Las Barrancas del Cobre

The final days of my trip were some of the best. I caught the train in El Fuerte, which is also where I met Allan and Jillian, Australians who are traveling the world for a year! I am so jealous of their adventures. I was very happy to share in just a couple days of their world tour. 

Here are some of the journal entries I made while I was up in the mountains, and some photos:

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Zip lining! So fun! One of the best days of my trip. We left early for a van ride to the park entrance, where I, my two Australian friends, and about 6 or 7 other people from our hotel registered for the zip line tour (the registration form, presumably holding the park harmless should we fall, was all in Spanish; who knows what we really agreed to). There was some waiting around, then we got equipped and suited up and got a demonstration, in Spanish with a translator, of hand signals, how to break, etc. By now, some others had joined our group to be guided across the various zip lines and suspension bridges: a couple from Aguascaliente, another couple that was Spanish-speaking but I didn’t catch where they are from, and a young couple---the man from Guadalajara and the woman from Germany, who also speaks fluent Spanish and English. She has been working for a year in Guadalajara in a school for disadvantaged children, but soon she has to go back to Germany to finish her education.

I actually thought the suspension bridges were more frightening than the zip lines. I could look down between the wooden slats and see how far I could fall. We were hooked on to a cable, but only with one hook, not the massive pulley system we use for the zip lines. Basically, we were on our own to hold on and walk across---the hook would save us only from falling to our deaths, not from falling off the bridge. I walked very, very slowly.

Later, after lunch, we hung out on the terrace at the hotel and watched humming birds. My room is far, far above the common areas of the hotel, up many, many steps. The first day, I got a ride up in a van. But today, I have now walked up three times, and I am ready to go back to the van rides! My legs are shaky---in part from walking so many stairs, in part from scary suspension bridges, and in part from zip lining. At one point, on the longest zip line, I noticed that there seemed to be more space in my harness; I did briefly think it might be slipping off. Then I realized that this was the first time while actually zipping across that I had breathed. It was just my abdomen moving with my breath. It really was exhilarating.

Stepping onto the suspension bridge. That first step was terrifying.

But equally terrifying was realizing I had gone half way, and I could not turn back but only keep going. 

Zipping.

Allan and the German teacher crossing the suspension bridge.

Finished and feeling so proud of ourselves!

 

View of the canyon from my room.

Sunrise over the canyon.