So I sez to B., "What are we going to do this Christmas?". And she sez to me, "I dunno." So I sez, "How about a railroad trip?". She sez, "Hmmm.. that sounds OK".

After some humming and harring, we decide on Copper Canyon, Mexico. Because it's the most exciting railroad trip in the world, is all.

After about 5 minnits research, we came up with a tour operator called Columbus Tours, and because I had some time, it befell me to organize it all. No problem, sez I, it's only 10 days away....

And not much of a problem it turned out. Despite not getting the documents from Columbus until the last minnit, and only just getting the Mexican tourist visas in time, and losing, then regaining our seats on the flight to Los Mochis, it was all hunky-dory. Or something.

And so, on Christmas Eve, 2000, we set off on our trip. Tried to find a parking space near San Diego Airport in order to catch the trolley to the Mexican border, but the lots were all full. So we hightailed it down I-5 to San Ysidro, parked the car in a lot and snuck across the border into Tijuana, Mexico. Hiring a cab, we went to the Airport, only to discover that we were three hours early.

Which was almost just as well, because the place was utter chaos, and we had to do several round trips via non-working computer terminals to get our tourist visas* (see later) organised, only to discover there was no-one to stamp them. Ah well....

Oh, and no TV screens to indicate which gate to go through. Just a lady speaking very fast Spanish through a bull-horn. Needless to say, we nearly missed the flight.

Aero California seems to have an interesting approach to providing in-flight meals. Just as I had finished the salad, roll, and sweet, they brought the main course.

Arriving at Los Mochis Airport

The 'Rio Vista Lodge' in El Fuerte was charming, except that our room smelt damp. This was not surprising, as we discovered that the rear half of the room and the shower was bare rock.

we wandered down into the old town, where the little church in the town square was packed full to bursting, with cheery singing wafting out.

After strolling around the town for a while, we headed back for some sleep. At midnight, there were sounds of car horns and general merriment.

It was Christmas Day, but unfortunately, the sounds did not cease, and all night I was kept awake by barking dogs, and then by roosters that decided it was dawn at 3am. So, despite today being the real start of the adventure, it was a weary Simon that greeted the day and the fabulous view from the hotel patio. But, I had the benefit of hot water for my shower, 'cos Barbara didn't wait long enough for the hot stuff to come through. Hot water was to become a rare luxury.

After a light breakfast, we were taken to the railway station to await the notoriously untimely train to take us to Copper Canyon.

Only 45 minutes late, the train arrived, you can see it's light in the distance..

And so, we were on our way. At first, the terrain was scrubby and rather flat

The following is a set of photos taken from the train as we went up the canyon, breaking our journey at Bahuichivo, at approximately 7,000 feet in elevation.

On arrival, we were taken by Chevy Suburban to the 'Cerocahui Wilderness Lodge', an hour's journey over rutted bumpy unpaved roads. On the way we stopped to take a look at a rock formation, part of which was supposed to resemble Yogi Bear. Can you see it?

On arrival at the Lodge, we discovered why it was called the Wilderness Lodge. It is in the middle of nowhere, with no electrical power, never mind any phones! My heart stopped when we were shown to our room. To reach it, we had to walk along a patio immediately above a sheer drop to the bottom of the canyon, and worse, there was a floor-to-ceiling picture window in the room overlooking said canyon. Talk about vertigo, I refused to go near that window!

The big thing about this part of Mexico is the Tarahumara Indians, who basically own the place. Now, the problem is that they are shy and don't like being photographed, so we didn't get many photos of the folks hereabouts. Ah well.

But, after a late lunch, we were taken off to walk to the home of an extraordinary Tarahumara Indian. Victor had taken himself off to Colorado to compete in a 100 mile running race, at age 49, and he won. Amazing fellow, living in a small hut without any conveniences at all except a fire. Grows all his own food and meat. No fridge, no electricity, no piped water. Here's his farm with the hut to the left of the picture.

Later that evening, before dinner, he did two dances for us - the Rain Dance (which by the way, didn't work), and the Rabbit Dance. To be quite honest, I couldn't tell much difference between the two, but it was dark.

After dinner, there wasn't much to be done as there was only kerosene lamp lighting, so we went out to look at the stars. At 7,500 feet elevation and no light pollution, it was amazing to see the Milky Way and a myriad of other stars in all their glory. But it was also very cold. So we crept back to our room teetering on the edge of oblivion, turned on the propane heater, dimmed the lights and said Goodnight to Christmas Day 2000.

On Boxing Day, we awoke early to take the trip down the canyon-side to Urique. At one time, Urique was completely isolated, and the road we took is now the only way to get to the town.

Ten of us climbed into the Suburban and we set off on the dreadful rutted unpaved track, climbing even higher, to about 8,000 feet whereupon we came around a curve and were ordered to stop by the 'Federales'. They searched the young males in the group (but not me, what does that signify?), and sent us on our way. This picture just shows a couple of the Federales, off to the right. They don't like being photographed.

They were looking for drugs, we were informed.

After about 30 minutes being bounced around on the rough track, we reached the canyon rim. This the main canyon of Copper Canyon, which is in fact made up of a series of canyon systems.

That was a Kodak Moment!

A little further along, we came to a natural view point. And this is a feeble attempt at a panoramic picture...

