Through Mexico's Copper Canyon With the Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railroad

I

The streets of Chihuahua appeared black, moving smoothly, with no dishes such as the van then pulled up to the 0530 station, not a single car during the short trip from San Francisco met. Located founded in 1709 by the Spanish and the Native American word for "dry and sandy," as the name implies, Chihuahua City, about 4667 meters desert plain, is the capital of Chihuahua, the largest state of Mexico, with a 150 thousand square meters area miles. A city cowboy, isFranciscan is the cathedral in its main square, Pancho Villa House, people dressed in cowboy hat, display and save the endless rows of cowboy boots. The state itself, topographically distinguishable from brown-less vegetation formations, is the largest producer of apples, nuts, cotton and pepper, and is widely used in the production of timber and livestock. An agro-Mennonite community produced its indigenous cheeses.

Silver Santa Hat

In front of and behind the fence,seemed the two locomotives and four cars came from the enlightened western Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad newspaper, which, as train 74, one of three songs rocked as he was preparing for the descent or the night in Copper Canyon and, finally, his last stop Pacific coast, Los Mochis. I just want to travel half way today in Posada Barrancas.

The small, two wood-bench-terminal, sporting little more than two cash-'tequillas "in most SpanishTo save the life without, for the operator behind the barred windows and armed with three other baggage, passengers are still asleep.

Fifteen minutes before the start was 0600, opened the door on the platform and the handful of passengers, giving them the cold morning darkness and again charged against the tenant, which indicated the passenger seat numbers. The first of the two cars, with a thickness of 68, in a four-deck seats side by side, 2-2, arrangement, and configuredalternately in red or pale gray-green upholstery, the car featured racks length, adjustable window blinds coated glass, and vice versa, toilets for men and women. The dimly lit car early in the morning calm, incomplete, open eyes, greeted me with a reception, heating the heat generated, as evidenced by the constant audible hum before boarding.

Long response, as the pair locked the rear of the car, produced an initial shock, as the movement of the chain started. Creeping pastthe streets still dark and empty, pulled the train on the tracks of silver, which runs through the outskirts of Chihuahua came, apparently slipping away day before the day as well.

Which operates on the rail link between recommended along the fertile plains of Chihuahua and the Mexican west coast, the port of Topolobambo goods for transfer to shipping routes, tracks the Chihuahua al Pacifico railroad its origins to Albert Kinsey Owen, an American railroadEngineer who moved to Mexico in 1861 and designed a connection Topolobambo Chihuahua. Formation of a Mexican-American companies to do it two years later, had a contract from the Mexican government a railway between Piedras Negras and Topolobambo which would then provide stub in Mazatlan, Alamos, and to build Ojinaga. But eventually able to secure sufficient funds to complete the project, assigned to Owens Foster Higgins, the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre and the PacificRailways for the 1898-degree, 259-km stretch between Ciudad Juarez and Casas Grandes work. Insurmountable obstacles prevented the further expansion as well.

The project was later Enrique Creel, the Kansas City run, Mexico and Orient Railway, which was adopted and can connect further with Casas Grandes The Board, after four years of additional work, from 1910 to 1914. But the revolutionary attacks thwarted further completion of the next sectorOjinaga to Creel.

In 1900 it was linked to El Fuerte Topolobambo of many Mexican and U.S. railway company, but on condition that the full path from Chihuahua to Ojinaga remained until 1927, when the Mexican government, industry, which had begun Creel finished hard. Rest was 260-km path requiring the canyon, whose 7,000 meters altitude and topographical obstacles extreme engineering works would be exceeded. Nationalization of the railways independentThe companies that are still over one end of the line in 1940 unconnected operated announced that the Mexican government 13 years later, in 1953, the program would end.

The initial estimate of five years of construction project, starting with the work of Owens' in 1863, finally, has about 90 years and $ 90 million in claims, down the last stretch before the 1961 plan, attempts to multiply with experience , not by different companies, the cost overruns of unimaginable until thenProportions, engineering failures, the Mexican Revolution and the First World War, eventually won with a rail link between the sea level city of Los Mochis and the high altitude capital of Chihuahua the rugged, inhospitable topography of a series of Sierra Madre Occidental near the canyon of tracks that make their way up 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges threaded, crossed the Continental Divide three times, and were transferred to a difference in altitude of 8,000 feet from the subject immediatelyProcess.

