The second day at El Hotel Barrancas Mirador we took a tour to the famous cave house, stone valleys, and Creel. The cave house is where several generations of Raramuri have lived. I was surprised that they let us into their house but they are poor,,, very poor, and have become somewhat of a tourist stop. It was one of those moments when I felt like I was trapped in a role in which I was very uncomfortable,,, as if I were visiting a house of fourth generation welfare recipients. I don't know if that makes any sense. It just wasn't right for me as a stranger to enter the inner sanctum of someone's house in that manner even with their willing consent. Of course I took photos nd gave them a hefty tip,,, which only seem to add to my discomfort. At these moments I sought refuge in the clear sky and beautiful landscape.
Entrance to the Cave House. 
Grandmother in the kitchen in front of the woodstove.
The cave is shallower the further back one goes. These beds were so close to the ceiling that if one rose quickly their head would be doing battle with 100,000 tons of solid rock.
Cute Raramuri playing hide and seek outside the Cave House
After the cave house we went to some valleys which are not actually valleys at all but areas of eroded volcanic ash. I must admit the drive through these stone formations reminded me of the Lone Ranger series where everyone hides behind rocks and ricocheting bullets make that tawngey sound,,, and then I thought of the Hoodoos in Utah. I also thought of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel, The Lost World. Sir Art's book takes place on Mount Roraima, in Venezuela a fantastical high mesa that is more like a remote island in the sky
where rain has shaped the rocks into imaginative forms.
Roraima Rock Shapes
Mount Roraima
There are El Valle de Las Ranas (The Valley of the Frogs), El Valle de Los Hongos (Valley of the Mushrooms,),, which are really,,, just a stone's throw away from each other. Then there is El Valle de Los Monjes (Valley of the monks) which is apart. The former is like a natural chihuahuan stonehenge.
El Valle de Los Monjes Chihuahua
El Valle de Las Ranas
El Valle de Las Ranas
El Valle de Las Ranas y Hongos
El Valle de los Hongos
Simple houses in El Valley de Las Ranas
Valle de Los Hongos. Landscape of dry grass and rocks that at times resemble dinner rolls.
Iglesia de San Ignacio Valley de Las Ranas
Inside San Ignacio
Inside San Ignacio. No Pews
Raramuri girl on the way to las lagunas
La Laguna
Ladfies by the laguna selling baskets:
After the Valleys of Stones we visited the city of Creel which is named after Enrique Creel, 1854-1931, the ruthless mexican businessman with "eliptical connections" in all the right genetic circles. Creel was governor of Chihuahua at the time of the naming of the city. He was the son of an American, but Mexican born. He was fluent in english,,, and knew how to sieze an opportunity when he married into a wealthier mexican family than his own, the Terrazas,, who were well connected in english circles all the way back to Sir Thomas More. Utopia perhaps twisted. Enrique Creel represents the great polemic of the epoca called Porfiriato more than any other individual,,, perhaps even more than Porfirio Diaz himself,,,,,, that is the value of economic growth with which comes exagerated concentration of wealth pitted against extreme poverty and oppression. Without the epoch of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico might still not have a paved road. It is undeniable what he accomplished economically in Mexico,, yet under his long rule great portion of the country lived in near slavery.
Enrique Creel with his connections and bilingualism became an intermediary,,,,,, an economic ambassador between the companies of The United States and economic investment in Mexico. He served as Porfirio Diaz's head of secret service in the north. That job was enough to make him the most hated tattle tale in Mexican history. Diaz also appointed Creel as a director of the National Board of Dynamite and Explosives. Mexico’s demand for explosives was high because of its mining and railroad industries and the army’s need for munitions. The board imposed an 80% import duty on dynamite, allowing its members to manufacture explosives without competition and reportedly enabling Creel to amass an even larger fortune in kickbacks.With Porfiriato came great suffering resulting from the imbalance that arrives in the same car with the master-slave model,,, and then again in the same car are the benefits that come from economic development. These overlords will always be a two edged sword. Yet in the end the excesses of Diaz, Creel and his powerful family literally invited the Mexican Revolution to a long and bloody dinner.
Creel is a sweet pueblo swimming in geologic time high up in the Sierra Tarahumara. It is a place of countless natural beauties, among forests, rocks, caves, lakes, waterfalls and rivers, in addition to its missions and traditions of Rarámuri culture.I only wish I had spent more time there.
The Museum in Creel with a model of a woman who is part of a team competing in a type of stick ball or field hockey game played Easter Week for money and clothes. The game is described below. In the men's version of the game they may run up to 100 kilometers.
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