Some of the more intrepid travellers wanted to get even closer to the edge!!!

Urique, the town in the valley is the local administrative center, and amongst other things, you have to go there to get a drivers licence. These are awarded automatically to anyone who has driven down this trail to get one - it's sufficient proof of competence. We saw several wrecks that hadn't made it. This did not inspire confidence.

At the bottom we spent an hour or so wandering around the town, which isn't terribly exciting, in my opinion. It has a pretty river running alongside it, though.

This is the canyon-side down which we had descended.

A neat suspension bridge and an unique gold panning device

After a packed lunch, we set off up the trail again, this time we were now so immured to the feelings of impending doom and being bounced around that it became almost pleasant.

And so to dinner and darkness. After dinner we got out the binoculars, so that our intrepid co-travellers could get an eye-full of the amazing stars in the skies. And then to sleep.

Arising on the 27th December, the 'quaintness' of our primitively serviced hotel turned just irritating. For the second day in a row, there was no hot water, and I was not prepared to have yet another cold shower. Note to Columbus Travel, who owns the Wilderness Lodge: In our opinion, you really should have waited until the lighting and the plumbing was sorted out before you put your guests in this place in winter at 7,500 feet elevation!

A little while after breakfast, we were rounded up and hiked to an enormous cave where the Grandmother of our host used to live before Pancho Villa tried to round up all the Tarahumara with a welcoming 'Fight or Die' recruitment message.

And then after lunch, with all belongings, into the Suburban for the 'rattle-and-roll' back to Bahuichivo for the train a couple of stops North for our next stop. Along the way to the station, we stopped for yet another 'Kodak Moment' to get a photo of the Cerocahui valley.

We also had a chance to visit the church in Cerocahui, which was very pretty.

And thence to the railway station at Bahuichivo to wait for the train... and here it comes...

And on to our farthest point on the train - Posada Barrancas - which is just south of Divisadero. After the now usual apparent chaos, we arrived at the bizarre Mansion Tarahumara Hotel. This is billed as being Mediaeval, I've never seen a real mediaeval place looking anything like this.

Our 'rock cabin' wasn't rock, but blessed be, had both electrical power and lighting and a big round bathtub with hot water. Yesss! Except that wasn't enough hot water to get the bubbles working. Oh well.

Time for a canyon rim walk. It was only just around the corner and was magnificent in the evening sun.

And here's yet another attempt at a panorama...

Further down the path was a Tarahumara settlement of four families, hanging off the cliff face. They had trinkets to sell, and were clearly 'on the tourist trail' as whilst we were there around 100 visitors came by to have a look.

Imagine having a view like this when you wake up every morning?

Back at the hotel, things were getting dark, so we took an opportunistic shot of the view from our cabin window, which is pretty.

And thence to dinner in what appeared indeed to be a Mediaeval Hall.

Next Morning was the 'Canyon Rim Tour'. More spectacular shots follow.

Now, I'd like you to focus on this next picture. It's 'Hanging Rock'. If you look carefully, you can see someone sitting on the rock nearest the edge. Well, our cheerful guide encouraged us all to dance up and down on that rock, because it wobbled. Not only did it wobble, but the rock underneath it wobbled, too. One of our party, I'm sad to say, an Englishman, went absolutely apeshit wobbling that rock. I asked our guide whether he'd lost anyone over the edge whilst wobbling the rock. He said, 'No', and crossed himself.

After all this excitement, we continued to Divisadero, where Barbara conducted an unusual form of bargaining with the Tarahumara Indian Women peddling their wares. This meant that not only did B give the women the asking price, but she gave them an extra new dollar coin as well. It takes all sorts, I suppose.

By now it was time to head for the train to take us back to El Fuerte. Surprisingly, it wasn't very late, and at the first stop, I was able to take a snap of some Tarahumara ladies selling their wares.

And now, there are some more photos from the trip back again.

These next three photos are dedicated to Barbara. Because they depict the Santa Barbara bridge at Temoris. The railroad at Temoris is really interesting, because it loops along one side of the canyon, and back along the other side, then through a tunnel and back along the same side, all to gain/lose elevation.

After a while, the meagre sun that there was faded and we spent the rest of the journey in darkness. I did manage to catch a shot of the after-sunset glow however.

From then on until El Fuerte, it was just ho-hum, sitting in a railway carriage. And we were pleased to be accommodated in a room that didn't have bare rock as a feature.

The last day was mostly a chore. Got taxied to Los Mochis Airport. By this time I was running a fairly nasty cold, so it wasn't terribly pleasant. We arrived at the airport quite early, and then the flight was delayed, and so we got terribly bored.

But eventually the plane arrived and they turned it around more quickly than I'd ever experienced before. And then we were on our way back to Tijuana. On arrival, we were accosted by the immigration folks who were indignant that we hadn't got our visas stamped (despite there being no-one to stamp them on the way out!). But they let us through without hassle.

And then, tiresomely, haggling with cab drivers for a reasonable fare to the San Ysidro border crossing, trudging with suitcases back to the parking lot, and suddenly, we were back.

Summary - a great vacation. Learned a lot about Mexico and its history. To give Columbus Travel credit, it was superbly organised, with the exception mentioned already. We loved it.

All we then had to do was organise the most enormous pile of laundry.