skeptical look in my eye, so he quickly disappeared into his hut and emerged with his medal and certificate and told me to google him (which we did, and in so doing, verified his story). We ate tasty gorditas (“little fatties”) at the Divisadero station - blue, red and yellow corn pitas stuffed with pulled pork or chicken, curried chickpeas, veggie stews or a whole lot of other yummy concoctions. We fell in love and nearly adopted (or were nearly adopted by) a beautiful, fun-loving little puppy we named Puchi (after Areponapuchi - the name of the town where we met) but had to leave her behind to go mountain biking in the “Valley of the erect penises” or Bisabirachi in the local Tarahumara language. The boring colonial name is Valle de los Monjes, Valley of the Monks.
All in all, the massive diversion was well worth the trip, especially since even now - 6 weeks later - El Fuerte’s braaied beef and pork tacos, stuffed with carmelized onions, guacamole, peppers and salsa remain right at the top of the food list.
