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SJBAS Ancient West Chihuahua Tour – April 2009 Day 1 On April 15th, we left Deming, NM in a chartered bus for Columbus, a border town. Once across the border with luggage and passport in hand, we waited for our Mexican bus driven by Jesus Erives and our guide Prof. Luis Urias to arrive. They eventually found us in the Pink Store where we were offered ‘coffee on the house’, and toilets (a precious commodity throughout the trip). On the way to Nuevo Casas Grandes, we met Ben Brown, our guide for the next four days. Day 2 by Vicky Coe – Thursday, April 16 We had a tour of Casas Grandes, ruins of the prehispanic city of the Paquimé culture, guided by archeologist Dr. Roy B. Brown, as well as our tour guide Luis Urías. Paquimé is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its peak development was in the 13th and 14th centuries, and by 1400 degeneration had started and was abandoned. It includes over 2000 rooms, a ball court, observatory that aligns with the solstices and equinoxes, a crypt (where human remains were found in large pots, and rooms across from the crypt with magnificent offerings), a reservoir with a canal from a spring, with a filtration area and canals that delivered water to rooms. We also saw cages for scarlet macaws and pens for turkeys. When the Spanish found it they described it as white, with some colors, and 6 or 7 stories high. We saw pit houses at the site, possibly from 500 BC and a distillery from the 1100’s. We visited the museum at the site and saw beautiful pottery and many shells found at the site. (The presence and knowledge of Ben Brown added so much to our understanding, or as much as is possible, since as Ben likes to says, “everything is a guess –the evidence doesn’t support this…” Ed).
Paquimé Macaw pens at Paquime Day 3 by Dennis & Peggy - Friday, April 17 Mata OrtizOn we made our way to Mata Ortiz located some 20 miles south of Casas Grandes, a world famous pottery village. This small dusty town is home to some of the world's finest ceramic artists. The ceramic revolution began in the early 1970's with one man, Juan Quezada. Juan was always curious about the pre-historic vessels that archaeologists were unearthing in the area. He would take long walks in the nearby hills and mountains and marveled at the designs painted on the potsherds he found on the ground. He spent a good many years trying to discover exactly how the pre-historic Casas Grandes people made these wonderful creations. Juan, through trial and error, discovered the techniques to create these fine vessels. Juan soon garnered fame the world over and is considered a master artist. He taught some of his family members his craft and they in turn taught others in the village. Other people in Mata Ortiz independently taught themselves to create wonderful pottery in many different styles. Now there are over 600 potters in the village. There are several galleries in Mata Ortiz that sell pottery. We walked the streets of Mata Ortiz and purchased pots directly from artists in their own homes. We also met Diana Acosta a local guide, interpreter, potter, who guides groups and individuals through the pottery world of Mata Ortiz. Old Town Casas GrandesAfter lunch we made our way to a warehouse in Old Town. Here we met with Mr. and Mrs. Armando, owners of “ADesign” who own a rock shop in Hotel Casas Grandes Sierra and one in Columbus New Mexico. We were introduced to the world of lapidary (the word means "concerned with stones") whereby an artisan forms stone, mineral, gemstones, and other suitably durable materials into decorative items such as cameos, cabochons, and faceted designs. There are three broad categories of lapidary arts. These are the procedures of tumbling, cabochon cutting, and faceting. Most of this work is done using motorized equipment and resin or metal bonded diamond tooling in successively decreasing particle sizes until a polish is achieved. The final polish will often use a different medium, such as tin oxide, glasitite or cerium(IV) oxide. Mr. Armando and staff shut down their operation to show us the process from cutting a rock slab into a rough stone and then through the various stages of grinding and polishing to the setting of the cabochon as the final product. We were able to purchase some beautiful items, discuss and explore the vast array of stones in their collection and learn some of the history of the family and mining in this area. (Needles to say Peggy and Dennis where hard to extract, but time was well spend, Ben enjoyed a ‘hands–on’ from Beth while waiting; Ed).