Have occurred at dawn on black night like a metamorphosis colorless, gradually revealing the color of opaque clouds. The suburbs Chihuahua product rich, chocolate brown and the hills, golden straw-like grass growing up against the rails.

By decreasing the speed, felt the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad for their dynamism in Cuauhtemoc, now 132 km from its origin. Originally called San Antonio de Arenales, the country was known, later adopting its current name afterThe Aztec emperor, takes its origins arrival of the railroad in 1900, but a significant increase in nearly 21 years later, when Mennonite community settled.

Resume movement took the train in the middle of the golden wheat fields, stretching on both sides at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountains. To obtain a preliminary indication of topography has been fleeting. The sky, now receive a blue illustration, a few scattered formations of white cotton.

I went to the dining carfor breakfast, my first meal on the rails. Directly behind the locomotive, is characterized by a kitchen forward, four, four instead of stalls, a glass divider, two two-place objects on the left and a C-shaped, folded back on itself with a sofa tables on the right side, a second glass partitions, and four, four-seater stand. Brass lamps attached to the car hanging on the side of each table. Seats upholstered in dark red and green alternately.

A standard two-page menu featuring breakfast available on the market, lunch,and dinner items. My own breakfast an omelet with ham and cheese, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, baked beans with grated cheese and tortillas and salsa.

Leave the valley and its ubiquitous apple orchards was the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad over the Continental Divide for the first of what would become three times in a short Junta, the location of the railroad roundhouse, now standing at 6,775 feet elevation. At the start, began its gradual ascentleaves the plains of Chihuahua.

Since 1030, some 200 kilometers, 74, the train wound through the forests of the Sierra-oak-pine as Madrean ascended through 7,000 feet. San Juanito, Chihuahua, and 265 km from an altitude of 8,000 feet in Mexico was the coldest city, even if the sun straight ahead unimpeded. Founded in 1906, is, like many villages along the route, took root following the extension rail.

At km marker 551,the peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental from sticking.

Immersion 4 through tunnels, to 4,134.8 feet, the line of the longest and the position of the third crossing of the Continental Divide, was the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad branch on double track, stop motion, while we went eastward freight train on the left side partially reverse the tunnel and emerge into the branch for its approach in Creel 7735 meters. Founded in 1907, during the first phase of the railwayConstruction, is the gateway to the Tarahumara Indian culture and how the principle is the community within its canyons, inhabited by about 5,000 people. The ongoing economic activities include trade, the same railroad, the timber industry and tourism. A brief stop to allow a large tour group that bears the name tags on the cars before the train otherwise empty board almost immediately and moved beyond the village square and the line of wooden shops and inns.Diverting from the same outcrop, returned to the main path for his throat through urgent trips.

Since the four car chain wire on his way, but rock and pine, appeared before an Ferromex diesel engines and to the right or left of the window as it negotiated the curves. Climbing the highest point of the line at kilometer 583, 8071 meters in Los Ojitos, train followed 74 of the winding, increasingly, single track, and breathe the fresh air and pine wood fire smolderingInsert both ends of the cars on the podium stations.

In 1235, the train winds through tall, dense pine forests-threaded and carpeted expanse of the canyon is visible through the left window, where you from Kilometre 592, begins a steep descent on "El Lazo", as the oval track geometry in a complete circle and crossed over itself.

