Mexico was the second foreign country, and first truly foreign place, that I ever entered; childhood trips from Detroit to Toronto were too tame to count. When I left for college at the University of Arizona in Tucson, my mother specifically said, "Now I don't want you going down to Mexico with your friends!" So of course, my first real excursion after I got settled in was to Nogales, Mexico to a bullfight. Though the animal cruelty was difficult to stomach, I was thrilled by the color, the spectacle, the raw emotion of the country. In those days you could stroll across the border, showing no papers at all... and it's a good thing that we were afoot, because we were young, dumb and in love with tequila, lime, salt and each other.
Last week a considerably older but only slightly wiser group (Jim, Sara, Dick and I) took a spontaneous journey to central Mexico - destination was Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre), home to the Tarahumara Indian tribe and some of the most awe-inspiring scenery in the country. We threw clothes, hiking boots, board games, medication and snacks into the back of Jim's red truck and we were off - down Mexico's Highway 15 to San Carlos, where we arrived in mid-afternoon for beachcombing, beers and mariscos. The next, slightly longer, day's drive took us to El Fuerte, a blessedly unspoiled colonial town that is a jumping off point for the Chepe (Chihuahua Pacific Railroad) - the scenic railway to Barranca del Cobre Parque Nacional, 405 miles of bridges and tunnels through breathtaking canyons.
Our hotel, the Rio Vista, provided us with one of those serendipitous experiences that only happens on a really great trip. As we arrived at the hotel - hungry, cranky, and still vibrating slightly from the road - we walked out onto a bouganvillea-covered balcony set with a table for four overlooking the river, shining golden in the late afternoon light. Our host, Nacho, said that if it was OK with us he could serve us dinner - but all he had was tortilla soup, grilled lagostines and white wine. Oh, no, really, we couldn't... it was magical.
The next morning we hopped the train for Copper Canyon, drinking margaritas and playing cards while enjoying the panoramic canyon views. Home was a rustic cabin in Creel, where we engaged a guide for a trip down into the canyon to spend some time with the Tarahumara. A handsome and self-sufficient people, they have refused to leave their homelands or become Catholics, which I find admirable. They raise crops and cattle down in the canyonlands, and sell their baskets and pottery to the hardy tourists who pass through. They live in caves and cook over open fires, they worship the sun and the moon, and they're among the most serene people we've met.
Back in El Fuerte a few days later, we took a raft trip to view 200-year-old trees full of nesting egrets, cranes and herons; then we hiked into the jungle to view petroglyphs with ancient drawings of sacred coyotes and jaguars. A world apart from the image of Mexican narco-traffickers and gangsters portrayed in the American media...
As always, the memories that linger longest are of the people who treated us so kindly and patiently - their warmth and genuine sweetness will carry us through to the next adventure. We will be moving into our new home on Monday, so in the immediate future, our adventures will be of the domestic type!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Mexico Lindo
It's sad that most Americans know Mexico from visits to border towns or tourist beaches... the interior of the country, rural Mexico, is full of quiet villages that are reminiscent of idyllic rural areas anywhere. Of course, they're not as aesthetically pleasing as the small villages in France - few places are - but they're similar in so many ways - the roses, the kitchen gardens, the impeccably maintained cottages, the healthy animals, the smiling children... but with a vibrance and charm all their own.
We drove last Friday from Bisbee with our friends Jim and Sara, following our other friends Karen and Adam on their motorcycle (they're obviously younger and braver than the 4 of us)to Banamichi, a Mexican village 135 miles south of the border. After a few wrong turns and misbegotten "short cuts", we arrived at the Hotel Los Arcos in the late afternoon. The horrors of the road were soon forgotten after a few cold Mexican beers and a taste of bacanora, the local agave brew, sipped in the flower-filled courtyard on a balmy, velvety evening.
