Sunday, May 14, 2000
The Happy Honeymooners
The ladies (Nancy, Gail, Kathleen, and Wanda) talked Margarita
into packing us all a lunch - sandwiches and bananas. They all
spoke Spanish and had traveled everywhere. I don’t think you could
name a place on Earth that at least one of them had not been. It
made for some very interesting conversation.
The road to Batopilas was even more spectacular than the Copper
Canyon train! But it was kind of scary, especially when we met
vehicles coming from the other direction. Narrow, narrow, bumpy,
curvy road. We almost ran head-on into a Corona truck near the
bottom of the canyon. Memorials to the unsuccessful motorists were
all along the road. The journey was 84 miles and took 5 hours. I
repeat: 84 miles, 5 hours.
One of many memorials to unsuccessful motorists
The first two hours wound around above some of the smaller
canyons, then suddenly we were at the rim of the huge Batopilas
Canyon! At that point we were 5,904 feet above the bottom of the
canyon. Compare that with the Grand Canyon which is 4,674 feet
deep. Mario, the driver, pulled over several times so we could take
photos.
Scary roads
The drive down this incredibly scary road to the bottom took
about four hours, then we still had another hour to go. We stopped
at a tiny old mining "town" called La Bufa when we finally reached
the bottom. We scored some cerveza at the only tienda and drank
them in the brutal heat while looking over the huge pile of mine
tailings.
Batopilas is a long, narrow town along a single road. We found
it to be less charming than we expected. The town is wired for
electricity, but apparently they run a generator for only a couple
of hours a night. It’s brutally hot, and that’s from a guy who
loves hot weather. We stayed at Hotel Mary, which would have been a
nice place if it weren’t so damned hot! We both took 2 cold showers
just to survive. The only beverages available in town were warm
ones.
Mario drove us about four miles out of town to Satevo about
6:00 p.m. to visit the triple-domed mission church - very cool. It
has been called the "Lost Cathedral," but that’s another
(incorrect) story. The ladies didn’t think it was as cool as we did
- their loss. We climbed the rickety ladders into the tower, and I
could not resist ringing the bell. We thought it was an amazing
place, especially considering its location.
The mission at Satevo
On the mission grounds
The restaurant was closed at our hotel, so Mario arranged for
us to eat elsewhere. Our travel book called it "Local Legend Doña
Mica." We called it inadequate. Bizarre dinner of soup as an
appetizer and soup for a main course, and not very much of it. We
ate on this lady’s front porch as a baby screamed at the top of its
lungs in the next room the entire time. Batopilas is supposed to be
a "dry" town, but Mario found some warm Tecate wrapped in
newspaper. Drinking laws in Mexico are strange, but fortunately
they are also meaningless.
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