Convergence at 1320 Divisadero, now 354 km from its origin, the two-locomotive and four cars Chihuahua al PacificoRailroad Canyon transition from the mountain topography and the reduced speed, passing a string of wagons and support vehicles to more movement on the surface of the double track railway. To stop unleashed 15 minutes of panning, were his patrons immediately engulfed in a mecca of activities such as states, which negotiated a temporary display of the Tarahumara Indians, basketry and wood carvings on the road, served by Divisadero Overlook, where they were met thin, clear air and thePanoramic views of the Copper and Urique canyons Tararecua whose size, depth and magnitude were silent reverence and promotion. A thin line, which wound a tributary of the river Urique, 4135 feet below. The geological formations have been the result of plate tectonics, moving about 90 million years, a system global phenomenon, which later produced in the mountains of North and South America. Unimaginable magnitude earthquake in the end produced the Sea of ​​Cortezbetween Baja California and mainland Mexico. Today were deep gorges, green, and four times larger than the Grand Canyon of Arizona.

A locomotive whistle said it was time to return the train for the journey continues. The quick, four km walk to Posada Barrancas station, which serves three Canyon Lodges, brought me to my destination at night, the small pick-up a few meters from the rail cars awaiting action. After a pause of 30 seconds, theTrain resumed power and disappeared following their car as they moved between the track and sandwiching the rocks behind the curve, the position of the line of daily life stopped now for another 24 hours. The truck making its way up the hill with the dirt bags on the bed floor, he stopped at Hotel Posada Barrancas Mirador.

A three-story orange Adobe Lodge on the edge of the Copper Canyon, 5770 meters deep construction, featuring wood-framed balconies, rustic Tarahumara Indiansand consisted of three meals a day. The lobby, decorated with a brown brick floor and walls of yellow brick with an Indian line drawings, featured a cathedral ceiling, beams and thick planks of wood of a tree trunk with three wagon wheel-like chandeliers, a large fireplace brick, with a ceramic-lined jacket and a crackling fire in the evening and leather sofas and armchairs. A small separate bar features a small, round tables, wooden chairs, colorful Indian motif, a fireplace and a painting of orange adobewall-length mural of the Copper Canyon and the railroad tracks which ran through it. A large, outdoor, canyon-overlooking balcony framed by a natural branch- and trunk-border was accessed by a door from the lobby.

A tiled, outdoor walkway led past crevices of pottery, rocks, and cactus on the right and the room doors on the left. The rooms, in quintessential Mexican-Indian style, retained the hotel's tile floors and featured rough, white adobe walls; wood-beamed ceilings; small, white adobe fireplaces with orange bases; separate, outside sinks and closets whose wooden doors were made of diagonally-patterned tree branches; inside tiled showers; and rustic tree trunk and branch balconies overlooking the canyon.

Lunch was served in the dining room, which contained long, wooden tables, and featured a downward-slanting ceiling made of thin wood branches, four wooden chandeliers, a green slate fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling windows which looked out over the canyon, and included cream of mushroom soup; filet of grilled beef, baked potato, refried beans and cheese, nachos with melted cheese and tomato sauce, and tortillas and salsa; peach cream pie with a graham cracker crust and chocolate sauce drizzle; and coffee.

The few wisps of cloud brush-stroked on the western horizon above the rock-sculpted walls of the canyon temporarily transformed themselves into pink and purple hues. The air, thin, pure, and brisk, exuded tranquillity. Far removed from a settlement or town of any appreciable size, the orange adobe hotel overlooking the rim became an isolated world unto itself.

Dinner, the second meal in the canyon, included lentil soup; barbecued chicken breast, lime rice with green olives, and mixed vegetables; and pineapple cake.

The canyon, now devoid of light, was reduced to a black, referenceless hole. The grid of stars, unobstructed by a single cloud vapor, pollution-caused haze, or ground light, penetrated the night sky like high-intensity beams melting into black wax. The cold, rarefied air was heavy with the aromas of the burning logs in the lodge's adobe fireplaces. Surrendering to sleep, I lapsed into the void of oblivion...

II

Pierced only by the sounds of the periodically-howling coyotes, night had remained invisibly black. At 0630, between the Copper Canyon and a band of black cloud, dawn poured itself into day as molten orange lava through a sliver on the eastern horizon, progressively encroaching itself until the once-black cloud band became infused with tinges of orange, like a sponge gradually absorbing day's liquid. The crevices and corrugations of the canyon's cliffs, although still indistinguishable, became visible in silhouette form beneath the dark-blue sky whose nocturnal light, the profusion of interstellar stars, had faded until only a planet-representative pinpoint of light remained diagonal to the lodge's balcony. Absorbing the full fury of day, the cloud band hovering over the horizon became engulfed in fiery red flame.

