Creel and Valleys of Stone

 
      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

     The Chihuahuan landscape near Creel of strange stone shapes is compelling.

  

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.

     

 

Barranca del Cobre

     Exited the train, El Chepe, at Barrancas. Our hotel, Posada Barrancas Mirador, sits on the very edge of The Copper Canyon in the Sierra Tarahumara looking down into the Barranca Urique. There are various barrancas or canyons each with a different name. The view from the hotel is breathtaking. On the rim within the forest of sparse pines you are in the sky with soaring eagles, their shadows bending over the folds in the earth as they pass. It's a 40,000,000 million year view. Your eyes swim in geologic time.
     
    The train station at Barrancas is a simple wooden building. There was snow on the ground, something I haven't seen up close for a while. Some Raramuris in the station were selling their baskets. 


                                         

                          

                             

               

                  The view from the dining room of the Hotel slung out over the canyon.

 

The hotel from below

 

The hotel from above

Below some views of the Canyon Otero

  

Houses of some Raramuri set into shallow caves. With this view each and every day it must affect your perspective.

  

 

      Some say La Barrancas de Cobre get their name from a mistake made by the first Spanish who arrived. The Spanish were so tuned to looking for metals that they mistook the green color from a lichen as an indication that copper was present. Others say the color comes from seasonal light. At times the light is such that the canyons take on a copper hue. 
     Las Barrancas de Cobre are home to the shy reclusive Tarahumara or Raramuri indigenous people who are related to the Apaches in the north.  These natives are famed for their long-distance running ability. Some 50,000 Raramuri ("the people of the swiftly running feet") — as they call themselves — live in caves and other primitive dwellings, much as their ancestors have for centuries. 
     Horacio, pictured below in an orange shirt described a game played by the Raramuri during Easter Week. The community is broken into groups. Teams make bets of money and clothes that are placed in a pot. This creates incentive. Each group must kick or swat a 4" diameter madroño wood ball with a stick also made of madroño wood over a rough course that traces a 4 kilometer circle,,,,, not just once but 15 times. That's 60 kilometers in a day and in simple sandals. The winning team takes the whole pot. Men race against other all male teams. Women have their own event that uses rings instead of a wooden ball.

     The Copper Canyon, or Barrancas del Cobre, is actually a 25,000 square mile system of six interconnected canyons located at the Southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Four of the six separate canyons are deeper that the Grand Canyon, some by over 1,000 feet. However, the Grand Canyon is larger that any of the individual canyons of the Copper Canyon system.  

 Urique Canyon - 6136 ft deep
Sinforosa Canyon - 5904 ft deep
Copper Canyon - 5770 ft deep
Tararecua Canyon - 4674 ft deep
Batopilas Canyon - 5904 ft deep
Oteros Canyon - 3225 ft deep
     
     This area has drained the precipitation collected upon these folds in the surface of the earth for millions of years. All the rivers that are formed on this side of the Sierra Tarahumara meet to form the Rio Fuerte which used to empty into the Sea Of Cortez but because of agricultuyral use in Sinaloa just a trickle is left by the time it reaches the ocean.       
     Like its distant cousin, The Grand Canyon, there is a great differential in temperature between the top and the bottom.During the winter the temperature at the highest point of the canyon stays around the 50 degrees while the temperature at the bottom of the canyon reaches the 80 degrees and higher. Vegetation is also different in the two zones. The highlands are home of Ponderosa pines, madroño,  and oak, whereas the bottom is predominately sub-tropical.  In fact some of the Raramuri that live up near the rim maintain orchards of mangoes and other fruits at the bottom. It's a three hour walk to bring home the harvest.
     The Copper Canyon is a young ditch geologically, perhaps 20-40 million years ago. The Grand canyon formation goes back to the beginning of time practically, but Las Barrancas were formed when volcanic deposits and rippling tectonic folds were further carved by water and more volcanic action. 
     
     We spent some time talking to the Raramuri who gathered near the hotel to sell their wares,, or trying to talk to them. Spanish is their second language. After several hours, one young mother named Lorena, and her mother, Naty opened up a little. 

Lorena weaving

  

Raramuri woman weaving

 Lorena in the early morning making baskets to sell.

  

Raramuri woman Lorena  weaving

We took a walk below the hotel and met these escuintles. The whole family sells. 

Carmelita

Naty

Naty

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