Chepe - Copper Canyon Express

Sinaloa Tourism

www.ah-chihuahua.com

Copper Canyon, Chihuahua & Sinaloa

One of the 10 most spectacular train journeys in the world

Immediately after the smartly liveried porters had efficiently assisted the last of the passengers and their luggage aboard, the engine's piercing whistle announced our departure on one of the most spectacular train journeys in the world. It was pitch black at 6a.m. in Los Mochis and we were headed for Chihuahua via Mexico 's famous Copper Canyon on the Ferrocarrill Chihuahua Pacifico, (Chihuahua Pacific Railway) popularly known as El Chepe.

The railway's statistics alone are staggering. This engineering feat involves 630 kilometres of track between Los Mochis and Chihuahua , crossing 36 major bridges and boring through 87 tunnels as it rises from sea level to over 8,000 feet before dropping to 4,600 feet at it's destination, the city of Chihuahua .

My day had begun less spectacularly with a wake-up call at 4.30. For the hotels in Los Mochis the ritual of rousing their guests is commonplace as the train journey attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year. That particular morning there were no tour groups destined to take the train so, instead of organized transportation to the station, I had arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 5.15. I was, it transpired, the only gringo to board in Los Mochis although many would embark and disembark at the different stations along the Canyon route. My fellow passengers were Mexicans who use the train to reach otherwise difficult off-the-road destinations along the line or who, with no direct road link as an option, prefer this to the short plane hop to Chihuahua . (There are in fact four passenger trains that ply this route daily. Two depart from Los Mochis and two from Chihuahua . The later trains leave at 7 a.m. and are the slower 'Economic Class' trains. They are less expensive and are full of locals with a smattering of backpackers and some wealthier tourists who wish to experience the 'real' train.)

Either way the ride takes around 17 hours and, from Los Mochis it begins slowly and unspectacularly as it moves inland through the coastal plain for the 90 kms to the beautiful colonial town of El Fuerte . This will be the first of many stops to pick up and drop off passengers and baggage. Be warned, however, that, except for two 15 minute stopovers in the canyon itself, all these other stops last but a minute or two - not even enough time to stretch your legs let alone explore the small towns and villages. The train has a schedule to meet and is used by tourists as a means of getting into the canyon and spending a day or two exploring one area before using the train to reach their next exploration point. Very few passengers actually complete the whole journey in one trip.

El Fuerte is one such stop. It was here that a group of tourists boarded the train having sensibly spent the night in one of the the town's comfortable colonial hotels and woke at a civilized hour with time for a bite to eat before heading off to catch the train! After El Fuerte the reason to take the train begins. The thorny scrub lowlands give way to the foothills of the Sierra and, as the you climb through many tunnels and cross the Chinpas River you begin to enter the canyon itself. By this time most of the Los Mochis passengers will have catnapped for a couple of hours in their comfortable reclining seats and eaten breakfast in the well-appointed dining car. A real sense of anticipation now grips even the most jaded local traveller, as we all stare out the windows at the magnificent scenery developing around us. Deep gorges below and sharp peaks above are now all around, as the train slowly twists and turns its way through tunnels and over bridges, ever upwards. Passengers can glimpse signs of life beside the narrow winding rivers hundreds of feet below - maybe some small landholders with fields of tropical crops or roaming burros and foraging cattle. These are only means of livelihood for the subsistence farmers of the valley floors.

After approximately 200 kilometres the train reaches the small town of Temoris . Here, at 3,500 feet, passengers can view one of the many engineering marvels along the route: three levels of track twisting and turning its way up the valley's steep sides. Here too is an enormous plaque commemorating the official opening of the line in 1961 by then Mexican President, Lopez Mateos - El Chepe has continuously operated a service here since the track's inauguration. Temoris, however, is more significant for Chihuahua bound travellers as it is the point where the railway enters the higher alpine canyons. The next 40 kms between here and Bauhuichivo contain the most spectacular concentration of canyons, cliffs and waterfalls. I use the plural 'canyons' deliberately for, unlike the Grand Canyon, Copper Canyon is in fact a series of connecting canyons. The higher reaches of these deep canyons are covered in forests of oak and pine - an indication of the dramatic drop in temperature we are now experiencing. So dramatic is it that at San Rafael - only 70 kms from Temoris but another 3,000 feet higher - the gradually darkening skies open up - not with torrential rain but with a thunderous crash of large hailstones. San Rafael , itself, is a nondescript town but important stopover on the journey. It is here the crew from Los Mochis leave the train to be replaced by a crew based in Chihuahua . This changing of the guard takes about 15 minutes (the longest stop on the entire journey) and, ironically, perhaps the least panoramic. This particular day the changeover was delayed by this massive short-lived cloudburst that instantly covered the town under a blanket of white. The hailstorm also prevented me from witnessing one of the usual staples of this stopover (something I experienced on my return journey) - the emergence of traditionally dressed Tarahumara women and children hawking there wares to the passengers. Interestingly they did not spread out along the length of train but stood in a couple of groups offering their simple wares. No hard sell here just a dignified and patient display of their handmade offerings with, no doubt, a little wish and a prayer.