In the rock shop
Beth and Ben Day 4 by Joe
Griffith - Saturday, April 18th
Steep Trail to Serpent's Cave
Serpent's Cave
Except for a brief visit to a restored Colonial church and its adjacent museum of paintings, this day would be devoted to just traveling and scenery, unless one was also interested in geology, landforms, and ecology of western Chihuahua. After breakfast at the Hotel Casa Grande Sierra in Madera and saying “goodbye” to Ben Brown, we drove southeast thru a pine forest for about 15 minutes and then entered onto El Llano (Llano or llanura is a geographic plain) Temósachi, a highland Chihuahua Grassland. We were still in the geologic Basin and Range Province that we had been in since heading south from Albuquerque. After the Pacific Plate subduction and resultant volcanoes decreased about 20 million years ago (mya), much of present southwestern United States and northern Mexico (now the geologic Basin and Range Province) was under tension because the southern Pacific Coast was moving west relative to the rest of North America. As a result, many blocks of flatlands dropped down (grabens) and adjacent areas stayed at the same level or even lifted up (horsts), depending on the angle of the faults. El Llano Temósachi is a down-dropped graben; Sierra la Montosa to its east and Sierra Papigochi to its west are up-lifted horsts. Geologists estimate that the maximum rate of extension was about 8–10 mya. Grabens dropped down about one-half mile in New Mexico and up to one mile in southern Chihuahua. Some residual tension still exists; a strong earthquake shook the region in 1887. Faults, and the resultant narrow mountain ranges, trend in the north or northwest direction. We had crossed many of those faults, but they are hidden because they are covered by debris from adjacent mountains. Those mountain ranges are often referred to as “Sky Islands” because of their isolation from each other. Many of the rivers in Estado Chihuahua, like the Río Casas Grandes, do not drain to oceans, but terminate in lagunas (lakes) or bolsones (depressions). El Llano Tomósachi has extensive cattle grazing grasslands and dry land wheat farms; they are the economic base for the town of Temósachi and nearby villages. All of the grasslands were dry; it had not rained since mid-September. Temósachi was the first town we went thru that has the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) place name suffix of “–chi”. Most of the fields were in good shape, but some were severely overgrazed and had become unproductive rock pavements. Continuing south, we went closer to the Río Papigochi and entered a Chihuahua Savanna of grasslands with scattered trees. Irrigated agricultural fields and apple orchards are common around Matachi, the next town we passed thru. Smudge pots in those orchards caused a haze as we drove near Matachi. We crossed the Río Papigochi at the village of Santo Tomás and then stopped in the town of Vincente Guerrero. It is by the Río Papigochi and is surrounded by green meadows, irrigated fields, and orchards. Jesús parked our bus by the plaza. We then visited the local church and walked around to exercise our legs; we had been on the bus for about 1½ hours. Weather was pleasant– clear blue skies, cool but quite comfortable temperatures, and only gentle winds. In the Presidencia building by the plaza, a man was painting a mural on the back wall by a staircase. We stayed in town only a short time and then continued south toward our destination, the Creel and Barranca de Cobre (Copper Canyon) area. The roads we traveled this day were in very good condition, as were all other main roads during our trip. South of Vincente Guerrero we drove thru
another high plateau with numerous apple orchards and then dry grazing
grasslands and dry land wheat fields. About a half hour after leaving Vincente
Guerrero, we left the Basin and Range Province and entered the Sierra Madre
Occidental Province, an area of huge barrancas (deep gorges or
cliff-sided canyons), smaller dry side canyons, extensive pine forests, and
occasional meadows. The Sierra Tarahumara Zone in the Province has shallow soils
(except in some meadows) lying on widespread volcanic rocks, mainly rhyolite.
