Monday, May 30, 2005
I would like to ask you to close your eyes and imagine for a minute the following scenario happening in a civilized country (no, not Mexico, not for several decades at least). You are sitting in a taxi going to a business meeting. As always the traffic is a nightmare, a reassuring sight otherwise you would have to find another subject to bitch about life in a megalopolis. A black Mercedes Benz 500SEL overtakes your car on the right. You catch a glimpse of a girl with extra-dyed blonde braids. Probably some pop star in a hurry for her daily hair rescue session?
Your driver sets about to incorporate into the main flow of traffic crawling at snail’s pace on the adjacent highway. All the sudden, another black car with a nasty aggressive look appears out of nowhere and instead of getting in line like all the other drivers decides to force entry in front of your taxi. Quite naturally, your driver pulls ahead and prevents this from happening. You have been in that line for quite a while now and since Louis XVI had his neck shaved by Dr. Guillotin in the late 18th century, privileges have been abolished. Or so you think!
A loud thud brings you back to reality: the driver of the black car is banging your right door with his fist. “Give me a chance” he screams. At that precise moment you notice what should have been obvious from the shining look of intelligence of that man, his cheap suit and his no less glimmering Ray Bans – you’re dealing with the cream of Mexican society, a body guard and his partner in crime sitting next to him. Further ahead the black Mercedes stands still, the engine humming, waiting for the escort to open a way into the solid belt of steel of peak-time traffic.
Blame your driver’s testosterones or natural Latin macho pride, but the taxi doesn’t obey the repeated injunctions and peacefully gains a respectable ten yards in the direction of the highway. You have lost sight of the would-be Kevin Costner’s and are back to your routine thoughts involving the ever so important non-events of daily life. BANG! A loud, blunt, noise crashes in your ears – the body guard’s team-mate has whacked with all his simian strength the grip of his pistol on the trunk of your car, making a serious dent in the metal. He’s now walking back to his car, still as black as the obituary to his lost self-control.
At that instant many possibilities present themselves to your feverish mind, including stepping out and asking that primitive creature what on earth possessed him to do something so damned silly?! Then your knowledge of Mexico kicks-in – he has a gun, he is probably an ex-cop of the hated “Policia Judicial” with a life of lawlessness behind him, he wouldn’t hesitate a second to apply the same treatment to your teeth that he did to the taxi’s trunk and would most likely go unpunished and proud of his deed. Who knows, the diva in the Mercedes might even give him a raise for his so valiantly protecting her precious life – and allowing her to get on time to have her nails varnished!
Morale of the story: in Mexico the rules of the game are different, if you see two idiots with dark glasses hugging the rear tires of a luxury car, don’t try to play with their peanut-sized brains, just smile and let them have their moment of glory – it will surely shine as a beacon in their lives of misery. You’ll fly out of there one day, they never will.
Posted by Serge @ 08:38 PM MEX [Link]
Saturday, May 14, 2005
“I’m tired of Mexican beaches! I can’t stand Acapulco’s heat, Cancun’s American invasion and Huatulco’s boredom anymore: I need something new!” Armed with that groundbreaking conclusion I decided to look for a different sort of weekend break destination and came across Copper Canyon in the state of Chihuahua. Larger than its US counterpart the Grand Canyon, the Mexican Copper Canyon boasts a maximum depth of 1870 meters and over 50 kilometers in length. With hundreds of natural wonders, including a welcome change of air, it sounded like the perfect holiday destination.
From Mexico City the only reasonable travel option is to take a flight to Chihuahua. Three main airlines compete on that route: Aeromexico, Aerocalifornia and Lineas Aereas Azteca. Normally Aerocalifornia is the cheaper option (as low as Pesos $2000 return) if you don’t mind sitting in a DC-9 straight out of an 80’s movie. However, my last minute booking meant paying a hefty premium (Pesos $4000) and Aeromexico won the day with the best arrival and departure times. I couldn’t help wincing at the fact that my Pesos $4000 could have bought me a nice Aerolineas Argentinas return flight to Lima in Peru – why are domestic tickets in Mexico so darn expensive?
Landing in Chihuahua the culture shock is rather strong considering that I hadn’t left Mexico: the airport is tiny, modern and clean; people speak Spanish with a distinctive accent and eat burritos more eagerly than tacos; girls are taller and rather good looking by Mexican standards; the desert surrounds the city and the dry atmosphere is almost palpable. I stayed in the hotel Sicomoro and found it adequate for the price of Pesos $850 I paid, though located in an area devoid of decent restaurants, tourist attractions or shopping options. The hotel Westin Soberano is quite probably a better option if you can afford to pay a little bit more.
For most tourists Chihuahua is hardly more than a launch pad to the Sierra Tarahumara, unless you are fascinated by the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa. Many tourist guides sing the praise of the Ferrocarril Chihuahua Pacifico (aka CHEPE) that runs from Chihuahua to Los Mochis via Copper Canyon. Since I wanted to see more than glimpses of the scenery I opted against spending nearly Pesos $1200 on the CHEPE and instead took an Estrella Blanca bus service to Creel for only Pesos $180. Estrella Blanca buses depart every hour from Chihuahua and are a more flexible transportation option than the train. Their competitor Autotransportes del Noroeste (also in Chihuahua’s main bus station) is a good alternative.
The bus ride to La Junta was uneventful, large cattle ranches alternating with Mennonite farms producing a famous cheese (which I find rather bland compared to French or Swiss cheeses). In La Junta the bus driver unceremoniously dumped all the passengers bound for Creel, using as pretext a steering wheel problem. La Junta is the middle of nowhere, the perfect place to wait 3 hours until the next bus service arrives: that I didn’t die of boredom is still a surprise to me. As icing on the cake the inbound Estrella Blanca bus was full to the brim and I had to endure a 2-hour journey standing up in the middle of the central corridor, next to someone who obviously had never seen the color of soap in his life or read the manual of the bath tub!
With a sigh of relief I finally arrived in Creel where the van from the hotel Villa Mexicana was still waiting for me despite the tremendous delay. Located South of the village of Creel, Villa Mexicana is not ideally located and you must be prepared to walk 15-20 minutes to reach the restaurants, bus stops, souvenir shops, etc. Nevertheless, the log cabins are lovely and come with a divine smell of pinewood. For Pesos $750 to $950 (plus tax) they are not only much bigger than the rooms of the Best Western “The Lodge at Creel” hotel, they also give you some privacy and the pleasure to wake up with the sound of the bells of the cows performing a natural lawn-mowing of the campground around the cabins.
Creel’s social life revolves around the central avenue Lopez Mateos where the locals just can’t resist slowly driving back and forth to show off their pickup trucks while their stereos blurt out ranchera music tunes. Welcome to rural Mexico! Creel has a distinctive frontier town charm that reminded me of Patagonian villages. There are many restaurants in Creel but trust the tourist guides and local advice – try out Restaurante Veronica on Lopez Mateos. The food is plentiful, tasty and cheap.
In the next installment of this Copper Canyon post I will delve into the tourist activities available from Creel, an incredible array of hikes, bicycle rides, tours amidst mysterious Tarahumara Indians and some of the most majestic scenery anywhere in North America. Stay tuned.
