Feb. 16-24
TRAFALGAR TOURS
COPPER CANYON
Our Tour route
We decided to take a 'winter' trip to someplace
warmer, and saw the information on the Copper Canyon of Mexico.
Not being real big Mexico fans or fans of Mexican resorts, we thought
this might be something we would enjoy. So we made the
arrangements and waited for the time to come to leave! I
contacted
friends in Phoenix and told them that we were going to spend an over
night there and asked if they were busy....fortunately they weren't and
were gracious enough to come cart us around.
Day 1 Helen & Erv Heimbuck picked us up at our Hotel and took us to the Desert Botanical Garden of Phoenix where Helen has put in a lot of volunteer hours. It was really neat....good lesson on cactus as were going to see many more on our trip. Classmate, Ted Romey, also met us there. It was so nice and warm, actually nearly 100 degrees warmer than what we had been into a few days before!!
Ted Romey by cactus Owen, Lucille, Helen & Erv by cactus.
Day 1 Helen & Erv Heimbuck picked us up at our Hotel and took us to the Desert Botanical Garden of Phoenix where Helen has put in a lot of volunteer hours. It was really neat....good lesson on cactus as were going to see many more on our trip. Classmate, Ted Romey, also met us there. It was so nice and warm, actually nearly 100 degrees warmer than what we had been into a few days before!!
Ted Romey by cactus Owen, Lucille, Helen & Erv by cactus.
We had supper at Helen & Erv's
along with Ted. They have such
a nice house and I didn't think of taking a picture until it was too
dark! It was sure fun to get to see all of them and to get our
first preview of desert cactus, we had many many more to see in Mexico.
Day 2
- It was luggage out by
6 AM, breakfast and on the bus at 7 AM. We had 451 miles to cover
plus going through the border town of Nogales. More
passengers were picked up at a truck stop on I-19. Our tour guide
was Carlos Gaytan, an extremely knowledgeable man of Mexican/Indian
descent. He has been a tour guide for 37 years and has seen 'it
all'!!! The area we were going into was 'his country' so he
really knew the in's and out's of things, making us feel real
comfortable about our journey into the unknown. Our bus was very
nice, new within the year and with two entrances.
Our first picture stop was south of
Tucson at San Xavier del Bac
mission. It was very interesting, it is built on the banks
of the Santa Cruz River, and is known as the "White Dove of the
Desert". Construction began in 1783 and was finished 14 years
later.
This very old chapel is being renovated. Front Altar, inside Ceiling of chapel.
Then on we drove to Nogales and the customs. We had no problem getting through, our tour guide was an expert on this!!
Incoming cars waiting for the go ahead. The Mexico/US fence. Customs station.
We went into Mexico and our first stop was at Santa Ana for lunch. It was a typical local cafe, very well kept. They knew we were coming so had seating for everyone and took our orders. (our menu was printed in our tour book in English so we didn't have to guess what we were getting!!)
After our stop in Santa Ana we were in flatter, farming ground. We are traveling on a 4 lane interstate, so are making pretty good time for the distance we need to go today. We stop at Hermosillo, the capital of the State of Sonora. It's population is 500,000. We visited the central area which bordered by the Governor's office, several other government buildings and a large church.
Outside of church Altar of church Government building
San Carlos, Mexico
We arrive in San Carlos for the evening. San Carlos is more of a
resort area, on the Bay of California. The Plaza Resort was very
nice, food was good. The sunset was beautiful looking across to
the Baja Peninsula. 
This beautiful sunset picture was taken by Reid and Betty. I thank them so much for sharing as mine didn't turn out that nice.
Our hotel with the big lava type mountain behind it. Neat Cactus and scenery behind the hotel.
Day 3 - Today we have only 162 miles to travel, so have time to see some of the area. After breakfast we will go to the Cactus Gardens and then to the Bay of Cortes for a boat ride. It was a beautiful day.
