Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Copper Canyon (continued)




The photo in the first post about Copper Canyon was taken from the patio of the hotel in Divisadero. We did not "do" the typical trip of taking the train but rather drove from Divisadero to Creel and then down into the canyon to Batopilas. Outside of the hotel in Divisadero were Tarahumara women weaving the most beautiful baskets. I've collected Native American baskets and indigenous baskets for 30 years and these were so exquisite. I wish I had bought more! The main reason I wanted to go to Copper Canyon was to see the Tarahumaras. They are still a nomadic indigenous group to some extent and live in the valley in the winter and up the rim in the summer. Many still live in caves. They are amazing people and still dress indigenously. It is not unusual in Mexico to see the women still dressing indigenously but very rare to see the men in their native dress. I was rewarded to see many Tarahumaras. Here is a photo of a woman weaving a basket. In addition, they sell many things made from wood because it is a heavily wooded area. Hence they sell maskes and the violin seen in the photo among other things.
When we traveled to Creel, it was very very cold. We were all bundled up walking the streets of the town. It was like a frontier town and was going to be our "jumping off point" - little did I know how right that was - to driving down into the canyon to Batopilas. Remember, I mentioned how cold it was in Creel? Well the children selling things on the street wore only light weight shirts and I met the little boy in the photo. He is shown next to the "candy cart" that was coming down the street. I offered to buy him something and he chose nuts. When I handed the nuts to him his little hands were ice cold. The poverty and homelessness of the children of Creel has haunted me. I'm working on a project to send "Coats to Creel" for the children.
My next post will be about the journey down into the canyon since I can't tell where the photos are going to show up when I try to post them!

2 comments:

Caddie said...

There are several posts where the pictures aren't showing, just a circle with tiny "window" in its middle. I'm disappointed.

Babs said...

I too am disappointed and don't know why that happened or anything about it other then my computer crashed at one point and we lost a lot of info but you would think the dialog would have gone too.

I'm so sorry. If you want, I'll drag out old photos and scan them. Just tell me what you're interested in, ok?