Chihuahua a Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico

On Creel's Way


Horseback Ride at Three
Vaquero rides along the side of the road that connects Chihuahua to Cuahutemoc.
the Mennonite
Abraham Peters poses next to a poster with the family tree of his ancestors.
The Oteros River Valley
Deep meanders of one of the many rivers that run through the Sierra de Tarahumara and the Barrancas del Cobre.
Rarámuris in Valle de Los Monjes
Irene, Angelica, Mirta and Elsa at the base of rocks in Valle de los Monjes.
Irene
Rarámuri woman dressed in the colorful garments that this people used to wear.
Lake Arareco
Lake Arareco, among the vast pine trees of the Sierra de Tarahumara.
Sales at Twilight
Rapariga Rarámuri exhibits her handicrafts, in front of the Mission San Ignacio church.
Raramuri woman
Rarámuri woman bundled up against the still mild cold of the Sierra Tarahumara territory.
Valley of Los Monjes
Sharp cliffs challenge the Sierra Tarahumara pines for the supremacy of the skies.
Dona Catalina's House
Rosana and daughter at the door of Dona Catalina's house-cueva.
Rosana & Daughter
Rosana and daughter in a corner of Dona Catalina's house-cueva.
Cozy Rarámuri
Rarámuri child kept on his back by his mother, busy trying to sell handicrafts.
Rarámuri women in Craftsman mode
Young Rarámuri women produce handicrafts on the shore of Lake Arareco.
Rarámuri Woman with Crafts
A large bunch of necklaces in the hands of a Rarámuri saleswoman.
With Chihuahua behind, we point to the southwest and to even higher lands in the north of Mexico. Next to Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, we visited a Mennonite elder. Around Creel, we lived for the first time with the Rarámuri indigenous community of the Serra de Tarahumara.

We started the trip by road, led by Pedro Palma Gutiérrez, a guide and adventurer in the region.

We crossed a vast plateau, at an altitude of over 1500m. Still, we climbed through the endless orchards of apple trees that supply much of Mexico.

We arrive in the vicinity of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, at 2060 m, considered the gateway to the Sierra de Tarahumara.

Instead of entering the city, we continued through a cultivated prairie and, at one point, dotted with houses and other buildings, of sober tones, even a little dismal.

At the wheel, Pedro Palma, tries to reorient himself, in search of the property that interested us. We passed warehouses where large TIR-style trucks were parked. And, ahead, by another elongated building with a prefabricated look.

On a Sunday morning, men, women and children gathered there, arriving in pick ups farms and bulky vans. “This is where they meet for the religious service.”, informs us Pedro Palma. “Our host's house is already there, he did us the special favor of welcoming us.”

We cleared the door of another open farm. A black Chihuahua is strange to outsiders. He darts to the estate's threshold, determined to protect his turf with shrill barks.

We walked some more. Pedro Palma takes the lead. It takes us inside the farm that follows.

The owner had not yet come from that conviviality, so we searched and photographed the most interesting thing we found there, an old wagon overflowing with yellow corn cobs, toasted by the winter sun.

Pre-Scheduled Visit to the Home of a Mennonite Family

We are in this worship, when the rancher appears, parks his van and greets us. Pedro Palma, introduce us to Abraham Peters, our host. The only official host and guide for countless visitors who arrive intrigued by life apart from the Mennonite community of Cuauhtémoc.

Welcoming and guiding them became a passion complementary to Abraham Peters' agricultural work in 2003, when a team of German reporters knocked on his door, asking for directions on the most interesting places around.

Abraham invites us to his home, an unpretentious home, made of non-organic materials, furnished and decorated with a mix of modern objects and treasures, diplomas, old images of the family and other ancestors.

The elder stands in a corner of the house, next to a poster of his family tree. Framed there, he explains that his wife and the only daughter who still lived with them were meeting at that Sunday morning meeting, the reason why only Abraham received us.

Several questions later, he tells us how he and the Mennonites had ended up there, all by itself, a dazzling history lesson.

From the Netherlands to Chihuahua, the Mennonites' Long Demand for Peace

As with the Quakers and other religious groups, what moved these Anabaptist followers of Frisian theologian Menno Simons to Mexico was the urgency to protect themselves from the forced recruitment generated by the spread of World War I.

In their long and continuous diaspora, the Mennonites first moved from the Low Countries to Prussia. From Prussia to Russia, from where, in the second half of the XNUMXth century, they went to Canada, above all to Manitoba, and to the United States.

