Monday, 1 April 2019
Possada Barrancas, Mexico
Flipping cold in the night up at 7,000ft. So much so that a sore throat and sniffles beckon. It’s to be the early onset of manflu.
Will be in need of some TLC.
View for breakfast is mesmerising. The hotel is on the rim and all rooms and the restaurant/bar look out over the Copper Canyon.
Sit with a Canadian couple from Calgary. They’re motorbiking about. They rode up to Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska last year and provide some invaluable advice. It’s where my end point is of this trip.
Spend the morning pootling about the rim looking at the Copper Canyon from various view points. Each has a slightly different perspective. There’s a 2.5km long cable car that takes you down into the canyon onto a perch for more views but given 40mins to peruse tourist tat stalls. Not in any need of any tourist tat walk over to the glass floor in the visitor centre. Has a massive drop into the canyon beneath so you can walk over a void. Nothing spectacular and have seen better at the CN Tower in Toronto or the glass walkways in London’s Tower Bridge.
I walk straight on to the glass floor bit am instantly admonished by some Mexican woman as I still have my boots on. There’s a sign in Spanish saying ‘Do not walk on glass floor with shoes’. As I’m already in the middle of glass floor continue taking photo much to her disgust and she gives a right old dirty scowl once I walk off.
As a bunch of tourists enter the cable car so do a load of locals in their brightly coloured dresses. They’re the Tarahumara people who live in the Canyon. There’s a faint whiff of the unwashed as we glide down. They all rush to their tourist tat stalls and start setting up by uncovering the black plastic sheets. Alas, once again, supply far outweighs no demand. Tourists more interested in panoramic photos.
A lot of the older Tarahumara women are busy weaving baskets with a few showing young girls how to do it. Passing on all those years of knowledge.
Running in parallel with the cable car is one of the longest zip wires. 2.5km long strung across the canyon where you reach speeds of 85mph. German girl I met yesterday on the train appears glad to see me. Though think she’s just using me. To take her photo with her camera. She zips off into the distance never to be seen again.
Sniff.
What is in actual fact about an hour’s worth of sightseeing if you take out all the waiting has actually been stretched out to 4hrs. So much for a morning tour.
There’s also a big difference between here in the north and the southern areas that I’ve travelled to in Mexico. Not many Mexicans speak English well, if at all. Not even the hotel staff. It’s bizarre given how touristy it is. A few other guests I chat with also comment on this. They can’t understand it either.
Well, dear reader, as some of you will have guessed by the title. Today, is cause for a little celebration. Have been traveling for 100 days now.
Will wait to celebrate in style in Dallas in a couple of days time though.
One response to “100. 100 days”
I have suddenly lost my appetite after looking at the food shots. I suppose you have to eat……