Mountains in background of the cactus gardens Owen & Lucille in the Cactus Garden
Reid took this picture of Betty, Lynda, Rick, Lucille &
Owen. A Blue Footed Booby, our boat person said this
was special.
Bay of Cortes, note the big houses and the strange mountains
Beautiful day on the Bay of Cortes.
We returned to the Plaza Resort at San Carlos for lunch and then boarded the bus and headed south once again. We are now traveling south to Alamos. This are is the 'Bread Basket' of Mexico. The land is flat, some is irrigated, and crops are grown. We continue on to the town of Obregon which is an agriculture boom town. The presence of a lot of grain handling facilities is seen, some American. We stop for a rest break here....a Wal-mart store!! Of course it was very similar to our own. It was warm here, and windy!
We arrive at Alamos! We have a lot of new experiences ahead of us here! Alamos is at the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains. This town was an original colonial town settle by the Spanish in about 1680's. There were rich silver mines here. After much fighting with the local indian tribes, the are area was nearly abandoned in the early 1900. The town is now a National Monument and since the 1940's it is has been renovated. Americans and other have come in, purchased the old Mansions and use it as a second home after renovating it. 'Archie Bunker' owned one of the large mansions and lived there before his death. We are told that our group will split up and stay in different mansions that have been renovated to be used as 'guest facilities'. They were all in close proximity and we will all be eating at one place. The old mansions are really interesting. From the outside, they look like a plain street front building but actually they are build with their inviting front doors inside a courtyard that is open, usually with a fountain, flowers and trees. The doors to our rooms opened off the court yard.
ALAMOS
Street side of the mansion where we stayed. Inside court yard of our mansion.
Door to our room just off the court
yard.
Our
bedroom, very plain, no window, nice bathroom. Street side of the mansion where we stayed. Inside court yard of our mansion.
The large stone building is the city hall, our motel is right beside it. Some city streets were really narrow!!
A Marachi band played while we ate our supper. The 'hunter' in the Hunter and Deer dance/play.
We sat in the center courtyard for the performance of the 'Hunter and the Deer". Note the drums in the background.
This band of youths played several numbers for us. They were getting ready for a trip and performance in Canada. Note the dog on the left, they wondered around, in and out!! The player on the left asked me to dance!!!! A privilege.
This is the church in the town
square. It was very old. The night we arrived, there was a
carnival going on in front of the church. The Lady of Guadalupe
is the patron saint of the Mexican people, so you see a lot of pictures
and images of her. It was very nice inside. The
center picture is the center altar and the third picture is another
worship area to the right of the main altar.
Transportation! Only one that I saw in town. Potter with her young son. Little child.
A view of the city from an out look over the city. You can see the church, city hall & our 'hotel'.
Some of the pictures above were taken this morning as we toured the city until noon when we had lunch and then headed for El Fuerte, a trip of 173 miles.
Before we reach the town, along a busy 4 lane road, we have a flat tire on the bus!!! Luckily we were at a country road intersection where we could pull into to get off the road and call for some help.
The guide watches the driver work on the tire. Yep, The tire lost the tread!
A professional tire truck arrived to help remove it and put the spare on.
Most of the ditches looked like this, they left the tire here!!! Took a walk when they changed the tire, the corn was tassling.
Taken while driving, all kinds of cattle. A lot of fences were made like this one.
Transportation! Only one that I saw in town. Potter with her young son. Little child.
A view of the city from an out look over the city. You can see the church, city hall & our 'hotel'.
Some of the pictures above were taken this morning as we toured the city until noon when we had lunch and then headed for El Fuerte, a trip of 173 miles.
Before we reach the town, along a busy 4 lane road, we have a flat tire on the bus!!! Luckily we were at a country road intersection where we could pull into to get off the road and call for some help.
The guide watches the driver work on the tire. Yep, The tire lost the tread!
A professional tire truck arrived to help remove it and put the spare on.