With vestiges of that short but powerful hailstorm still evident, the train makes a short 14 km trip to the one 'official' passenger stopover on the entire route - the town of Divisadero with its magnificent view of the Barranca del Cobre, the Copper Canyon . This stop is sadly only 10 minutes long but what an active 10 minutes. While we tourists ran quickly through small souvenir stalls that line the way to the lookout point a few hundred yards away, seasoned travellers stopped at the food stalls on the station platform to buy a hot lunch to eat on the train. Except for the occasional tourist from one of the nearby hotels, these Tarahumaran Indian vendors have only a forty minute window of opportunity every day to make what little money they can - 10 minutes from each of the four trains. A tough marketing task to be sure.

From Disividero the track continues its inexorable climb into the mountains part of which involves yet another amazing, and rarely attempted, feat of engineering: near Pitorreal, passengers should watch out for the track actually circling back over itself in a complete loop! By now the spectacular canyons have been left behind and these mountains will gradually give way to wide verdant valleys and eventually to the open plains of the high sierra. Amazingly we still have not reached the highest point of our journey. That will come another 20 kms away at Ojito where the track reaches 8,071 feet above sea level. About halfway between Ojito and the second highest point San Juanito (50 kilometres further on and also over 8,000 feet) the train stops at the lumber town - and unofficial capital of the Copper Canyon - Creel. With over 5,000 inhabitants, Creel is a popular base for travellers wishing to explore the canyons. Although not on a canyon itself, it has many hostelries and an excellent road system to the canyons, many newly paved. Even though paved roads are something we have not seen since El Fuerte, it was the railway that gave birth to this town and is still its heart. The rail yards here are full of goods trains, a visual confirmation that the original purpose of the railway was not to bring in tourists but to transport goods.

It all began in the 1870's when American entrepreneur Albert Kinsey Owen realized he could reduce the distance of transporting goods between Kansas City and the Pacific Coast, if there were a rail line to the large natural harbour of Topolobampo just 20 kms west of Los Mochis. If built, this would cut nearly 700 kms off the then current rail route from San Francisco to Kansas City and so give the city a big boost as the distribution center for the entire midwest states. But it was another 20 years before the then Governor of Chihuahua, Enrique Creel, along with American Arthur Stillwell actively promoted the route. While most of the track was completed by 1910 (Creel was linked in 1906), it was the topography of the Copper Canyon that prevented the engineers from completing the link to the Pacific. In fact it was nearly 90 years after its conception that Mexican engineers successfully laid the tracks through that final 'impossible' section - a section that drops 7,000 feet in less than 200 kms! Today, goods traffic still has precedence on the single track line so the tourist train is diverted onto specially built side-tracks for the long, slow freight trains to pass. This, inevitably, can delay a passenger train's arrival time considerably.

After San Juanito, which has the dubious distinction of being the coldest town in Mexico , a much softer landscape of mountains and wide valleys emerges over the next 100 kms. East of La Junta, a major railroad junction, the train picks up speed as it gradually drops through the vast Chihuahuan plains until it reaches Chihuahua itself - nearly 200 kilometres away and, at 4,600 feet above sea level, almost 2,000 feet lower. This final stretch is a complete contrast to the canyons. The wide rolling plains become more cultivated as we continue through to Cuauhtemoc. Here, thanks to migrating Mennonite farmers who settled here in the 1920's a thriving agricultural center has developed. Our train reached Cuauhtemoc at dusk, just as hundreds of workers from the surrounding farms and agricultural processing plants were buying their evening meal from a phalanx of street vendors. Groups of those already served were seated on a well-maintained grassy stretch beside the tracks. Interestingly most were young males whose small, sinewy bodies and darker skin identified them as itinerant workers, recruited from the poorer southern Mexican states. With their friendly waves and smiling faces behind us, we completed the last phase of our journey as night descended - a perfect moment to sit back, relax and reflect on the day's journey of dramatic canyons, majestic mountains and pastoral landscapes. A long but truly unforgettable journey enhanced by attentive porters, friendly people and memories that will last a lifetime.

Reprinted with Permission

All Photos courtesy Balderrama Hoteles & Tours