Here is the first part of Mexico. Please feel free to inform us if you wish not to recieve these mails from us. We do not want to fill your inbox with stuff you do not want. The border crossing into Mexico went much better than we expected, about two and a half hours in total.  After getting the carnet stamped out of the USA we drove over a bridge to the Mexican side and the officials showed us to drive straight though.  We stopped where Bruce and Donna (the American couple that joined us) were waiting for us, they were already finished with all their paper work, and we walked back to the immigration office to get our passports stamped.  The longest wait was to get the permit for the GS as the officials did not understand the use of the carnet and our non-existent Spanish did not help either. The road south to Chihuahua was really beautiful and the surface condition was good.  The terrain was dry and flat with small shrubs, very much like the Karoo or Namaqualand.  We passed through one or two little towns that supported the local farming communities.  They consisted of a few small buildings that were a home come convenience store and a fuel station with a bus stop.  It was a nice welcome to discover that the ‘al banyos’ (toilets) were the sit type and not the squat over the hole-in-the-ground type.
We got into the town of Chihuahua just before sunset and went in-search for a place to spend the night.   The streets were filled with Christmas decorations, pretty flashing coloured lights of nativity scenes and hundreds of shoppers.  As before on our travels we were looking for a place with secure parking for the GS and now also for Bruce’s Harley.  After criss-crossing the city in the evening traffic we were now riding in the dark, so with the torch shining over Johan’s shoulder onto the little street map which got torn out of the Lonely Planet Book, we were almost back at the place where we started our search and low-and-behold we found the perfect place with a courtyard! 

The flat lands slowly changed as we climbed in altitude and we went through mountains with pine trees as we got closer to the Copper Canyon. The Copper Canyon is a group of canyons consisting of 6 distinct canyons in the Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua. The overall canyon system is larger and portions are deeper than the Grand Canyon in the USA.  The famous Chihuahua al Pac'fico railroad, nicknamed “Chepe”, is both an important transportation system for locals and a draw card for tourists (both international and Mexican). The canyon is the traditional home of the indigenous Raramuri (Tarahumara) people. The town of Creel is a lovely town with narrow cobbled streets, loads of little shops filled to the brim with curios for the many tourists visiting the town.  All the curios are hand crafted in either wood or leather, woven woolen fabrics, woven reed or palm frond baskets, rustic music instruments – guitars, drums, flutes, (both Johan and Bruce enjoyed testing all the noisy items... boys!!!) etc, etc.  Creel was historically a logging town, although tourism has become the primary job source over the last 20 years. There are many hotels, restaurants and a number of tours (mountain biking, horse trails and canoeing) down into the canyons and throughout the surrounding area.  We went for a drive to the view point of the ‘Three Canyons’ in Davisadero.  It was a wonderful winding road that goes up and down through the thick tree covered mountains and valleys, giving you a glimpse of the canyons when you near the top.  The view point has a paved pathway and a suspended bridge with the locals selling hand crafted curios on the side walk.  We got to love the bright colours that the Mexicans are so fond of; you see it in their clothing, the way they paint their buildings and homes.  Each town also seems to have its own beautiful, well maintained old stone churches with great wooden doors. I guess this is from the Spanish - Catholic influence.  The Mexicans dress very neatly, the women and children wear brighter colours, and you see both men and women wearing real leather boots.  We have also seen more Mexican cowboys, some on their horse in the towns, than in the USA.  During the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions (what we now consider the cowboy tradition) as well as both horses and domesticated cattle to the Americas. So, though popularly considered as a North American icon, the traditional cowboy actually began with a Hispanic tradition! Another thing we noted in every town was that there seemed to be a lot of ugly pavement specials skulking around, (these dogs make the Dubai kitty fondly named ....ertjie look like a princess)!!  They are everywhere, mostly medium size dogs and some are quite muscular and sturdy looking – I think a lot of them do have homes but due to the fact that most of the shops in the city are also the family homes, the poor dogs either have to roam the streets in the day or like some, lie on the sidewalk and bake in the sun, who knows where they go at night!!  We have also seen some real small ones but man; I can’t say that I’ve seen any pretty looking ones!!

It was a real surprise to feel how cold it was when we headed out of Creel, we were getting colder than we ever got before - at one point the temperature dropped to minus 5 degrees Celsius, brrrrrrr.  The route for the morning was to take a short cut on a scenic mountain road that was 60km’s tar and about 40km’s gravel.  When we enquired about this road we were told that it was a good quality gravel road, so Bruce would not have to worry.....  well, it sure was a scenic road, houses in the middle of nowhere, people farming with cattle and growing crops, really beautiful country life, one corner after the next and even though the tar was in very good condition, the tight corners were not very Harley friendly, then came the gravel...  my goodness, even the GS had to slow down to 1^st gear to negotiate some of the technical and rocky sections.  We take our hat off to Bruce, he handled his large touring machine like a real pro, and he can join us on almost any adventure ride after surviving that road!  We called it a day in the town of Yecora.

 We had another early start with fresh crisp air but this time we knew that we would be heading for the warmer weather.  Once again we were blessed with the most amazing scenery, the mountainous roads slowly levelled out into rolling hills with flat areas the closer we got to the coast, and we saw more and more bird life.  We even saw a real ‘beep-beep’ the road runner and it crossed the road really quickly before disappearing into the bush... no, there was no coyote chasing it!!  We also saw some local little buck in the distance. 

Alamos, which was founded in the late 17th century following discoveries of silver in the region.  The town has stunning tall, arched, covered verandas or walkways which line the narrow cobble-stoned streets.  The great wealth created by the silver mines enabled the founders and residents of Alamos to build scores of Baroque mansions throughout the town; many of these have been bought by foreigners over the past 20 years and are now either private homes or have been made into really expensive hotels.  Most of the building in the narrow streets look really plain and simple, even run down with big old wooden doors and wooden shutters but should one of the doors be open and you get to look inside... my goodness it is unbelievable – a beautifully decorated passage / hallway that leads into the most awesome looking courtyard with huge trees and flowers, absolutely stunning. The town has a wonderful plaza with people selling food from little stalls, or just sitting chatting under the very big old trees.  There are numerous museums (which we did not visit) and a big old cathedral on one of the squares, another tourist haven.