The first town after we entered Sierra Tarahumara was San Juanito, a grubby lumber town that has grown much in the last few decades, but unlike Creel, has not improved. It is said to be the coldest town in Estado Chihuahua. The origin of the Río Conchos, which supplies most of the water for the lower Rio Grande, is at San Juanito. Several times we crossed railroad tracks of El Chepe, the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico, that runs from Chihuahua city to Los Mochis on the Pacific coast. We made a short pit stop at a Pemex station in Bocoyna, which is about half way between San Juanito and Creel. The distance from Madera to Creel is 183 km or 114 miles. The clutch mechanism on the bus failed as we entered Creel and Jesús parked the bus soon afterwards. The town was named for Enrique Creel, a governor of Estado Chihuahua and son of an U.S. ambassador to Mexico. An American citizen was governor of a Mexican state! We left our bus, crossed railroad tracks, walked by the plaza, and entered the Restaurant Veronica on the main street for a delicious lunch of shrimp in tomato sauce. Here we our next guide Gustavo Lozano was waiting for us as prearranged by Luis Urias. In the spring of 1989 the Chihuahua government began paving roads in Creel and local businesses renovated existent buildings and built many new ones. The town has improved very much since the 1980’s. The successful goal was to increase tourism, especially for people who stay in the area for a few days rather than just passing thru on a train. Unfortunately we arrived too late (after 1:00 pm) on a Sunday afternoon to visit the Casa del Artesano or the two museums by the plaza. While we were there, the city appeared calm and violence-free and no armed soldiers were patrolling the streets. However, on August 16 of last year 13 people, including a baby, were killed in a drug-related massacre in Creel. After lunch two vans from a local tour agency took us southeast thru pine forests and open meadows and past Lago Arereko to a large sloping meadow in the Valle Cusárare (“eagle’s nest” in the Rarámuri language). Our destination was a restored Colonial church, Los Santos Cinco Señores de Cusárare, founded by Jesuits in 1752. The church was in a state of extreme disrepair until recently: the bell tower had fallen down, plaster was peeling off the walls, and the interior was dark and dreary. In the year 2000 repairs on the church began and its interior walls were painted white with brown patterns. It is now much more impressive. At the same time a small museum was built next to the church to display large religious paintings collected from other churches in the vicinity. 18th and early 19th century artists living in Nueva España (now México) painted figures in the style current at that time in Spain. The paintings are skillfully exhibited in three well-lit rooms, but several of our group felt that the subjects of the paintings were dark and dreary. The museum has two shops and Rarámuris have built small stalls near the church in order to directly sell their handicrafts to tourists. On the way back thru a dense forest to Creel we stopped briefly at Lago Arereko so that some of us could take photos of the small but scenic embalse (reservoir) surrounded by short cliffs and green pine forests. When we arrived back in Creel, Jesús had repaired the bus and we could continue south on the road that winds its way thru gentle forested hills toward our hotel above the village of Areponápuchi, which is the first village south of the well-known railroad stop, overlook, and Posada Barrancas hotel at Divisadero. We stayed two nights at Hotel Mansion Tarahumara, “El Castillo”. It is named “The Castle” because of stone construction and large red turrets on top of some of the buildings. The hotel complex has two rows of rooms, separate bungalows scattered about the hillside, a central restaurant and office, a small store, a conference center, and a higher building with 17 rooms and small restaurant at the very edge of the cliff overlooking upper Barranca de Urique. The upper gorge is about 5800 feet deep where we stayed. The hotel is at an elevation of about 7000 feet and the air becomes quite chilly at night. Our rooms had rustic furnishings and log panels, but with modern features; it was very comfortable. Gustavo Lozano, an excellent guide, very knowledgeable about archeological sites, geology, plants, and birds of the area, would be our guide the following day. At 7:45 PM we received a welcoming party with margaritas, watched the sunset, and then enjoyed a “Mexican plate” dinner with a sampling of different local foods. Three books will help one understand this area: The Copper Canyon Companion by California Native; Moon Handbook, Northern Mexico, 2nd edition by Joe Cummings (new copies are extremely expensive, over $100; used copies are $25); and for a classic fictional story of the area, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven (one of the few books by that author that is not extremely depressing). Day 6 by Will Coe - April 20 at El Divisadero We stayed last night at the Hotel Mansión Tarahumara (“El Castillo”), and this morning a number of us walked up above the hotel to the rim of Copper Canyon to see the sunrise. After breakfast, and before walking on the canyon rim, we were treated to native Tarahumara dancers performing their deer, goat, and donkey dances, after which they demonstrated men’s and women’s races. (Gustavo speaks a little Raramuri and thus befriended some of the locals. He would also take some clothes we brought to a remote village. Ed) As we walked along the rim we had ample opportunity to buy baskets, pots, carvings, etc. from native vendors before driving to a picnic site owned by the hotel for lunch.
In the afternoon we drove to a primary Tarahumara boarding school at Mogótabo for indigenous children and delivered some school supplies we had brought. Unfortunately the school was not in session that week, so we left the supplies with the caretakers. (We visited a young girls’ dormitory; some of us were shocked by the bare bones appearance. Ed) Returning to the hotel, we walked to the rim and hiked down a path to what the locals call “Las Cuevas” – several houses built into a cave partway down the canyon wall. It houses members of an extended family living much as their ancestors did. Gustavo described such a mini village as a “ranchería.”
