Another awesome day in Creel

Today we had a double tour of the local area. Unfortunately our pocketbooks took a hit as we were the only ones on the tour and we had to pay for the the minimum group of four people so our initial cost was about $150.

We had the same guide as yesterday and he was really worth it (and got a health tip just like yesterday). We saw a lot of the local Tarahumara people and their homes. These people are very poor and we gave quite a few donations/gifts throughout the day.

We started our day very near Creel seeing a family living in a cave (which is/was typical here). I found it very hot and really unhealthy. The roof was black from the burning of wood/kerosene inside over many generations. The old woman is the granddaughter of the first person to make a permanent home in this cave although it has been used for numerous generations.

Next we saw a beautiful waterfall. We walked to the bottom (of course) for a refreshing spray filled breeze. The temperature today is about the same as yesterday (23 degrees) so it is very pleasant walking around.

We visited about a dozen sites including churches, a lake, and modern Tarahumara towns before finishing very near here in the Valley of the Monks. This place is made up of large thin rocks projecting up into the air. Over the years many of these large rocks have been named because they look like something else (including some that look like monks), The rocks are what has been left from the "frozen" magna of a worn away volcano and these rocks have been sculpted by eons of rain,snow and wind.

We were back to the hotel by about 2:30 (a 5 hour tour) and I booked tomorrow nights lodging in Chihuahua. The word is that the train will be running tomorrow. There have been numerous hotel and tour cancellations because the train was not running therefore there was not as many people here.