We left Posada Barrancas at the rim of Copper Canyon at about 9:30 in the morning and got to Creel about an hour later. It's about 47 km away. Creel's elevation is 2326 m and it's latitude is 27 degrees N. Highway #77was a fine road with few cars. We knew where we were going to stay (definitely not the Best Western) and it was just a matter of finding the right room at Quinta Mision, the new hotel we had checked out a few days before (Quinta Mision, Av. Lopez Mateos 69, Creel, Chih, Mexico, tel. (635)456-0021,cell 045-(635)592-3600, 01-800-711-4268, e-mail: direccion@quintamision.com, gerencia@quintamision.com, web: www.quintamision.com).
We chose the Jacuzzi room at the far end of the building (No. 10). It was long with windows only at one end (which also has a sliding glass door that served as the front door). Inside there was a table for 4, a sofa with a coffee table that was brought in from the veranda, a desk, a flat screen TV, a queen bed, lots of storage, a kitchenette area with a microwave, a mini fridge, a sink, a counter and lots of storage (in short there were all of the comforts of home).The Jacuzzi room with lots of candles and was very nicely decorated. We negotiated a rate of M$950 for the Jacuzzi room (without breakfast).
One of us used the desk (Audre so we could connect her computer to the TV by cable and listen to our own music or watch our shows on the TV). Dimitri used part of the dining table for his desk. The most surprising and delightful discovery was that if we took our computers to the veranda area outside our door, we had free wi-fi Internet. After 3 days without it (because we did not want to pay the exorbitant fee that Posadas Barrancas Mirador charged) we could re-connect with the world and find out that not much had changed. It was new hotel (actually still unfinished) and we love a new hotel! We thought that we should extend our stay because the room was so good but we had places to go and things to see.
We had our lunch (furnished by Posadas Barrancas Mirador in a box as our last meal included in the room rate) at our dining table listening to our music on the TV delivered from Audre's computer by cable. Nice.
We took our bikes off of the back of the car and went for a 2 hour bike ride on dirt roads to San Ignacio de Arareko. This is one of the "must see" places in Creel. There is an admission fee of M$20 per person. It is 1 km southeast of Creel and it is the Rarámuri “ejido.” It spreads over some 200 sq km and is home to about 4000 people living in caves and small houses among farmlands, small canyons and pine forests. The road leads to the Valle de la Ramas y los Hongos (Valley of frogs and mushrooms). The San Ignacio Mission Church is a photogenic 18th century church or so the guide book said. We recognized the mushrooms but never saw any rock that looked like a frog. Basically our ride was a cultural one. We were seeing what a Rarámuri “ejido" looks like. It was pretty uninteresting.
It was hot that day and we returned to our hotel and took a lovely Jacuzzi together (we put in bubble bath that Audre carries). Before dinner we stopped at the tour agency that Lonely Planet recommends called Los 3 Amigos (Av. Lopez Mateos 46, Creel, Chih. tel. 456-0036, web: www.amigos3.com). We wanted to know if there was any other biking or touristing that we should do in the Creel area. Basically we found out that there were no flights (helicopter or otherwise) at this time in Copper Canyon and that we had "done" Creel.
We went to Restauant Veronica (A. Lopez Mateos 33, Creel, Chih. tel. 456-0092) for dinner and spent M$148 plus tip for a meal we were not impressed with. We were brought chips (tostadas) and green chili salsa. We ordered Asado en chile colorada ($79) for Dimitri and one Enchilada (Antojitas)for Audre ($59), one Negro Modelo beer ($22) and one Water ($10). It would have been a poor experience except that there was another table with two women at it. We talked to them and they told us that there was a good road to our next destination of Guachochi and the best place to stay would be Cabanas Melina if we wanted to stay outside of town, in the countryside.
We went back to our hotel and watched one of our shows that we had streamed on our computer. We watched on the flat screen TV in our room. We decided to move on to Guachochi the next morning.
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