copper canyon May 17 & 18

how do you describe the most beautiful canyons / scenery/ raw nature you have ever seen ?

there really are no good enough words but here i go

we got our stuff together and jumped on a bus to BATOPILAS at 930 on monday morning. les was hesitant , he did not think the trip wd be worth it and actually considered staying behind...but decided to go at the end. for the first 2 hours he was not impressed. The bus costs 220 pesos per person and it was packed.  it is very important to be the FIRST ones on the bus and to sit in fornt so that you do not choke on dust and sweat 'cause you cant open the windows due to sand !!  I was amazed at the trees and the mountains. they go on and on and on forever and the trees get greener and taller and they are mostly pines. all different kinds of pines. the road was paved and wide and i wondered why so many people had said the road was dangerous

we soon found out
as soon as the pavement ends, you are on the original 30 yr old dirt or sand or rock road....and it is narrow and i do not understand how our bus made it around those curves. he had to calculate to the inch where to turn !!!!

scary but i believe in God and was not worried
the 4 hour trip took us 5 plus hours. and the hard part is that it was very dusty. too dusty to open the windows and with every minute the bus got hotter and hotter.
i mean it was really hot.
las vegas type of hot heat. dry and dusty and hot.

bathrooms on the way ??????? find a spot in a bush or in between the trees :)

we arrived in Batopilas the early evening. the first house you see is a huge wonderful house that Les rightly guessed belongs to an american. we later found out that he has built a posh hotel for gringoes. we never went back to it but i want to look it up on the internet

then we went by the house that shepherd used to live in and next to it is the silver foundry he had. the man used to be the mayor in NY and left the country for Mexico under accusations of having been corrupt. I can only say that his wife must have loved him VERY much. it must have takenthe months to traverse the mountains under very severe conditions. We have a book that his son wrote about their experiences and I cant wait to read it. Shepherd even took a grand piano and apparently there were lots of arts and culture, but I was disappointed on the one hand and on the other hand, realized that altho the town is now run down, abandoned, a once faded beauty still apparent in some places - benches, main aquare, architecture. I can now say that batopilas is gorgeous.  it grows on you. at first i was disappointed thinking it was old and rundown. but the truth is they have no money to keep it up. so i think i will write and request it be made into a world heritage site

the trip is incredible and as one german guy  put it, Copper Canyon is grandfather to the grand canyon.

now we are off to an indian at lake arareco village and Cusarare waterfall and an indian cave which used to be inhabited and now stands as show