Yellow Backpack Adventures

 March 11 - Headed back towards Cuauhtemoc after breakfast. We took a detour to hopefully find a little town in the mountains where they make all the rustic furniture we see in Albuquerque. We found a neat little town but it was quite a bit farther to the one we were looking for so we turned around and headed back. As we drove through San Juanito we seen about 7 trucks full of armed men headed into town. Grabbed lunch in Cuauhtemoc, shopped and got some coffee. Back at the hotel at 6. March 12 - We shopped the market and got some very pretty pottery. Ate fresh fried flautas at another place papas have been to many times. Sat in the square and ate ice cream... started back toward Juarez stopping at another mennonita camp for night. March 13 - Got to Juarez in time for lunch. Shopped at the big Mercado. Sonya was awesome at bargaining and we left with some really pretty hammocks. We decided to just head home tonight instead of tomorrow. It felt like the longest 4 hours back and it wa...

The best day in Mexico..... We ate breakfast overlooking the canyon. Fresh melon and papaya... next came bacon and eggs, chips with tomatillo sauce, and frijoles. We headed back to Creel... I didn’t want to say goodbye to this beautiful place. We first got a place to stay for night... we are staying at a little house overlooking the town. A very enthusiastic guy that lives on this compound is also a guide so we hired him to show us around for the day. He knew a little bit of English so that was fun that we could communicate a little. We loaded up in his very battered old white van and began careening through the hills at top speed. Our first stop was elephant rock where there was a huge rock that looked just like... an elephant. Next we headed for a place where there was a waterfall. We turned of a road and ahead seemed an impossible trail. A boy...not sure how old he was...maybe 20-30 met us their and began signing to our driver. He could not talk and had the mind of a child but he wa...

 I love breakfast here. Scrambled eggs, chips covered with a sauce that is so yummy and frijoles.  We shopped a little in some adorable little stores. The bright colored shops and houses make me feel so happy.   I was delighted to buy a pair of handmade leather sandals. Then to Divisadero-Copper Canyon. Words cannot describe the beauty here. Beautiful blue sky, green tree covered canyons and mountains. It makes you feel so small beside something so amazing. It is bigger and deeper than the Grand Canyon they say. We took the cable car across to the next mountain. We did a bit of hiking and bought some baskets from the women who were weaving them.  There is a little store up there that was about 12’ by12’ that has just a few necessities for the people who live at the bottom of the canyon.  Far below we could see a few tiny farms and houses. It would be an all day trek to come to that store and back for them. And a whole day one way to climb out of the canyon. The ...

  After breakfast we stopped at a little mennonita coffee shop. It was so cute and had a little deck on top. The electricity had been off all morning so no coffee but we tried some macarons that were most delicious. After a few stops we headed to Creel. There is so much to see along the road. I just love the ladies in their bright colored dresses sitting along the road sewing, burros loaded with their packs, children playing in the ditches. Armed Policia stood in the streets as we drove through San Juanito. It is a place where two different cartel groups meet and fight over territory. Other people we have talked to say they avoid that area as much as possible. Once we got to Creel we began searching for a place for night. It took a few hours and we tried quite a few places. One guy took us to a house that he was sure would be perfect for us. It was surrounded by trash and looked a bit creepy. It didn’t have enough bedrooms and no heat so that was a no. We eventually found a motel t...

March 6- 6am found us heading out the yard just as the sky began to get light. We traveled about 4 hours to El Paso. We stopped for the yummiest burritos with tocino, huevos, and papas inside. Next we went to the border, parked, and walked across the worn marble floors broken in many places and filled with dirt to make it level. Without mama henrietta to translate for us it would have been very dificil to get our visas. Traveling toward Cuauhtemoc. It is so beautiful... mountains in the distance, sagebrush, yucca, short bushy trees. Cowboys on horseback checking their cattle, sorting pens made of stones, many broken concrete buildings and houses. We stopped for flautas and cokes at a place papa Hipolito’s had been many times before. On to the mennonita camps. Huge fancy houses, nice John Deere equipment and farms. Many apple and pecan orchards. We stayed at a very nice hotel near there.  March 7- Breakfast of papaya, pineapple, and melon with yummy egg enchilada stuff. I don’t know...

      The yellow back pack adventures... It is my dear mustard yellow leather backpack that has gone everywhere with me for the last couple years.  It was a gift from some very special people. Many times it has traveled to the coffee shop I worked for awhile... then every day it held my lunch and water bottles as I volunteered in Edmonton at the University of Alberta Hospital. It has traveled to Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia while I picked apples, then to California while I planted sweet potatoes. Always by my side as I went to college for a summer semester,  and then every day to school as I taught the adorable brown eyed children in Albuquerque.  It has even made a couple trips to Mexico. This backpack is a dear old friend already...