Posada Barranca, at the Heart of Copper Canyon

We boarded the train at 11.20 AM and soon the train was winding around mountain country, passing through deep cuts and perhaps a dozen tunnels.   At one point the track made a complete loop in order to climb a steep gradient. This was conifer country, with pine trees dominating the landscape.

The train stopped for 15 minutes at Divisadero and we got off to buy a quick lunch at the makeshift food court then ran across to take our first photos of one of the gorges.  We then got back on the train for the brief 4 km ride to Posada Barranca, our destination.

Cable Car Descending, Zoom To See Its Destination

Girl from Juarez Fell of Round Rocking Rock 3 Years Ago

We had already decided on two possible hotels for our overnight stay and did not waste any time in getting into the vehicle of the Cabanas Diaz accommodation.  In the car with us was a group of four women visiting from Italy that we got to know over the rest of the day.  They had left their husbands at home to go traveling.

Cabanas Dias offered a 3 hour car tour of the rim of the canyon and soon Brenda, myself, and the four Italian women were on our way.  It was an excellent tour that enabled us to see parts of the canyon that we might have otherwise missed.  Our first visit was to a recently completed tourist center jutting out over the cliff with mind blowing views of the canyon.  The center included a cable car spanning maybe 2 kilometers over a gorge and terminating on a high rock tower from where we were told were spectacular views of the canyon and the river below.  None of our group decided to take the half hour return trip but Brenda and I talked about returning for a ride the following morning.  We then drove to other vantage points along the rim, finishing at Divisadero, where we had made our brief visit from the train.

The tour guide provided an explanation of why there seemed to be so much dead vegetation in these hills.  He said that both this winter and last winter the temperature got down to 60F below zero, when the norm is 4 or 5F below zero.  We had been told in Chihuahua that about 6 weeks before our arrival the temperature had dipped to 60F below zero, and we had found that difficult to believe.    Brenda figures that temperatures that far below the norm would have taken a heavy toll of both flora and fauna.  To make things worse, there has been no rain in the area for over a year.
 
Unfortunately we found that the microwave signal at the accommodation was very week.  The cell phone could somehow function with no bars showing on the strength meter, but the internet connection via the Telcel dongle was so bad that it was useless.

I did use Brenda's telephone to make my first hotel reservation.   I had been avoiding this because I figured that communication by phone would be more difficult since I would not be able to use body language and gestures.  I used the Google translator to prepare statements that I anticipated needing to make, then called to the Hotel Plaza in Cerocahui.  The exchange went went amazingly well and soon we were booked for the following night, with a car to meet us at the train station.  We deemed a booking to be important because Bahuichivo, our next destination, is only a train station.  Accommodation is 16 km away at Cerocahui which is "in the middle of a verdant and picturesque valley".