Thursday, December 24, 2009

My Dogs and my RV

Thursday, December 17, 2009

MEXICO’S CANYON “The Majestic Barrancas”




First Installment--December 16, 2009
There are few people over the age of forty to fifty in the United States, who have not heard of the Humphrey Bogart movie, “Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which is of little importance, in terms of memorable phenomenon, but, also, few people know that the real treasure of the Sierra Madre, is its quaint villages, beautiful rivers, white water rapids, tall waterfalls, and deep canyons. I wonder how many well-educated people there are in the United States, who are aware that, In Mexico’s Canyon Country, less than 350 miles from the border, are five beautiful canyons, that are deeper and larger than the well-known Grand Canyon, which lies between Utah and Arizona. Parts of all of these canyons are accessible by road, and there are guides available, who can lead hiking or backpacking expeditions into them. At least two of the Canyons, are pretty much unexplored.


As, a basis of comparison, the Grand Canyon, of the Colorado River, is less than 4700 feet deep at Hopi Point, which is the deepest measurement made of the canyon. I have been to the Grand Canyon; I’ve stood on its rim, and looked miles in each direction, and about a mile across. I have pictures to prove it, and it’s an awesome, magnificent site to behold. People visit the Grand Canyon during all seasons of the year, and particularly summer, when the weather is normally pleasant and the views are spectacular. On the floor of the Grand Canyon, temperatures can reach well over 100° and people have become seriously dehydrated, or suffered heat stroke, trying to hike down into the canyon on well-worn, marked trails. People are warned to take plenty of water and salt pills, to make frequent rest stops to cool down, and most important, to take one or more persons along.

Temperatures in the Grand Canyon, during winter months, can and usually does drop well below freezing, and often, below zero. The canyon can become so filled with fog, it is impossible to see anything beyond the rim, and winds at the Grand Canyon, can be strong enough to blow a person over the rim, if they dare to stand too close. People have hiked the Grand Canyon, rafted the Grand Canyon, parasailed over the Grand Canyon. They have written books about it, poetry about it, songs about it, even classical music about it.

It is one of the truly great wonders of the United States, and people have come to see it, from all over the world. Two great dams have been built in the Grand Canyon, and a huge lake is backed up behind it, that has over a thousand miles of shoreline. It surely is a great phenomenon.

Urique Canyon, in northern Mexico, located in the southwest quadrant of the province, or state, of Chihuahua, is over 6100 feet deep, the deepest of the five canyons that are larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon. The picturesque villages of Cerocahui and Urique can be reached on a paved road. Cerocahui is located at the rim of the canyon, and Urique is actually located beside the Urique River in the bottom of the canyon, less than ten miles by motor vehicle, from Ceracahui. Because Urique Canyon is very wide, it is covered with vegetation during the rainy season, and is one of the most visited of the five canyons.

The next deepest canyon is Sinforosa, and is one of the least accessible of the canyons, virtually unexplored. It is over 5900 feet deep, narrow, and piled with huge boulders. It is not navigable, at any time of year, but there are numerous backpacking trails throughout the canyon. Today, there are both Mexicans and Tarahumara Indians (native mexicans) living in the canyon. A notable difference between the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and Sinforosa Canyon, is the way rapids are formed. On the Colorado, most of the boulders that create rapids are washed into the river channel from side canyons, but, because of the narrow Sinforosa Canyon, the majority of boulder fields and rapids are created by huge slabs that fall directly into the river from above.

After the Sinforosa, the next deepest canyon is Batopilas, which is named after the village of Batopilas, located near the banks of the Batopilas River, which flows through the canyon. Batopilas has been known, historically, as one of the richest towns in Mexico, and was founded and built because of the silver mined there in the late eighteen hundreds.
Also in the canyon, near the river, and miles from any settlement are the remains of a huge cathedral. The closest settlement is Satevo, and there has never been a record of any type of settlement close enough to need, or use such a large cathedral. It was constructed with three domes, and four half-domes, and has a vaulted ceiling. Its origin and purpose are cloaked in mystery. No records have ever been found concerning the cathedral, and it is likely the records were sent to another area during wars and raids at some time, and were lost in transit.