“Everything was going fine…”, Abraham tells us “… until World War I came on the scene and Canada started sending reinforcement troops to the Allies. Some time later, the Canadians disagreed with us not being recruited. Under pressure, the government pushed us to the wall. We were forced to look for other stops.”

Months later, a Mexican dignitary of President Álvaro Obregon made it known that Mexico needed people to cultivate vast areas of the North and that it would facilitate the reception of the Mennonites.

In 1922, the Mennonites purchased large tracts of land from what is now state of chihuahua. About 1300 families settled there, each with their horses, carts and agricultural knowledge.

The same one that enriched the largest Mennonite community in Mexico, today, with 45 thousand inhabitants, producers of the apples we saw along the way, cattle and dairy products, agricultural machinery, furniture, metallurgical products and, more recently, even shopping centers , hotels and restaurants.

After a generous amount of time had passed, Pedro Palma intervened and put an end to the visit.

Carlos Venzor and his Vast Rancho Museum

We bid farewell to Abraham Peters when one of his non-Mennonite neighbours, Dom Carlos Venzor, a rancher collector, who suggested to Pedro Palma that we visit the museum section of his farm.

Pedro Palma agrees. There we found a little bit of everything: old tractors, vans, gas stations, furniture and TVs, music instruments and, in some cases, who knew what.

Dom Carlos Venzor dreamed that the museum would be part of the unusual tourist route of the Chihuahuan Mennonites.

In our own way, we contribute to making it a reality.

We arrived at lunch time.

Without straying too far from the planned route, we stopped at a pizzeria owned by Mennonites who served pizzas made from ingredients produced by the community, especially the famous Chihuahua cheese, served there in abundance.

By Chihuahua Above, in the Direction of Creel

After the meal, we continue towards Creel, always in curves, a significant part of the route, faithful to the meanders of the Oteros River, between villages and somewhat shabby villages, wedged between both banks and the bases of the valley.

Creel, already at an altitude of 2350 m, right at the top of the Sierra Madre Occidental, will not take long. That's where we'd sleep. Until dark, we went on a tour of the most emblematic places around.

Lake Arareko reveals itself to be a very green body of water, surrounded by a befitting pine forest.

There, we see, in the distance, some visitors who ply it by rowing boat.

As soon as we get out of the van, we have our first contact with the prodigious Rarámuri or Tarahumara ethnic group, the second name, adapted from the sub-mountain (let's call it that) that makes up the Sierra Madre Occidental.

They are women and children. In a chatty conviviality that helps them to pass the time and take care of their children, while producing the colorful handicrafts that support them.

The Strange Rocky Spires of Monks Valley

From the lake, we travel in off-road mode, zigzagging between pine trees until we reach the base of another notorious stronghold in the region, Vale dos Monges.

Rarámuri children and women welcome us again, this time more determined to do business.

Pedro shows us the beginning of a trail that snaked between slender and high rocks, some with sixty meters, highlighted against the blue sky, well above the surrounding pin-immensity.

A small family of Tarahumara follows us at some distance, with soft but determined steps, marked by their gentle and stoic way of being and living.

We ended up finding ourselves at the foot of a formation of friars overlooking the others. Irene and her daughter Angélica, Mirta and the descendant Elsa show us bracelets and the like, or that we photograph them.

We gladly give in to suggestions.

While we choose the bracelets, we renew a good-natured chatter that the sudden and bright sunset warms.

The Mission of San Ignacio, on the Ultimate Road to Creel

The twilight was still blue in the sierra when Pedro stops again, next to a church of piled stones, in the heart of a field full of humble houses.

The temple was the main building of the San Ignacio mission, established by the Jesuits during the XNUMXth century and which, moreover, preserves its tombstones at the back of the church.

Unsurprisingly, the atrium was also disputed by Rarámuri women and girls, dedicated to their particular mission of selling handicrafts.

It is already dark night when we enter Creel.

Creel was founded in 1907, while Creel Station, little more than a deposit and source of supply of wood from the chihuahua al pacific railroad, named after the governor of the state of Chihuahua at the time, Enrique Creel.

Today, it remains a central station on the line and the most important logistical base for those who come to discover the Rarámuri territory and, with plans to travel to El Fuerte or Los Mochis in the CHEPE Express.

We warm up in front of the fireplace in one of the most popular hotels in town, the Eco. Despite the name, we recover from the cold under a collection of insinuating animal heads.

But we slept cozy and pampered by the comfort of wood and stone of the place.

