Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween in Creel

Halloween is upon us. It's very interesting, here in Creel, instead of saying "trick or treat," or the Spanish equivalent, the kids say "Halloween." Also, it looks like they primarily go into stores and restaurants instead of people's homes. Anyway, today was a very busy day for us. Being the adventurers that we are we decided to go out on our own in the valleys around Creel. There are some magnificent rock formations in these valleys, the valley of the frogs, valley of the mushrooms and valley of the monks. Our map was somewhat less than completely accurate and we got off track a few miles in. Luckily we found some locals who showed us where we could cut across a farm. Here we saw some cows going out to pasture and got barked at by some very aggressive dogs. We basically asked for directions from every local we came across, which was very helpful as there were no other tourists doing the walk and no signs. In addition to seeing the valleys, we visited Mission San Ignacio, built over 300 years ago. This area is inhabited by an indigenous group, the Tarahumara, also known as pies ligeros(light feet) because they run long distances. Speaking of going long distances, we walked about twelve miles and finally arrived at Lake Arereco. The lake was practically empty, it's the low season for tourism and the scene was very picturesque. After resting for a bit, we decided to walk up the highway to get back to the city. We didn't realize how tired we were and after a mile or two we flagged down some locals and hopped into the back of their pickup truck. They were heading into the city to get gas so we thanked them and I gave the driver ten pesos, for which he seemed really surprised. We came back to our hotel for a quick siesta and then went into the downtown area for a burrito and a quesadilla along with two "Esprites." The city is overrun with kids out trick or treating, can't wait to see what tomorrow is like for Día de Los Muertos.

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