The next deepest is Copper Canyon, known in Mexico, as the Barranca del Cobre, which is almost 5800 feet deep. This canyon is also much explored and much visited, and many attempts have been made to travel the river, which is made impassable by a huge boulder pile and waterfalls. There is a stretch over a mile long, where the river actually goes underground. The canyon is easily accessible by paved road, from Creel, the mountain village which is a jumping off point for all of Canyon Country.

The last of the five canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, is the Guaynopa Canyon, which is over 5300 feet deep, and was cut by the Yaqui River, which no longer exists due to hydroelectric projects which have captured or diverted its flow. Many of the features and characteristics of the Guaynopa Canyon are similar to Copper Canyon.

A smaller canyon, in Canyon Country, is Fuerte Canyon, located at the south end of Urique Canyon; it’s a well-kept secret, and one of the most beautiful of all the canyons.

The canyons have been formed by three main rivers, largest of which is the Rio Urique; the other two rivers are the Rio Verde and Rio Batopolis. These three rivers have carved the canyons of northern Mexico, one of the greatest canyon systems on earth. Because of the inaccessibility of the Rio Verde, it is one of the least documented and least explored areas in North America.

Canyons in Mexico are called barrancas, so the Mexican names for the canyons are: Barranca de Urique, Barranca de Sinforosa, Barranca de Batopilas, Barranca del Cobre, and Barranca de Guaynopa. Mexicans, and indians in the region are very proud of their canyons, but tend to take them for granted. They are not nearly so awed by their majestic size as Americans are by the Grand Canyon.

Creel, the departure point for roads leading to the various canyons is approximately 150 miles from the city of Chihuahua, also the capital of the state of Chihuahua. Chihuahua is a modern city with a population of more than a million people. Sixty miles west of the city of Chihuahua, is the city of Cuauhtemoc, where I live. Cuauhtemoc takes its name from the name of the last Aztec emperor, and is one of the most affluent communities in the entire country. It is largely native Mexicans, and a very large Mennonite population lives and farms in the area. There are numerous thriving businesses, and little or no poverty. It is a clean area, and prices are based on what the average Mexican can afford, since it is not centered around tourism.

Cuauhtemoc is located less than 300 miles southeast of Douglas, Arizona, and that is where I cross the border. The city on the Mexican side of the border, at Douglas, is called Agua Prieta. The terrain all the way from Agua Prieta to Cuauhtemoc, is beautiful, through wide open valleys, with mountains always in the distance, or near at hand. I crossed one mountain pass, less than one hundred miles from Agua Prieta. The highway is paved, and well-maintained all the way, and I’ve seen many big semi rigs, and huge modern buses travel it regularly. Janus, Buenaventura, Casas Grande, and Obregon are the main towns I pass through. There are gas stations in every small village, and several in the larger towns. They are all owned by the country of Mexico, so the prices are the same in each station, something I always hated about the U.S., where gas in two stations across the street from one another could vary as much as $.50 a gallon. Gas here is about twenty to twenty-five percent less expensive than in the U.S., but nearly everything else is much less expensive, especially food and utilities.

A person can live quite comfortably in the area on $800 to $1000 a month, and there are foods here that I can’t even find in the U.S. There is a huge supply of fresh fruits and vegetables all year round, and in Cuauhtemoc, alone, there are six or seven large modern supermarkets and hundreds of small neighborhood stores. There is a super Wal-Mart here, and Appleby’s is opening an outlet near it. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Auto Zone, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are also here in Cuauhtemoc. This is one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico, and nearly everywhere you go here, someone speaks pretty good English. I know a lot of Spanish, but don’t get to use it much, because when people here find out I speak English, they want to practice their English on me! So, I rarely have an opportunity to practice speaking Spanish.