Dª Catalina's Cave House, still Entre Rarámuris

The following morning, already a good kilometers from Creel, we deviated from the main road in order to witness how some Rarámuri continued to use caves as homes.

A house-cueva of Dª Catalina became the most famous example. We went back to snaking through pine trees. Up to the edge of the vast ravine of the Oteros River.

There, on a hidden top of the cliff, we find a room made of logs set against a stone wall and an old tree with twisted trunks.

It lacked the careful decoration of the Eco hotel.

However, in addition to Dona Catalina, some family members lived in it at that time.

Including granddaughter Rosenda and great-granddaughter Melissa, a one-year-old baby who slept soundly, little or nothing disturbed by generalized chatter.

Some outsiders were betting on understanding, from the hostesses' mouths, what it was like to live there, when the temperatures of the Sierra Madre down to minus ten, twenty degrees.

Rosenda limits herself to pointing at the firewood and the kind of salamander that heated the house grotto. She completes her explanation with a shrug of indifference, as if such awe doesn't make sense.

In the following days, at the doors of the Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon) inhospitable conditions to which the Rarámuri have adapted, the wonder we were all in would only be reinforced.

chihuahua, Mexico

¡Ay Chihuahua !

Mexicans have adapted this expression as one of their favorite manifestations of surprise. While we wander through the capital of the homonymous state of the Northwest, we often exclaim it.
Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon), Chihuahua, Mexico

The Deep Mexico of the Barrancas del Cobre

Without warning, the Chihuahua highlands give way to endless ravines. Sixty million geological years have furrowed them and made them inhospitable. The Rarámuri indigenous people continue to call them home.
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
Taos, USA

North America Ancestor of Taos

Traveling through New Mexico, we were dazzled by the two versions of Taos, that of the indigenous adobe hamlet of Taos Pueblo, one of the towns of the USA inhabited for longer and continuously. And that of Taos city that the Spanish conquerors bequeathed to the Mexico, Mexico gave in to United States and that a creative community of native descendants and migrated artists enhance and continue to praise.
Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

From Kayenta to Page, passing through Marble Canyon, we explore the southern Colorado Plateau. Dramatic and desert, the scenery of this indigenous domain, cut out in Arizona, reveals itself to be splendid.
Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

Iconic Western filmmakers like John Ford immortalized what is the largest Indian territory in the United States. Today, in the Navajo Nation, the Navajo also live in the shoes of their old enemies.
Cobá to Pac Chen, Mexico

From the Ruins to the Mayan Homes

On the Yucatan Peninsula, the history of the second largest indigenous Mexican people is intertwined with their daily lives and merges with modernity. In Cobá, we went from the top of one of its ancient pyramids to the heart of a village of our times.
Tulum, Mexico

The Most Caribbean of the Mayan Ruins

Built by the sea as an exceptional outpost decisive for the prosperity of the Mayan nation, Tulum was one of its last cities to succumb to Hispanic occupation. At the end of the XNUMXth century, its inhabitants abandoned it to time and to an impeccable coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
holy plain, Bagan, Myanmar
Architecture & Design
Bagan, Myanmar

The Plain of Pagodas, Temples and other Heavenly Redemptions

Burmese religiosity has always been based on a commitment to redemption. In Bagan, wealthy and fearful believers continue to erect pagodas in hopes of winning the benevolence of the gods.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Aventura
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Dragon Dance, Moon Festival, Chinatown-San Francisco-United States of America
Ceremonies and Festivities
San Francisco, USA

with the head on the moon

September comes and Chinese people around the world celebrate harvests, abundance and unity. San Francisco's enormous Sino-Community gives itself body and soul to California's biggest Moon Festival.
Cities
napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s – Old-Fashioned Car Tour

In a city rebuilt in Art Deco and with an atmosphere of the "crazy years" and beyond, the adequate means of transportation are the elegant classic automobiles of that era. In Napier, they are everywhere.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Lunch time
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
khinalik, Azerbaijan Caucasus village, Khinalig
Culture
Chinalig, Azerbaijan

The Village at the Top of Azerbaijan

Set in the rugged, icy 2300 meters of the Great Caucasus, the Khinalig people are just one of several minorities in the region. It has remained isolated for millennia. Until, in 2006, a road made it accessible to the old Soviet Ladas.
combat arbiter, cockfighting, philippines
Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
Traveling
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, New Caledonia, Greater Calhau, South Pacific
Ethnic
Grande Terre, New Caledonia

South Pacific Great Boulder

James Cook thus named distant New Caledonia because it reminded him of his father's Scotland, whereas the French settlers were less romantic. Endowed with one of the largest nickel reserves in the world, they named Le Caillou the mother island of the archipelago. Not even its mining prevents it from being one of the most dazzling patches of Earth in Oceania.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Fort São Filipe, Cidade Velha, Santiago Island, Cape Verde
History
Cidade Velha, Cape Verde

Cidade Velha: the Ancient of the Tropico-Colonial Cities

It was the first settlement founded by Europeans below the Tropic of Cancer. In crucial times for Portuguese expansion to Africa and South America and for the slave trade that accompanied it, Cidade Velha became a poignant but unavoidable legacy of Cape Verdean origins.

