Creel

We arrived in Creel on Friday. I didn´t think Creel would be such a great place. I thought it was going to be super touristy. It ended up being pretty cool and sucking us in for 3 days. We stayed at a hostel called Casa de Margarita´s. The rooms were amazing. They cost a couple bucks more than in Chihuahua, but still a great price. While in Creel, we met some pretty cool peeps at the hostel. They were from all around, Texas, New Zealand, Denver, Mexico, England. I think that may have been it. Sorry if I missed any of you!

Hootie walking the streets of Creel.

The church where we attended Sunday morning mass.

The first night in Creel we had some amazing food and some great cervezas con limons. The next day we headed out on some bicycles for about a 12 mile bike ride. It was beautiful. On the ride we visited the homes of Tarahumara Indians, made a lunch at some incredible rock formations, chilled at a lake, and saw some great countryside.

Tarahumara home in the side of a cave. She is making handicrafts to sell.

Hootie and I on our mountain biking excursion through the countryside of Creel.


The Tarahumara are native people to the region. They still speak their own language, Raramuri. They live inside of caves. They live very simple and make some amazing handicrafts. They are the fastest long distance runners in the world! We understand now that we see how far they have to walk to town each day.

Some more views of Tarahumara homes inside of the caves.

Some of the Tarahumara handicrafts.

The rock formations that we saw were also pretty cool. In one valley, they were all shaped like mushrooms, in another they were all shaped like monks (but are also known as the valley of erect penises). This is where we ate lunch, in the shadow of an erect penis!

The amazing rock formations.

The lake Arareko was a pretty big lake. We didn´t have too much time there. We had to get the bikes back. The bike trail was pretty cool. The mountain bikes, not so much. Hootie´s had a flat tire right from the start and mine wouldn´t shift gears going up hills. So, it was interesting, but still really fun.

Hootie on his mountain bike.

That night we went with the peeps from the hostel to a dance that was being held by the Taramuhara people. They have a dance one night a year. They have to dance the entire night, from dusk til dawn. They dance for peace, health, and I can´t remember the third thing. It was beautiful, they had very colorful clothing and costumes and were singing and playing violins. They were on peyote and drinking an alcoholic corn drink. I guess that´s why they could stay up dancing the whole night! We tried the drink. It was interesting to say the least.

The Tarahumara danced all night down the street from our hostel.

The next day, Hootie and I were beat. We wanted to catch the bus to Batopilas, but it didn´t run until Monday. So, we lounged around most of the day, and then finally got bored and went on a tour with a guy named Manuel. We drank some cervezas on the way, and then we headed out down a crazy road to a waterfall named Cusarare. It was pretty but, it would have been much prettier if there wasn´t so much trash : (

A burrito, loaded up with firewood, that we saw on our hike to the Cusarare waterfall.

The Cusarare waterfall view from below.

We woke up, it had been raining all night. We had to make a decision...were we going to go to Batopilas or not? Will the road be washed out? Will we get stranded? Lots of questions...we decided to go!