Dinner followed watching the sunset, again with margaritas, etc. on the hotel porch. During dinner the singer, who the night before had declined Vicki Coe’s request to sing “La Paloma” because he wasn’t sure how it went, had obviously boned up; he serenaded Vicki (and the rest of us) with a fantastic rendition. After dinner several of us braved the chilly wind to walk up to the rim to view the meteor shower. We saw only a couple of falling stars (but we did see the fire tended at La Cuevas below and could imagine how the canyon might have looked at night and how they communicated in earlier times. Ed) Day 7 by R. Gail Schulz - April 21This morning we left Areponapuchi at Barranca de Cobre with memories of spectacular canyon views, colorful Tarahumara clothing, beautiful baskets, bark carvings, violettas and pretty crystals offered by young boys with hopeful smiles. Our bags were heavier with many of the treasures we purchased to remind us of this special place and people. Our destination is the Hotel Melina in Guachochi. Guachochi is a large Tarahumara mission pueblo located on the northern edge of Barranca de Sinforosa. Our route takes us through more of the beautiful, rugged mountains and canyons of the Sierra Tarahumara, which is one of the highest and most rugged areas of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The Sierra Tarahumara is an approximately 26,000 square mile area which is the traditional home of over 62,000 Tarahumara. The term “Copper Canyon” refers to a large network of canyons cut by a number of rivers. At least four of these canyons are over 5,900 feet deep, which is deeper than our familiar Grand Canyon which reaches a depth of approximately 4650 feet. Barranca de Sinforosa is the second deepest of these canyon systems at approximately 6,000 feet deep. This canyon system draws its name from a ranch, no longer operating, in the bottom of the canyons near the confluence of the Guachochi and Verde rivers in the east end of the canyon. Our drive of several hours through the mountains and canyons to reach Guachochi reveals a new and stunning vista at each of the many, many curves. We look out one side of the bus and then the other trying to capture all the views of these beautiful canyons. We try to snap photos from the bus windows, shooting between the trees near the road. After several hours of this constant visual stimulation, we arrive in Guachochi just as a large high school discharges waves of students in their school uniforms. As we drive farther into Guachochi, we realize this is a very large town. We arrive at our hotel for a delicious mid-afternoon lunch. After a brief rest we gather in two vans to drive to Sinforosa Canyon to see the sunset paint the canyon walls. We endure a rough ride on a road reportedly graded smooth in preparation for paving in the very near future. It is definitely not in such an optimistic state of preparation for pavement! We soon forget about the rough ride when we walk to the large, well-maintained overlook with views of Sinforosa Canyon unfolding to the east and south. For the next hour and a half we move from one point to another to drink in the beauty of the canyon and the changing light playing across the canyon, highlighting one feature after another. The canyons are laced with tantalizing trails descending steeply to the rivers at the bottom. We imagine what it would be like to hike them, even if just for a short distance. Then we start to comprehend the incredible steepness of the trails and decide ascending them might not be as much fun. We realize we would need guides, much conditioning and several days in order to attempt hiking in this rugged, remote land. The sunset brings out many colors all across the canyon walls and the deepening shadows highlight different features. Smoke from several distant fires drifts through the canyons and storm clouds build in the eastern sky. Lightning occasionally flashes in the distance. Suddenly through binoculars, after many minutes of enjoying the canyon, someone sights buildings far below on a bench more than halfway down to the river. More binoculars are quickly trained on the area as cries of “where, where?” resound. We are able to pick out a wall enclosing several buildings. We see faint trails down to this compound, which our guide Luis Urias tells us is called a rancheria. We search this area more carefully and two smaller rancherias come into focus as well as farming fields and more trails. We trace the trails with our binoculars as far as we can until they disappear on their relentlessly steep ascension to the far away rim of the canyon opposite our viewpoint. We scan the surrounding country and wonder how in this vast, rugged, roadless country people make their way to these trail heads to begin the long descent to their seasonal homes. This gives us a new appreciation for the stamina and determination of the Tarahumara people and for the terrain traversed by their legendary runners. Later in reading more about the Tarahumara, we learn that many settlements are seasonal and people live in caves or cabins near the canyon rims in the summer to avoid the subtropical heat along the rivers in the canyon bottoms. Many people move to the canyon bottoms and lowland houses in the