El Fuerte | Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

An Adventure in Copper Canyon, Mexico, Chapter Three – Mayo Indian Danza del Venado

Published March 27, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

This entry is part 3 of 15 in the series Copper Canyon, Mexico

I was still oohing and aahing over the town of El Fuerte when the owner of Rio Vista Hotel, Chal Gamez, invited me to join a group bound for a native dance performance by indigenous Mayo Indians. The hotel van jounced along a potholed asphalt road barely wide enough for two vehicles, passing through desolate scrub desert where everything was coated with a thick layer of dun-colored dust. Twenty minutes later we reached the tiny settlement of Capomo, a handful of squat adobe houses in the middle of this vast, desiccated wilderness. We pulled off into a compound in front of one of the houses and sat on simple log benches beneath a canopy constructed of woven twigs.

Chal explained that the Mayo Indians are generally considered to have the purest native blood in Mexico, with most members of the tribe being at least 70% Mayo. Their ancient dances had their origins in animism. The Danza del Venado (Deer Dance), for instance, was performed in a full deerskin outfit with a bow and arrow. However, in 1590 Jesuit missionaries arrived on the scene and began converting the Mayo to Christianity. Rather than prohibiting heathen dances, the crafty Jesuits introduced religion by dance, allowing the natives to intermingle their animistic beliefs with Christian theology. Today these dances are performed at important religious gatherings, such as Semana Santa (Easter week) and the festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Three Mayo males stepped into the enclosure as Chal was completing his explanation and squatted in front of instruments that have not changed for thousands of years. Two of the musicians produced a rhythmic rasping sound by drawing twigs and lengths of notched hardwood over the rounded tops of hollowed-out, halved gourds. A third musician beat a halved gourd floating in a tub of water with a short club, while elders seated on the side played traditional skin covered drums.

The same musical instruments have been used by the Mayo Indians for centuries

Jose Luis Talenius begins the Danza del Venado - the Deer Dance

When the thumping and rasping merged to create a syncopated rhythm, Jose Luis Talenius shook his bright red gourd rattles and began the Danza del Venado. A small deer’s head was cinched to the top of his head by leather throngs and decorated with flowers, the colors of which vary according to the ritual being performed. Every item of his clothing was symbolic: the red scarf Continue reading →

Posted in Mexico travel |

Tagged adventure, Barranca del Cobre, blogsherpa, Copamo, Copper Canyon, culture, danza del venado, deer dance, El Fuerte, historic, indigenous dances, magico mexico, Mexico, northwest Mexico, Travel |

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An Adventure in Copper Canyon, Mexico, Chapter Two – The Colonial Town of El Fuerte

Published March 25, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

This entry is part 2 of 15 in the series Copper Canyon, Mexico

Eager to discover whether my decision to bypass Los Mochis and instead catch the Copper Canyon train from the colonial city of El Fuerte was a good one, I set out to explore the town. What had seemed a maze-like route between the bus station and Rio Vista Hotel the night before was an easy stroll by day; a quick hike down the hill and one block to the right and I was staring at what has to be the prettiest town square in Mexico.

Town Square

In the center, a filigreed gazebo shaded by tall palms was surrounded by splashing fountains, bronze sculptures, and park benches. Exquisite historic buildings bordered the park on all sides, but my eyes went immediately to the magnificent brick Palacio Municipal. Constructed between 1903 and 1907, the relative youth of the Palacio Municipal does not detract from its majestic appearance. Built in the traditional rectangle style with an open-air interior courtyard, the building occupies an entire city block. Five archways lead through its brick exterior to a sun-splashed inner courtyard with a burbling central fountain. Pink and peach bougainvillas frame two levels of salmon color arches all around, and an historic mural covers the stairwell leading to the second level.

Interior of the El Fuerte's Palacio Municipal

Half of the mural on the stairwell at Palacio Municipal

Second half of the mural on the stairwell at Palacio Municipal

Palacio Municipal at night

Much older but no less beautiful buildings anchor other sides of the square. El Fuerte‘s principal church thrusts its pink and white tower high over a hand-laid stone chapel, while the white arches of Casa de los Portales mirrors the Palacio, directly across the park. Continue reading →

Posted in Mexico travel |

Tagged adventure, Barranca del Cobre, blogsherpa, colonial architecture, Copper Canyon, culture, El Fuerte, historic, Los Mochis, magico mexico, Mexico, northwest Mexico, Palacio Municipal, Rio Vista Hotel, Travel |

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El Chepe Train through Copper Canyon, Mexico

Published March 24, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

Can’t see the above YouTube video of the famous El Chepe train ride through Copper Canyon, Mexico? Click here.

Posted in Videos |

Tagged Bahuichivo, Barrancas del Cobre, Chihuahua, Chihuahua-Pacifico Railroad, Copper Canyon, cultural travel, culture, El Chepe, El Fuerte, Mexico, Sinaloa, Tarahumara Indians, trains, Travel, trestle bridges, tunnels, videos |

An Adventure in Copper Canyon, Mexico, Chapter One

Published March 23, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

This entry is part 1 of 15 in the series Copper Canyon, Mexico

The first time my bus was pulled over by the Federal Police, the officer who boarded walked right by me without a glance. He asked the young man behind me where he was going and demanded to see his ID. All the way to the back, he questioned and checked the papers of young men. Five of them were eventually hauled off, lined up on the shoulder and patted down, following which their luggage was removed from the bay and searched. Everyone on the bus craned out the right-hand windows, trying to figure out what was going on. “Que pasa?” I asked an older couple. “Pensamos que son Hondurenos sin papeles, pero no sabemos por cierto.” We think they are Hondurans without proper identification, but we don’t know for sure. Finding nothing, the officers allowed all the men to reboard and we were on our way again.

The second time even more of the passengers were questioned, but again the officers studiously ignored me. “What am I, invisible?” I muttered under my breath. When we stopped in Culiacan for lunch, I asked a guard at the station if this was normal. “Si, they are looking for drug and guns and illegals without proper ID. Nothing to worry about,” she insisted, wishing me safe travels.

Back on the bus, it wasn’t long before we were stopped for a third search. This time, the officer stopped at my seat and turned toward me. Black boots buffed to a high shine peeked from beneath his crisply pressed uniform. A coal black mustache was perfectly trimmed a millimeter above his upper lip and not a single strand of hair was out of place. My face reflected back at me from mirrored sunglasses that masked his eyes; I looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Como estas?” he asked, his chilling smile revealing perfect, pearly whites. “Bien……bien,” I stammered, wishing I was invisible. During the ride we were stopped and searched four times by the Federal police and a fifth time for a “plant inspection,” turning a six hour bus ride into eight hours.

This was just the latest in a series of problems that had begin 24 hours earlier when I arrived on Sunday afternoon at the ferry terminal to sail from La Paz to Topolobampo for the first phase in my Copper Canyon adventure. Although the schedule on the Baja Ferries website showed a boat leaving La Paz at 11 p.m. every Sunday, when I tried to buy a ticket the girl behind the window shook her head and said. “No hay,” – there is none. “There is a boat at the dock,” I insisted. “Where is it going?” Between her indifferent attitude and the thick plexiglass that separated us, I couldn’t understand a word she said. Time and time again I tried, but the more frustrated I became, the less Spanish I understood and each explanation she offered seemed to somehow contradict the last. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders, repeated “no hay,” and turned her attention to the next person in line. Continue reading →

Posted in Mexico travel |