Sun, April 5 - Creel

I'm very much enjoying this town. Last night I went out for a beer with some people at the hostel, and exchanged lots of information - I was able to help a few people out who were heading south into Central America and southern Mexico, and in return I got some good info on things to do here.

This morning, after a free breakfast at the hostel, I headed to the park near the town. 15 pesos to get in, and I did some cool rock scrambling over really cool boulders and over some small cliffs. This road also goes into a very small village occupied by the local natives, the Tarahumaras. This, however, is not the big canyon.

After the park, I headed on the small road going west, along the railroad line. Following a sign off the road, I turned onto a long dirt path that led to the hot springs I'd heard about last night. Along this rough road (not really dirt, more like thick white dust), I saw a sign for Mirador, a scenic viewpoint. This road was even more rough than the dust one, probably best suited to an ATV, but I kept on going, and ended up at a lookout over the entire Copper Canyon. This was absolutely amazing, and I just stood there for a while, staring out into this huge canyon more than twice the size of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

After this I continued on the road to the hot springs. It turned into the bumpiest road I've had this whole trip. It was cobblestone, with each stone about a foot across and a completely different shape and elevation than the one next to it. This made for some extreme bumpiness - in fact, it is so bad that the road is closed to most traffic after only a little bit of this. I started walking down this bumpy switchback road that goes down the canyon, and a guy in a Jeep stopped to pick me up and take me the rest of the way down. Hitchhiking in this part of the country is common, easy, free, and safe. It also makes for some good conversation, even if it's in really slow, terrible spanish.

The hot springs were neat, but I didn't spend too much time there. I walked back up the road for about a half hour before another car came and picked me up to take me back to the bike. Now it's back to Creel for some dinner and relaxation.

There is more stuff that I really want to check out here, and the hostel is so cheap that I think I'll stay another day. I'm in no rush to get back to the States.