During the 1970’s a friend and I conducted tax
seminars for investors and small business that we held at various remote
locations. We asked my spouse, Dolores,
to do the administration work handling the site locations, registration,
travel, etc. while we focused on the presentations, investment, and tax
intricacies. While the seminar business
didn’t grow as we had anticipated, Dolores efforts as a tour developer-organizer
blossomed. One of the perks of such a
business were “familiarization trips (Fam Trips) sponsored by industry
wholesalers. Therefore, approximately 25 years ago she was
asked if she’d like to participate in a Fam trip to Mexico’s Copper Canyon
sponsored by a recently formed group of West Coast travel wholesalers. She did and as they say the rest is
history. Even though we never formed a
trip offering Copper Canyon, the memories-experience left her with a desire to
visit once again to share the experience with me
.
Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre) refers to a
geographical area which covers 25,000 square miles located in the Sierra Madre
Mountains of the state of Chihuahua. Five of the six major canyons are equal to or
are greater depth than the US Grand Canyon (4674 ft.) The Urigue Canyon (6136 ft.dp.) is the
deepest canyon in the system.
We had invited Dolores brother and wife,
Jose-Stephanie, to join us on this adventure through Superior Tours of Puerto Vallarta
and along with 12 other passengers, our driver and the tour guide, we boarded
our road trip vehicle, a Mercedes Benz Sprinter, and began our first days trip
north to Mazatlán arriving mid-afternoon for an overnight stay, then the next
morning on to El Fuerte, The Gateway to Copper Canyon. I’ll gloss over the combined (going/returning)
12 hour road trips except to say that my legs and back still have barely
forgiven me!
Arriving in El Fuerte early the 2nd
afternoon we signed-into the Hotel Poasda del Hidalgo originally a beautiful
colonial mansion[RB1] built
in 1860 and was the largest in El Fuerte.
El Fuerte is known as the birthplace of Senor Diego de la Vega also
known as “El Zorro.” A statue erected in
his honor is found in one of the hotels gardens. After a quick assignment of rooms we stored
our luggage and with, Jose and Stephanie, headed for the open air restaurant to
satisfy our “hungries.” Dolores and I
had the featured broiled freshwater lobster (also known as crayfish) combined
with freshwater black bass. Steph had
the “Anahuacalli” tortilla soup and a shrimp dish while Jose enjoyed the
Mexican shish kebab. One of the finest
meals I’ve experienced in years. What a
way to take the edge-off the long bus drive.
Most of our party did some exploring of various El Fuerte points of
interest. We crashed with our Kindles
for the evening.
After breakfast early the next morning we departed the
hotel to the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad Train Station to board the Chepe at
8:30AM for our first stop at the Bahuichivo train station 4 hours later where
we were transported by a converted school bus to the Hotel Mission located in the
village of Cerocahui. The hotel and its
vineyard, which produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay, is located
adjacent to a 300-year old Jesuit cathedral and a Misson Indian girl’s
orphanage. The next morning early we
boarded the bus for a grinding trip to The Cerrto de Gallego Urique Lookout at
7500 feet to view the Urique Canyon, the deepest canyon in the Copper Canyon
system, then returned to the train station at Bahuichivo for an hours spectacular
ride to the Posada Barrancas train station then transfer to the Mirador Hotel
and our room on the canyon rim. Each room has a private terrace overlooking the
canyon. The Tarahumara women weave their
baskets in front of the hotel and are considered the best made in the whole
Canyon system. The afternoon was spent,
hiking around the hotel, dining and enjoying the scenery.
The next morning we visited the Divisadero Overlook of
the Copper Canyon, Some of us rode across the canyon in a cable car that is
2750 meter in length – the third longest in the world and the longest in
Mexico. Some others took the zip line
across the canyon, the second longest in the world.
Later in the morning we boarded our train back to El
Fuerte. This railroad is one of the
engineering wonders of the world with 86 tunnels and 37 bridges along its complete
route. This includes a 180 degree turn
inside solid rock at Temoris. The
Readers Digest calls it “the most dramatic train ride in the western
hemisphere.” Arriving at El Fuerte we were
bused to Los Mochis for a late dinner and our overnight stay.
The return to Puerto Vallarta was pretty much a
reversal of the trip up, arriving in PV in late afternoon of the 7th
day. You might want to consider this a
possible “must” addition to your travel bucket list!