The daily westbound train, which would take me the remaining half of the distance to its terminus, Los Mochis, had just pulled out of Chihuahua. The clouds, now totally consumed by fire, were completely engulfed by red. As the flame burned itself out, the red once again progressed to a cooler orange and the sky transformed itself into a morning baby blue. The gray granite of the canyon's sculpted rocks and the green of its lower-elevation vegetation became distinguishable. Breakfast, served in the hotel's dining room, had included orange juice; a fresh fruit plate of watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, banana, cherries, and limes; pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon; and coffee.

By late-morning, the lodge seemed suspended by its silence as its guests, temporarily away, became involved with hiking and horseback riding excursions, almost in anticipation of the daily train from Chihuahua, lifeline to the isolated canyon community. A very small, colorfully-clad Tarahumara woman, carrying a baby cradled in a fabric sling behind her back, peeked into the lodge's window, in curiosity of the "other" life experienced here.

The suspension of silence, time, and society was abruptly shattered at 1330 as the dark green and red Ferromex diesel locomotive, sprouting gray smoke and pulling its chain of five cars, appeared between the bushes on the single track, following the right curve and stopping at the "Old West'-resembling wooden platform on which some 20 people, having emerged from Posada Barrancas' three lodges, congregated. Unlike yesterday's train, today's was comprised of a single locomotive, the standard dining and bar cars, and three passenger cars. Clamoring on board with the rest of the luggage-carrying passengers, I reached my left-hand seat just as the engine had released its brakes and the westbound train had slipped between the two rock faces on the other side of the dirt road.

Only moments after leaving the station, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad followed the multiplying tracks into San Rafael and stopped parallel to the eastbound train. A gradual descent, from 7,500 feet to sea level, would characterize most of the remaining journey. Lunch, served in the dining car, included a California baguette of ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard on French bread with crispy French fried potatoes.

Rounding a left bend, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad plunged through a tunnel and over the 695.4-foot Laja Bridge, the tracks now nestled in a pine tree-rich canyon. At 1515, it pulled into the 5,300-foot station of Bahuichivo, which serves the town of Cerocahui, located 16 kilometers amidst apple and peach orchards, and the village of Urique, which is located at the bottom of the canyon. Between kilometers 688 and 708, the train bored through a series of 16 tunnels carved into the canyon's edge. The track, paralleling the slender, rocky, almost-dry Septentrion River below, was itself "miniaturized" by the green-carpeted peaks of Chihuahua pine, Douglas fir, and Quaking aspen towering above it. The sky, abundant with majestic, floating silver cloud islands, was otherwise an illustrious blue.

Reduced to but a model railroad, the six-chained linkage moved amid the towering, granite and green alpine-topographical peaks of oak and pine, periodically swallowed by a series of tunnels, which instantaneously reduced day-blue to night-black. Mimicking the locomotive's turns, curves, and jolts at slightly delayed rates, its trailing cars followed suit with uncanny precision. As soon as the train exited a tunnel, the seemingly tiny round hole representing the entrance into the next always appeared ahead.

Entering tunnel 49, the train, now descending into the Santa Barbara Canyon, executed a 180-degree turn before emerging and again was subjected to a second 180-degree bend on the bridge spanning the Septentrion River. The village of Temoris, founded in 1677 by Jesuits and located on a 3,365-foot plateau above the station, had been reached by 1610 in the afternoon.

Passing through the Rio Septentrion Canyon, Train 74 traveled through notably tropical topography, characterized by banana, palm, and mango trees. At 1708 and kilometer-marker 748, the train crossed the 1,018.5-foot Chinipas Bridge which, at 335 feet above the green surface-appearing Chinipas River, was the highest of the line, and, six kilometers later, bored through the last and longest of its tunnels, number 86, which was 5,966 feet in length. Like the last sounds of a symphony, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad exited canyon country.

