Copper Canyon, Mexico - Cusarara
Day Four – Rest Day Around Cusarara
Here is a map of the Copper Canyon Area
Today was to be a rest day to take in some
of the local
cultural scene. I did not feel particularly rested as I had bit of chest and
sinus congestion that kept interrupting my sleep. This was compounded by being
greeted by many zealous roosters long before dawn actually arrived. It was quite
cold out but I bundled up and hung out on the hillside above the lodge to watch
sunrise break into the valley. That morning we had an excellent breakfast
and the most incredible cup of coffee I have had in a really long time, made
cowboy
style. We were really in no rush today at all so we leisurely set out
from the lodge some time after 9AM.
Our
first stop was at a Tarahumara Village a short walk north of the lodge.
The village was a handful of adobe cabins spread around a small valley
where in one glance you could see goats, burros, and bulls, as well as a few kids
playing. The Tarahumara are often very shy around gringos, so as we passed
by their homes they would usually go inside.
At
the northeast end of the valley there was an old area that had some
Tarahumara wall paintings on them. I don't know how old these were, but
they looked like they may have had a little maintenance done them in the not so
distant past. Either way they were pretty cool.
These
were some of the ugliest people I had seen in the area so far on the trip.
Please click with all due caution.
We
had been told that there were some old caves used by the Tarahumara at the top
of the tall ridge north of the Valley. Kevin and I decided to explore a
few trails and make our way up the ridge. On the way up we found a
few small caves but nothing too exciting until we reached the top of the ridge and
found a set of very impressive caves. "Caves" is used loosely as the
stone naturally erodes in a manner than creates large overhangs in the rock that
make caves with very large openings. Often times the Tarahumara would wall up
these overhangs to make a mini-stone cabin. While the shelter may be
meager, the views from the "front yard" were exceptional as we were at least 1,000
feet above the valley we were in earlier in the day. The wind was calm
while we were on the ridge and we could clearly hear the sounds of kids playing
and clank of the goat bells as they grazed in the valley far below.
After
lunch and a siesta, Blair, Richard, Kevin and I rode the single track along the
creek that we came into Cusarara on back upstream for a couple of miles before
peeling off to go to the Cusarara waterfall. This is large waterfall and
quite pretty. We hung out at the waterfall for an hour or so while Richard
took a trail down to the bottom and kicked back for a while. We left
shortly after the evening sun left the bottom of the canyon as it quickly
started to cool off.
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Carnitas - It what's for dinner. I mean it, This pig was what was for dinner the day after we left. |
That night we had we had an amazing vegetable stuffed chicken dinner that was to die for. It was by far the best chicken I have ever had in my life. Once again I was full and happy and I did not make it more than a couple of hours after dinner before I was fast asleep.