I live in my small RV, in a secure park, on a main road, about ten miles north of the city of Cuauhtemoc, and about 25 miles south of Obregon. The owner lives on the property and the park is locked every night, so I feel safer here than anywhere I ever lived in the U.S., and I’ve lived in the U.S. all my life, until I came here to live, in May of 2009. I have five dogs with me, two big ones and three small ones, and the owner of the park let me put a fence around my RV, so my dogs don’t run free in the park, although, if I want to let them out for a romp, he doesn’t mind. The owner and his wife and their four children all speak Spanish, plus fluent English, and fluent German. I have shower and bath facilities in my RV, but there are shower, restroom, and laundry facilities right here in the park. I have more privacy than I have ever had anywhere I lived in the U.S., and just behind my RV, I can see from my window, a small lake about three blocks square.
The weather here is fantastic.

The temperature here never gets above 80 to 85 degrees all summer long, and then for only a couple of hours a day. I have an air conditioner in my RV, and never used it all summer, because there is always such a nice breeze blowing. I just open my door and my windows, and enjoy the fresh air. This is a dry climate, except for the rainy season, which lasts from about mid-June, to mid-September. It is a long rainy season, but nobody complains, because it seldom rains more than a few minutes at a time, and is what helps keep it so cool here. Where I live it is more than 7300 feet above sea level, but it’s far enough south that it seldom gets below freezing. As I am typing this opening installment for my blog, I have the door and windows open in my RV, and the wind is blowing, but when I woke up this morning, my dog’s water bowl outside was frozen completely solid. It is now about 4:00 p.m., and in another hour and a half, it will begin to cool down, and when it cools down here, it happens within a matter of minutes.

In the summer, it always cools off just as soon as the sun goes down, and because of the clear air here--no pollution--and a dry climate, the stars are spectacular at night. I love it here, and will probably move here permanently in a couple of years. I have a property in Tombstone, Arizona, just fifty miles northwest of Douglas, and I will be going back there toward the end of February, to stay about three months.

If anyone who reads this blog, is finding it hard to manage in the U.S. financially, or wants to get away from the high crime rate, or just wants to take an extended vacation and check out a different culture, I would highly recommend this area.

The Mexican people are friendly, helpful, honest, clean, resourceful, and don’t ever expect something for nothing. They are willing to work and will do anything they are paid to do, without complaining. The ones I have met, would help out for nothing, if I asked them. I always pay what I consider a fair wage, for work I need done. The Mexicans are very family-oriented people, and love their children. Most Mexicans are very attractive, but smaller in stature, for the most part, than Americans, who are prone to fat and overeating. Seldom have I seen a fat Mexican. In fact, whenever I see an obese person here, which is seldom, I can be almost certain he or she has come here for the United States. I have yet to meet an impolite Mexican.

The population in this area is primarily Mexican, but there is also a very large community of Mennonites, approximately 25,000, living primarily north of the city of Cuauhtemoc. They are very enterprising, hard working, honest, and for the most part have large families. They are also known as Amish, but unlike the Amish in the U.S., they drive modern vehicles, and live in very comfortable modern houses. Some of their homes are 6000 square feet, or larger. They are mostly farmers, but many of them have businesses north of the city. They use very modern farming techniques, and have all kinds of big farm equipment. Corn, apples, and nuts are the crops that are mostly grown in this area, especially apples. I see apple orchards nearly everywhere I go around Cuauhtemoc.

I live right in the midst of the Mennonite population, approximately ten miles north of Cuauhtemoc. Many of them speak both German and English, as well as the native language, Spanish. In fact, my landlord, the owner of the RV park where I am living, is Mennonite. They are incredibly polite and bring me food and goodies almost every week. They look after me, and I feel very much at home here.

There is also a sizable native population living in Cuauhtemoc, known as the Tarahumara Indians. They are dark skinned, with broad, somewhat flat faces, and are less friendly. They keep pretty much to themselves, but I see them everywhere in this area. The men wear jeans and shirts and hats, in and around Cuauhtemoc, but the women still wear their native dress, which is very colorful and patterned natural fibers. Traditional clothing for women are patterned blouses with loose, three-quarter sleeves, and very full skirts that hand to midway between their knees and ankles. Nearly every Tarahumara woman I see has several children tagging along with them, and the little girls dress just like their mothers. Also, virtually every Tarahumara woman I see, under the age of forty, has a baby which she carries in a long scarf, which is thrown behind her back with the baby cupped inside it. They pull the scarf to the front and secure it someway.

