CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO

A Short but Fun Visit

Reboarding the train in Copper Canyon's  Barrancas the conductor spoke very little English. The train was crowded, but not quite full. There was some problem with the train manifest, but we boarded the train anyway as I had the paid tickets in my pocket and figured we’d straighten it out once on board. As it turned out all went well.

The train descended through a pine forest. The steepest grade of track is from Bocoyna to Sanchez. It is a 2.5% grade. Bocoyna at 7585’ was founded in 1702 by missionaries. It means pine forest in Tarahumara. The twin tower church in town is well known. East of the train the mesas rise to 8250-8910’. We also learned San Juancito at 8000’ was established in 1906 with the coming of the railroad. We could see a large sawmill. It is a main lumber center and is one of the coldest parts of the state of Chihuahua.

We rolled by Terrero, a village of white plaster adobe buildings, that is a ranching and horse breeding area.  Slowly the pine trees gave way to cottonwoods, then juniper and oaks. The final loud speaker message informed us that Franciscan missionaries established Santa Isabela in 1668. The village of Palomas has rock quarries. The tuff-like rock is called cantera and many of the buildings in Chihuahua are made of this stone. The rest of the way to Chihuahua we rolled through a fertile agricultural valley. Mennonites from Canada cultivated the area over 60 years ago. We saw many apple and peach orchards.

When we finally reached Chihuahua at 9:30 PM we both were ready to disembark! At the hotel we heard a little more about our well-known travel agent. We were tired and hungry so we headed to the restaurant off the lobby for a late dinner. The fellow at reception was most pleasant and arranged for us to have a private tour of the city the next day.

The city was very clean and had a lot of parks and statues. We visited a gorgeous museum, Pancho Villa’s home and mausoleum, a couple of churches and rode through several lovely residential areas  returning to the hotel early evening.

We boarded a bus early the next morning for a four and half hour ride to El Paso. My travel buddy had an afternoon flight back to New Jersey and I was spending the weekend with an old friend in El Paso.

It was the end to a fun couple of weeks with all sorts of adventures, some even unexpected ones!

IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA

                                 Havana and Beyond

There are many modes of transportation in Havana. Besides traditional yellow cabs, there are bike-taxis, horse drawn taxis, bicycles, and the adorable coco-cabs. People hitchhike all the time, especially out of the city. Obviously it is safe to do so and most vehicles stop to pick up someone if they have the room. The old cars are easy to maintain. Even though parts may not be available they are easy to reproduce. The Russian cars are often cut up to make trucks or vans.

Traffic never slows. Pedestrians obviously do not have the right of way. However, we never saw an accident. Of course speed limits are low, probably averaging about 40 miles an hour. There are very few traffic lights in Havana.

Walking can be hazardous because of the conditions of the sidewalks. Havana has little pollution, which was a total surprise.

Panhandlers are nearly non-existent. 

The city is full of parks of all sizes and there are many many statues. Plazas abound. The island is lush and green, and extremely clean. Litter does not exist

Outside of hotels, for some reason the toilet seat seemed to be missing much of the time. It was smart to carry tissues or T P when away from the hotel.

Riding through decaying parts of town I noticed wires strung like spider webs, out of windows, exposed to the outside, running loop after loop to somewhere else. It made me wonder who paid the electric bill, if in fact such a bill exists.

In the countryside I noted horses, goats, and cows grazing with no restrains and many times no fences. If there was a fence it was a flimsy line or two of wire.

 My trip to Cuba was made just days before the US shut travel down. Now that Cuba has opened up, it will be interesting to see what, if any, travel changes occur. Cuba has had many visitors, just not US citizens, for years.