winter to escape more severe weather on the canyon rims. Locations with a steady stream nearby are preferred for access to the water vital to all life. Crops are raised from canyon bottoms at around 1,000 feet elevation to as high as around 9,000 feet. Different agricultural techniques are used to raise corn, the staple crop, in several principal strains that include white, yellow, blue and red. Potatoes, squash, beans, peaches and apples are also cultivated. Some Tarahumara raise goats, sheep, pigs and cattle to supplement their lifestyle as well as harvesting some fish and small game. Diets however consist mostly of legumes, grains and vegetable. As the light continues to fade and shadows deepen into darkness, we reluctantly turn to leave this place of incredible timelessness, wilderness and rugged beauty to return to Guachochi for the night. We each take with us a special meaning or memory from this spectacular sunset over hauntingly beautiful Barranca de Sinforosa and feel our lives are richer for having experienced it. Sinforosa Canyon Day 8 by Eliane Viner the Ed. - April 22 After our usual 8AM ish departure, a brief stop in Balleza, the border of Terahumara-Tepehuan and the first Spanish town in Chihuahua, we arrived in Parral for another appropriately late lunch. Jesus did some fancy maneuvering to get us to our hotel. After a brief rest we explored parts of the town – the culture shock between the quiet, serene country of the day before and this bustling mining town was palpable. The fact that the Alvarado Palace, the Pancho Villa Museums as well as the recommended restaurant were closed, added to our sense of heaviness. Days 9 and 10 – Left Hotel Adriana (no regrets here); enjoyed a lengthy stop at the Hacienda Bustillos, a huge 19th C. estate replete with gardens, orchards and an ornate chapel (photo below). We got to see the smudge pots close up. We then drove through rich Mennonite farm country to Cuidad Cuauhtémoc and settled into our quarters at El Granero, a converted dairy barn. The young owners did a nice job with the construction and with our meals. The serenading coyotes and guard dogs provided a rural back drop to our night’s ‘rest’. The next morning required an early departure. As we drove north we ate our box lunches on the bus while Jesus Erives kept the bus rolling to get us back to Palomas in order to cross the border in time to catch the local bus back to Deming. Luis walked us to the border, saying one more goodbye.
Throughout our trip Luis offered us running commentaries and answered our questions as they formulated. As an anthropologist, his insights and explanations made our experience so rich. Here is what he wrote after our trip: ¡Warú sukuira! ¡Saludos, amigos! I hope that all of you did get back home happy and safe. I want to thank all of you for your patience, understanding and endurance while traveling around the Ancient West Chihuahua. It was a very intense tour, having to overcome many unexpected and surprising situations and conditions in an area of Mexico that is still somehow aside of modern worlds. But I hope also that you found the sights and experiences revealing, full of new and different realities, with many thought inspiring discoveries, suggestions and exciting emotions, mostly in what to me is still the continuation of all the lives of peoples, plants, animals, rocks, rivers and winds, that formed the past worlds that we can only imagine by looking at archaeological remains and their environments. So, thanks again for your kindness and appreciation. I really enjoyed bringing you into the middle of those scenes, feeling and living, all together, the marvelous environment of old cultures, as in a majestic huge symphony of Nature and humanity. I hope you now have a better idea of this extensive land that formed the whole intricate woven blanket covering all the Indian territory, from Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and many other places in the North, and your own area of Durango, to the lake where geese, ducks, cranes and many other birds still come and go, where they later build the Hacienda de Bustillos, and to the magnificent Sinforosa Canyon. I’m sure that you are now able to travel and roam more freely and securely in this country, as your own home, as it was the home of many different peoples in the past, with different languages, ideas, and ways of living that are interesting, amusing, enlightening, that can give us new ideas and propositions to live better lives; so that a few centuries from now, other people will wonder about us and our forms of being happy and contributing in our ways to the rich evolution of life. Just as for contemporary Tarahumara peoples, no matter what, we have to find ways to be content every day, enjoying each other, while supporting life with our production of what is possible. Gara juku! That all’ll be good! It is good! Luis Urias Hermosillo From John and Eliane – We left with 17 and returned with the same number but not necessarily the same 17; some of us have changed a little after learning so much about our neighbors to the south. We received warm reports from the guides and from the guided- interesting how we can learn from each other.
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