As evening approached, the passengers, many of whom belonged to one of two travel groups, made way to the bar car for wine and cocktails. The car itself, located between the dining and the passenger cars, had been configured with an inward-facing bar with several round bar stools, mirrored shelves for wine and liquor bottles, and upside-down hanging glasses. Primarily upholstered in red, its lounge chairs were sandwiched by small, round drink tables, while a stand-up bar and a concessions counter for salable snacks and souvenirs was installed at the front of the car.

At kilometer marker 781, the train passed over the Agua Caliente Bridge, which spanned the Fuerte River and, at 1,637 feet, was the line's longest. Traversing low, scrubby cactus and thornforest terrain at 1730, it moved at considerable speed beneath paling blue skies and dark, periodic nimbus cloud collections characteristic of dusk. Horizontal lines of cloud, brush-stroked on the western horizon, were eaten by burning orange coals. Hovering only feet above the curved silhouettes of the mountains, the sun, in pure cylindrical geometry, burned with orange fury before slipping behind them. Settling into nocturnal rest, it projected a volcanic eruption of purple and orange liquid lava skyward in its aftermath. The snaking river below the bridge cradling the track seemed lit with a violet match. The cloud formations, temporarily torched by orange, metamorphosed into purple as night snuffed out the few remnants of day's embers burning just above the horizon. A quilt of ruby and gray stratonimbus draped itself over day, covering it with suffocating darkness, and leaving the warm, lighted interior of the passenger cars as the only remaining light.

Train 74, now traveling parallel to flat, almost-desert scrub in the state of Sinaloa, had left the Copper Canyon and the foothills of the Sierra Madre behind, and would close the remaining gap to its final destination in blackness, leaving only the "clock" of its wheels against the track as audible evidence of its advancement. Walking to the dining car for the last meal on the rails, I ordered a bottle of French white wine and an entrée of chicken cordon bleu with a mushroom cream sauce, Mexican rice, and mixed vegetables.

The town of El Fuerte, reached at 1910, was of Spanish colonial architecture and had been founded in 1564 by the Spanish conqueror Francisco de Ibarra for the purpose of erecting a fort to protect its citizens against Indian attack. Serving as a trading post on the Camino Real for three centuries, whose Spanish mule trail had connected Guadalahara, the Alamos mines, and the Sierra Madre Occidental, it had become the capital of Sinaloa in 1824.

Lurching on the single track beneath dark velvet, star-diamond skies and moving over the flat expanse of land, Train 74 covered the remaining 82 kilometers between El Fuerte and Los Mochis, the rectangles seeming to skim along the sides reflections of its lighted passenger car windows on the track-side vegetation.

The rectangular reflections of the car windows were like the reflections of the journey: unlike other rail lines, which offered alternative transportation means to certain destinations, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad offered the only land line to and through the Sierra Madre Occidental and its related canyons. The life line to the communities along its track, from Chihuahua to Los Mochis, it offered singular-method, vital transportation; traveled over 653 kilometers of track whose route could only be equated with an extreme feat of railway engineering; offered unparalleled mountain and canyon scenery; and connected the Mexican and Tarahumara Indian cultures.

The single track burgeoned into many and the train passed a considerably-sized railway yard. The lights of Los Mochis, the modern city located only 19 kilometers from the port town of Topolobambo, loomed ahead. Creeping through the suburbs, the houses of which were only yards from the actual track, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad moved past the modern Estacion de Los Mochis at a snail's pace and snagged its brakes for the last time at 2205, completing its 16 hour, 20-minute journey from the plains to the Pacific.

Taking my suitcase from the overhead rack and climbing down the few stairs to the platform, I watched the uniformed crew turn off the train's lights and file into the terminal, having completed another westbound run, and could only marvel at the vital role they played in the railroad's purpose to link the Copper Canyon with the rest of Mexico.

Through Mexico's Copper Canyon With the Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railroad

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