And then - best of all - our hosts, Tom and Lynne, sent us to the tacqueria around the corner, which has no name...it's just Martin's place. Since it was Dick's birthday, we filed into Martin's with a bag of beer and ice. He looked up fearfully when we entered - (Ah, chingada! Seis gringos!) but threw several large slabs of marinated meat on the glowing charcoal grill. While we drank our first round, he grilled it, chopped it (loudly - on the chopping block by the grill) and put the resulting manna from heaven on homemade tortillas, which the waitress brought to our table... along with watercress, cucumbers, sweet onions, salsa fresca and a creamy avocado-green chili sauce. Oh, the bliss! Oh, the happy groans from the gringos as we stuffed ourselves... and all for the magnificent sum of $5 per person.
Yes, life was good - and got even better the next morning as we sat in the plaza on white wrought iron benches, by the gazebo and the 17th century church, watching as village life went on around us. In the early morning light, housewives stood sweeping their already gleaming porches. Handsome vaqueros on horseback rode out to herd their cattle, little girls rode by on bicycles, smiling young men in ball caps drove by in trucks, old ladies in black promenaded around the square, and the handsome old men sat in the shade just like us. And every one of them smiled and waved and welcomed us to their beautiful town.
Why we left I don't know - but we drove way too far to Magdalena del Kino, where we saw the reliquary (code for skeleton) of Father Kino and bought milagros. Milagros (means "miracle") are silver charms of various body parts - you can buy arms, legs, breasts, heads - that you buy if you have an ailment in particular part of your body - if you use the milagro charm and pray hard enough, you'll be healed. I was ambivalent about the Father Kino thing - he was, after all, the leader of the rapacious Spaniards who plundered Mexico and forced Catholocism on these handsome indigenous people. But the sun was shining, and families wandered the park that sheltered the reliquary in a festive mood, buying balloons and cotton candy - history forgotten in the happy present.
We were not ready to leave on Sunday, but leave we did. We entertained ourselves on the way home by counting the roadside shrines, usually created to memorialize someone who died in a traffic accident on that particular spot on the road... but often just to give thanks for some everyday miracle. We're at 94 shrines and counting...
The result of all this fun is that we're going back! We're leaving on Wednesday for Copper Canyon Parque Nacional... taking the train through the canyon and hiking through colonial villages. So we'll file our next post when we return. Hasta luego!
We drove last Friday from Bisbee with our friends Jim and Sara, following our other friends Karen and Adam on their motorcycle (they're obviously younger and braver than the 4 of us)to Banamichi, a Mexican village 135 miles south of the border. After a few wrong turns and misbegotten "short cuts", we arrived at the Hotel Los Arcos in the late afternoon. The horrors of the road were soon forgotten after a few cold Mexican beers and a taste of bacanora, the local agave brew, sipped in the flower-filled courtyard on a balmy, velvety evening.
And then - best of all - our hosts, Tom and Lynne, sent us to the tacqueria around the corner, which has no name...it's just Martin's place. Since it was Dick's birthday, we filed into Martin's with a bag of beer and ice. He looked up fearfully when we entered - (Ah, chingada! Seis gringos!) but threw several large slabs of marinated meat on the glowing charcoal grill. While we drank our first round, he grilled it, chopped it (loudly - on the chopping block by the grill) and put the resulting manna from heaven on homemade tortillas, which the waitress brought to our table... along with watercress, cucumbers, sweet onions, salsa fresca and a creamy avocado-green chili sauce. Oh, the bliss! Oh, the happy groans from the gringos as we stuffed ourselves... and all for the magnificent sum of $5 per person.
Yes, life was good - and got even better the next morning as we sat in the plaza on white wrought iron benches, by the gazebo and the 17th century church, watching as village life went on around us. In the early morning light, housewives stood sweeping their already gleaming porches. Handsome vaqueros on horseback rode out to herd their cattle, little girls rode by on bicycles, smiling young men in ball caps drove by in trucks, old ladies in black promenaded around the square, and the handsome old men sat in the shade just like us. And every one of them smiled and waved and welcomed us to their beautiful town.
