| Past Posada Barrancas we passed several Indian
villages. Although the train didn't stop the stations were quite full of
people as the second class train would be along soon. This is a lifeline to
these communities. |  |
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The houses are simple but most have a car or a pickup, and an air
conditioner and water tank on the roof (and often a satellite dish). The
roofs are mostly corrugated iron and with little insulation. |
| Every station along the way seemed to have a woodstack
waiting to be loaded. |  |
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I thought willow trees only flourished near lots of water. There is a small
river here but these seem to be doing well, perhaps they are not willows... |
| Most of the stations hae a collection of food stalls
and other stalls selling handicrafts. |  |
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And people congregate wherever there is shade. Today is both a Sunday and a
holiday weekend in Mexico, so everybody seems to be just 'chilling out'. |
| As soon as we reached somewhere the train does stop
(like San Rafael) hordes of Tarahumara basket sellers appeared rushing
across the tracks, with their children. |  |
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They clustered round every door of the train even though few people were
buying, since the train was still not full. They are not pushy, they just
stand patiently showing their baskets and hoping for a sale. |
| Not everybody was selling baskets, this enterprising
lad was selling food. But not very actively. |  |
| The second class train was waiting for us to pass. Its
cars are red rather than orange, it is slightly longer, and I suspect it
does not have the bar and restaurant car. It was quite full. |  |
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When we had both left, the tracks would be clear and this little trackcar
could set off for wherever it was going. |
| In the yard logs were being loaded with the aid of a
forklift. No Prentice loader here. |  |
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And so on through the canyons and ravines, now moving ever downwards. |
| The locomotives did not have to work so hard now. Just
as well since number two was still smoking well. |  |
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The bridges and tunnels seemed to run one into another as we headed towards
Temoris. |
| I missed this on the way up. It is a monument
celebrating the completion of the railway in 1961. I guess the notice on the
far side says something like that. It was too far away to see and it is a
long way above Temoris station. It seems to be made up of an old loco
and a set of scrap ore wagons. |  |
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Another shot of the same monument. |
| Further down the valley we passed a waterfall. There
are many on the trip but most are dry at this time of year. |  |
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Almost to level ground now and the long run in past the lake to El Fuerte
and Los Mochis begins. We are still a couple of hours from the end of our
journey. |
| Back over the long bridge and we can again see the
difference between low and high water levels. |  |
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Looking back towards the bridge we have just crossed. Sorry about the pole
in the way. |
| As we reach the plain and look back, the mountains of
the Sierra Tarahumara stand out impressively. They are a difficult barrier
to cross and remind us that it took almost 80 years to build the railroad
through the canyons. |  |
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So we get ready to leave the train. There was a party of six American RVers
who had come down on a guided tour who were getting off at El Fuerte with
us. But they were doing the trip the other way round, starting in Creel. It
is supposed to be better the way we travelled. Our taxi was there to meet
us, despite the train being an hour late. Timings are only guides and the
train may be early or late. |
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