Most of the ditches looked like this, they left the tire here!!! Took a walk when they changed the tire, the corn was tassling.
Taken while driving, all kinds of cattle. A lot of fences were made like this one.
El Fuerte - home of Zorro!
El Fuerte is in the State of
Sinaloa. It was a bit
cloudy that morning, and not all that
warm. El Fuerte is built on the river of the same name.
There was a fort by that name, built in 1610 to guard against the Mayo
indians. The fort is right across the drive way from our hotel,
Posada del Hidalgo, which is a restored 19th century
mansion. Supposively this is where Zorro grew up(he was there
during Happy Hour!).
This was taken from the top of the
fort. This is our motel/mansion where we would be staying.
You can see that behind the walls and in the middle of the different
areas thee are trees growing and etc. Those were the center
courts, place to enjoy and relax. Usually chairs and tables
there.
One of the center courts. Dancers doing the Mexican Hat dance. Dining room.
Our room was located on the back side of the building, with many steps that went 'down the hill'. The first picture is the mural on the wall across from the 2 doors in the next picture. The door on the left went out on the street where children were playing and bouncing balls until curfew time. Our room is on the right of the center picture, double doors! Nice room. Third picture is the stair way we went up to get to the main area's and dining room.
Day 4 & 5 - Our train leaves early in the morning from El Fuerte. We have packed our smaller suitcase with our needs and sent the other things on with the bus. The Driver had to get the tire fixed and come around to the other side of the Canyon to meet us again. We are off on our train ride!! Very nice train, made for tourism, and foreign travelers. There are many tunnels and little stations along the way. We are headed for the Copper Canyon and Posada Barrancas. It is 135 miles on the train.
As the train moved out of the station, these are some of the poor farms and living conditions that we saw. There were always a few head of cattle,
chickens and dogs around. Interesting fences!!
The first picture was taken from a high train bridge. A lake up in the mountains.
Mountain Scenery The only waterfalls we saw. The road below, where we had to go.
We did a lot of going up and going down the mountains. It was early spring still very dry, but as you can see in the first picture, the flowers were beginning to bloom in the mountains.
One of the center courts. Dancers doing the Mexican Hat dance. Dining room.
Our room was located on the back side of the building, with many steps that went 'down the hill'. The first picture is the mural on the wall across from the 2 doors in the next picture. The door on the left went out on the street where children were playing and bouncing balls until curfew time. Our room is on the right of the center picture, double doors! Nice room. Third picture is the stair way we went up to get to the main area's and dining room.
Day 4 & 5 - Our train leaves early in the morning from El Fuerte. We have packed our smaller suitcase with our needs and sent the other things on with the bus. The Driver had to get the tire fixed and come around to the other side of the Canyon to meet us again. We are off on our train ride!! Very nice train, made for tourism, and foreign travelers. There are many tunnels and little stations along the way. We are headed for the Copper Canyon and Posada Barrancas. It is 135 miles on the train.
As the train moved out of the station, these are some of the poor farms and living conditions that we saw. There were always a few head of cattle,
chickens and dogs around. Interesting fences!!
The first picture was taken from a high train bridge. A lake up in the mountains.
Mountain Scenery The only waterfalls we saw. The road below, where we had to go.
We did a lot of going up and going down the mountains. It was early spring still very dry, but as you can see in the first picture, the flowers were beginning to bloom in the mountains.
There are 5 main Canyons that make up the Copper Canyon complex. We are going to view and stay near the top of the Urique canyon, which is about 8,000 ft above sea level. We will be staying at the Mansion Tarahumaria. This is Tarahumaria Indian country, and is the second largest indigenous group of Indians in North America. About 60,000 of these Indians remain primitive, they live a nomadic life in the Canyons.
The Copper Canyons are one of the highest and most rugged sections of the Sierra Madre Occidental. 25,000 square miles are designed a National Park.