Fog and sideways sun make the village of Gásadalur shine
Islands
Vágar, Faroe Islands

Sorvagur to Gásadalur: Towards the Sunset of the Faroe Islands

Discovering the westernmost reaches of Vagar, the westernmost of the large Faroese islands, we travel along the SØrvag fjord. Where the road gives way, we are dazzled by the Múlafossur waterfall and, above, the intrepid, almost uninhabited village of Gásadalur.
ala juumajarvi lake, oulanka national park, finland
Winter White
Kuusamo ao PN Oulanka, Finland

Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

We are at 66º North and at the gates of Lapland. In these parts, the white landscape belongs to everyone and to no one like the snow-covered trees, the atrocious cold and the endless night.
José Saramago in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, Glorieta de Saramago
Literature
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

José Saramago's Basalt Raft

In 1993, frustrated by the Portuguese government's disregard for his work “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”, Saramago moved with his wife Pilar del Río to Lanzarote. Back on this somewhat extraterrestrial Canary Island, we visited his home. And the refuge from the portuguese censorship that haunted the writer.
Maria Jacarés, Pantanal Brazil
Nature
Miranda, Brazil

Maria dos Jacarés: the Pantanal shelters such Creatures

Eurides Fátima de Barros was born in the interior of the Miranda region. 38 years ago, he settled in a small business on the side of BR262 that crosses the Pantanal and gained an affinity with the alligators that lived on his doorstep. Disgusted that once upon a time the creatures were being slaughtered there, she began to take care of them. Now known as Maria dos Jacarés, she named each of the animals after a soccer player or coach. It also makes sure they recognize your calls.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Horseback riding in shades of gold
Natural Parks
El Calafate, Argentina

The New Gauchos of Patagonia

Around El Calafate, instead of the usual shepherds on horseback, we come across gauchos equestrian breeders and others who exhibit, to the delight of visitors, the traditional life of the golden pampas.
Twyfelfontein, Ui Aes, Twyfelfontein, Adventure Camp
UNESCO World Heritage
Twyfelfontein - Ui Aes, Namíbia

The Rupestrian Namibia Uncovered

During the Stone Age, the now hay-covered valley of the Aba-Huab River was home to a diverse fauna that attracted hunters. In more recent times, colonial era fortunes and misfortunes coloured this part of Namibia. Not as many as the more than 5000 petroglyphs that remain at Ui Aes / Twyfelfontein.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Characters
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Balo Beach Crete, Greece, Balos Island
Beaches
Balos a Seitan Limani, Crete, Greece

The Bathing Olympus of Chania

It's not just Chania, the centuries-old polis, steeped in Mediterranean history, in the far northeast of Crete that dazzles. Refreshing it and its residents and visitors, Balos, Stavros and Seitan have three of the most exuberant coastlines in Greece.

The Crucifixion in Helsinki
Religion
Helsinki, Finland

A Frigid-Scholarly Via Crucis

When Holy Week arrives, Helsinki shows its belief. Despite the freezing cold, little dressed actors star in a sophisticated re-enactment of Via Crucis through streets full of spectators.
white pass yukon train, Skagway, Gold Route, Alaska, USA
On Rails
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
Pachinko Salon, Video Addiction, Japan
Society
Tokyo, Japan

Pachinko: The Video Addiction That Depresses Japan

It started as a toy, but the Japanese appetite for profit quickly turned pachinko into a national obsession. Today, there are 30 million Japanese surrendered to these alienating gaming machines.
Coin return
Daily life
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Fishing, Cano Negro, Costa Rica
Wildlife
Caño Negro, Costa Rica

A Life of Angling among the Wildlife

One of the most important wetlands in Costa Rica and the world, Caño Negro dazzles for its exuberant ecosystem. Not only. Remote, isolated by rivers, swamps and poor roads, its inhabitants have found in fishing a means on board to strengthen the bonds of their community.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.