Why we left I don't know - but we drove way too far to Magdalena del Kino, where we saw the reliquary (code for skeleton) of Father Kino and bought milagros. Milagros (means "miracle") are silver charms of various body parts - you can buy arms, legs, breasts, heads - that you buy if you have an ailment in particular part of your body - if you use the milagro charm and pray hard enough, you'll be healed. I was ambivalent about the Father Kino thing - he was, after all, the leader of the rapacious Spaniards who plundered Mexico and forced Catholocism on these handsome indigenous people. But the sun was shining, and families wandered the park that sheltered the reliquary in a festive mood, buying balloons and cotton candy - history forgotten in the happy present.
We were not ready to leave on Sunday, but leave we did. We entertained ourselves on the way home by counting the roadside shrines, usually created to memorialize someone who died in a traffic accident on that particular spot on the road... but often just to give thanks for some everyday miracle. We're at 94 shrines and counting...
The result of all this fun is that we're going back! We're leaving on Wednesday for Copper Canyon Parque Nacional... taking the train through the canyon and hiking through colonial villages. So we'll file our next post when we return. Hasta luego!
Monday, April 5, 2010
The end of the rainbow?
You know what they say - "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"... and we're proving that daily with our adventures. We've arrived in Bisbee, Arizona, and are staying with our friends, Jim and Sarah - and though there are jobs pending in Boston, Georgia and Florida, we've decided to take a stand here in this wacky, funky, historic former copper mining town and artist's colony. We're assuming, of course, that once we finally move here, something else will come up... but meanwhile we'd like to see if we can supplement our retirement income with photography and writing - it's a dream for us, and I'm thinking that you're never too old or broke to follow your bliss!
Bisbee is in Southern Arizona, almost to the Mexico border, at 5,000 feet in elevation. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the financial backers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine. During World War I, demand for copper made Bisbee a boom town, and in 1929, the county seat was moved here from Tombstone (home of the famous OK Corral!) Bisbee is still the county seat of Cochise County... Is anybody out there old enough to remember the TV series "Sheriff of Cochise"? That was one of my favorite programs as a child (when my life's ambition was to be a cowgirl - go figure) and it was filmed right here in Bisbee.
Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the mines in the 70's, but not before developing Bisbee as a company town. Thanks to P-D there are some nice parks and public areas in Bisbee, in addition to the historic downtown area, which is lined with galleries, shops and restaurants, addition to the wonderful public Library and minor league baseball field.
Bisbee is currently best-known as a tourist attraction and a community of artists and eccentrics, with a year-round climate that's probably the best in Arizona - not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter. And of course, there's the famous Bisbee Blue turquoise, one of the more palatable byproducts of copper mining.
We found a great rental house in which to enjoy our experiment - roomy, completely renovated by two gay guys (which is always good)...room for a vegetable garden, and tennis courts a block away - what more could we ask for? We move in on May 1, so as they used to say on "Sheriff of Cochise" - stay tuned for the next exciting episode! Happy Trails...
Bisbee is in Southern Arizona, almost to the Mexico border, at 5,000 feet in elevation. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the financial backers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine. During World War I, demand for copper made Bisbee a boom town, and in 1929, the county seat was moved here from Tombstone (home of the famous OK Corral!) Bisbee is still the county seat of Cochise County... Is anybody out there old enough to remember the TV series "Sheriff of Cochise"? That was one of my favorite programs as a child (when my life's ambition was to be a cowgirl - go figure) and it was filmed right here in Bisbee.
Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the mines in the 70's, but not before developing Bisbee as a company town. Thanks to P-D there are some nice parks and public areas in Bisbee, in addition to the historic downtown area, which is lined with galleries, shops and restaurants, addition to the wonderful public Library and minor league baseball field.
Bisbee is currently best-known as a tourist attraction and a community of artists and eccentrics, with a year-round climate that's probably the best in Arizona - not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter. And of course, there's the famous Bisbee Blue turquoise, one of the more palatable byproducts of copper mining.
We found a great rental house in which to enjoy our experiment - roomy, completely renovated by two gay guys (which is always good)...room for a vegetable garden, and tennis courts a block away - what more could we ask for? We move in on May 1, so as they used to say on "Sheriff of Cochise" - stay tuned for the next exciting episode! Happy Trails...
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