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| - The Canyons |
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Mexico's Copper Canyon
What is called the Copper Canyon or Barranca del Cobre is, in reality, a network of several deep gorges riddling the north-western Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. The most spectacular parts of this system, which covers 65,000 square kilometers, lie within the State of Chihuahua.
The region is rich in minerals, natural wonders and a delicious respite from the noise and babble of modern life, a living silence punctuated only by the whirr of hummingbird wings and the far-away sounds of rushing water or the wind through the treetops.
The climate is moderate much of the year- cool to cold at the heights of the canyon, and warm and humid along the rivers at their bottoms much of the year. From November to February, the higher altitudes can be very cold and have been known to have snow. March through June, until the rains start, can be very dry. The ideal time to travel the Copper Canyon is from August to October.
Fruits, vegetables and grains are grown in the fertile, high valleys - along the train route itself one can see stands of trees laden with apples ripening in the sun. In the temperate climate brilliant flowers also flourish: roses, geraniums, fuchsia, peonies and wildflowers of every color.
Between 1601 and 1767 the Jesuits entered the Sierra Tarahumara, as this region is also called, establishing Missions and communities among the various indigenous tribes of the area: the Chinipas, Guarijios, Guazapares, Jovas, Pimas, Temoris, Tepehuanes, Tubares and the Rarámuri, or Tarahumara. Some of most important missions of the Canyons were those founded at Cusárare (1752), Sisoguichi (1676), Cerocahui (1680), Guagueyvo (1718) and Cuiteco (1684).
Many of the Rarámuri, or "light-footed ones", who retreated into this mountainous area from a more wide-spread territory they previous inhabited, purportedly to escape from the forced labor of the Colonial mines and haciendas, to this day are found living in caves and rustic cabins. They walk fantastic distances, scaling what seem almost vertical mountainsides with amazing ease. This is a people adept at fashioning tools and implements, baskets, blankets and carved wood images, and living close to the soul of the earth. While travelling through the canyons, visitors will see colorfully-attired Tarahumara women offering up their wares, as often right alongside the train track at stations as while hiking along what seem to be deserted, mountain paths, where no one would be expected, let alone a lone woman, dressed in bright, multicolored skirts topped with apron, a shiny-fabric blouse and a floral head scarf, for example, carrying a small child wrapped securely in her shawl.
The major canyons of the Copper Canyon system are deeper by far than the Grand Canyon in the U.S. Hotels and viewpoints on walking tours afford incredible views over seemingly endless ridges of mountaintops and drops into the chasms, some well over a mile deep. Our personal tour of part of this fascinating area was taken in September, when the mountains were still clothed with green from the recent rains, when visitors can still be treated to occasional, energizing thunder and lightning storms as the gods loose not their wrath, but their blessing of waters from the heavens, on this still largely untouched region of Mexico.
 Photo above by W. Patrick Stroope |
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A church near Km marker 502 (village of Pichachi),
on the Copper Canyon Railway |
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