Most people in this area drive modern cars and trucks similar to what I’ve seen in the U.S., and the literacy rate here is 98%! There is a modern hospital here, a woman’s hospital, there are excellent physicians, dentists, and veterinarians, and plenty of attorneys. I will be updating my blog with additional information in the weeks ahead, and if you want to write me for specific information, I will answer it, if I can. If I don’t know the answers, I’ll try to find out, and if I don’t know the answers, and can’t obtain the information you want, I’ll let you know that, too.

If I don’t answer you directly, it will be because the information is in my blog, or in my updates, so look there first. My name is Bonnie, and I love it here. I think you would, too. The three best ways to get here from the states, is to come through El Paso, Texas, cross the border at Juarez and go straight south for almost three hundred miles, on Route 45, a four-lane interstate (a toll road), all the way to Chihuahua. If you want to come to Cuauhtemoc, Route 16 out of Chihuahua, takes you right into Cuauhtemoc, on another four-lane interstate (also a toll road).

Or, you can cross the border at Douglas, into Agua Prieta, like I did, and come through, on the route I traveled, which passes through the towns I named above (there are no tolls on that road, and it is a well engineered, well maintained road, all the way here from the border).

The other way is from Presidio, in west Texas, crossing the border at Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and taking Route 16, a very good road (with no tolls), all the way to Chihuahua, which is about 200 miles from the border. Route 16, runs from Ojinaga, across the border from Presidio, Texas, southwest for about 200 miles, passes through the city of Chihuahua, which is the capital city of the largest state in Mexico, also, called Chihuahua, and continues due west, another sixty miles, to Cuauhtemoc, the city where I live. Route 16 continues west from Cuauhtemoc, into Mexico’s Canyon Country, which begins at Creel, which is a little less than one hundred miles from Cuauhtemoc. Route 16 is a well-engineered, well-maintained, paved road, which continues beyond Canyon Country, all the way to the coast of the Sea of Cortez, which lies between the country of Mexico, and the peninsula, known as Baja California. The section between Chihuahua and Cuauhtemoc is a toll road, what the Mexicans, call their interstate.

The biggest difference in what are called interstates here, and the ones we have in the U.S., is they don’t have entrance and exit ramps here. You simply merge into an extra lane, then work your way into the traffic flow, which is minimal, except near the larger cities. If you want to turn and head back in the direction you just came, or turn off the interstate, there are designated places to do that, called Retournos. And, all you do is signal left, cross the median as designated, then carefully merge into oncoming traffic, going in the opposite direction. There is very little traffic on any of these roads, except between Chihuahua and Cuauhtemoc (population l00,000). I’ve never traveled on that road, which is a continuation of Route 16, from Chihuahua, when there wasn’t a lot of traffic.

In Chihuahua, some of the American branches I have noticed are Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sears, Auto Zone, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Applebys, Sonic Burger, Pizza Hut, Dominos, KFC, to name a few.

This place is a real find, with a near perfect climate, so unless you prefer smog, crime, high prices, rude drivers, and too many people who want something for nothing, come here for a visit, and give a try to a vacation in northern Mexico. There is plenty to do here, and you won’t be disappointed. There are hotels and motels all over the place. The water here is perfectly safe, and there are many good restaurants. You can even rent movies in English, in video stores, and if you subscribe to satellite TV, there is a lot of American programming. They have price scan checkouts in the stores, and you can use any Visa, Mastercard, or American Express card in ATMs, readily found everywhere you go. You just use it the same way you would in English, expect you get back pesos instead of dollars. The monetary system here is very simple, and easily understood, and many signs and labels are printed both in Spanish and English. You won’t feel much culture shock here. People here love all things American. I see jeans, all kinds of American products, and there are a couple of radio stations with nothing but American music. About half the songs I hear on Mexican radio stations, are American songs, and when I’m in the super-market, I often hear American music. I feel as at home here, as I ever did in the U.S.