The Copper Canyons are so named for the coloring in the soil and rocks. There was very little, if any copper mining here. Silver and Gold have been mined here. There are 5 canyons, Urique, Tararecua, Batopilas, Sinforosa, Candamena, named after the rivers within them. The elevation is about 8,000 ft.
Mansion Tarahumaria Our cabin The dining room
This facility was on the mountain side next to the canyon. There was one central building where we ate together and then we had our own individual cabins.
Basket Weaver at the Mansion Copper Canyon Copper Canyon
Grade school In the school Girl selling baskets
Some of the people with us had brought supplies for the local school, so we went to the school, classes were in session. Every where we went, we seemed to be followed by vendors or basket weavers. This young girl was foung in a couple places, selling her hand woven baskets.
Medicine man Copper Canyon Reid, Rick & Owen. Note the blue bus behind them..our transporation.
We visited a Medicine man and his wife. He did his magic with some of the folks. We also toured their home where they had raised a large family. Then went around another way to take pictures of the Copper Canyon. The last day we went with the Mansion Tarahumaria crew, where we stayed on their little blue bus to tour and they had a picnic for us by this small lake.
Day 6 - We board our bus for a 39 miles ride of descending, hairpin curves to Creel. We stopped briefly in Creel on main street. Many of us visited a souvenir shop and were greeted in front by young girls selling hand made items.
The small villages in this area looked like this. Shop at Creel.
We are headed for Casas Grandes, 283 miles away. We have crossed in to the State of Chihuahua.
This area has a large population of Mennonites. There are many apple orchards along the way and a lot of farming.
We stayed over night at Casas Grandes. In the evening we went to eat in an old house that was fixed up like a small private restaurant. First they show us the black pottery that is made there and how they fire it without a special kiln. We were served a wonderful meal and by then the pottery they demonstrated with was fired, so Al Christie auctioned the pieces off.
Five pieces of pottery to fire. A bucket was put over the items, sealed, wood put around it and burned. Al auctioned the pieces to our group.
Day 7 It was cool, very windy day as we toured the Paquime' ruins. This city dates back to the 13 century and before. The ancient Amerindian culture built a large adobe city which was multi-story. They were here for about 800 years and exhibit a blend of Pueblo Indian and Mesoamerican characteristics.
After viewing the ruins, we enjoyed the cultural center at the site and the gift shop. This area is known for its pottery, and several pieces were purchased by our group.
We board the bus, heading north for Douglas, AZ, our port to enter the USA again. The scenery is very interesting, we cross the Continental Divide and then the Guadalupe Pass, going from hilly country into a more desert country.
A small farmstead along the road. The mountains/hills were very interesting. The cemeteries were all very colorful.
Not far from the border crossing, we were stopped by soldiers. We had seen a couple of them walking through the desert brush looking for something. So, one stood by the door of our bus and the other one came aboard and walked the aisle, looking at each of us. Guess we looked innocent as they let us go!!!
When we arrived at Aqua Prietea, the Mexican side of Douglas, we waited in line to drive into the Customs area. At the Customs station, we all left the bus, giving the authorities our passports and we had to wait in a certain area has they searched our bus. It was very windy and warm, we had to wait outside.
We then went to the Gadsden Hotel for lunch. This was a beautiful place, built in 1907.....100 years old!!! It is a land mark of Douglas.
Fence at the Mexico/USA border at Douglas, AZ
Chandelier in the Gadsden Hotel. Stairway in the Hotel. It was very beautiful and unique.
We continued on our way, reaching a truck stop out of Tucson where we said good bye to several of our traveling companions. Then proceeded on to Phoenix. We stayed there for the night, very tired and happy to have good bed!
The next day we went to the airport and began our trip home. We had quite a long wait in Salt Lake. It had snowed their the night before! We flew back to Sioux Falls and then drove home......it was late.
We made many new friends, and enjoyed our trip.