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We left Creel in the morning... caught a bus to Batopilas, 140 km south. The vehicle was something rickety... an old school bus or former convict van. We all filed on and the thing rattled on its way. We headed into the eidejo... passed the waters of Lake Arareko. It was something serene, a real postcard... blue stillness flanked by pines and smooth rock. We continued on and shortly began our voyage through several canyons. The road would creep around the edge... the great and dramatic chasm would open up... sheer size engulfing... we'd descend by turns... giant peaks around us... then we'd go up again... creep around a corner to the next. Some hours this went on... the climbing and falling through canyons... each as expansive as the last. Finally we turned onto a dirt track and the vehicle ground and churned through the forest. After another hour or so... numerous turns and bumps... we arrived at the rim of Batopilas canyon, some 1700m deep. The drop was something sheer... we could make out the river at the bottom... the road zig zagged down sharply... the bus made impossible turns. Meanwhile the mountains were stacked on tiers... something like a tower of Babel.
When we reached the river we followed it around and met with La Bufa... a few wooden shacks, a doorless outhouse perched on the rim of the drop. We took a ten minute break there... scratched around in the stifling heat. It took two more hours of incessent winding to reach Batopilas.
The town was two blocks deep and flanked the river a kilometre or so... children splashed around in it... women scrubbed their laundry on the rocks. The heat was stupendous, almost tropical. Palm trees reached up above the narrow streets. Local fauna comprised giant bugs, humming birds, vultures and dogs. We spotted a decomposing tarantula on the pavement. There were twoplazas in town... each with the ubiquitos bandstand and orange street lamps for illumination. The locals engage in the typical past time of standing in doorways and silently staring at human traffic. There's a rough edge to Batopilas.
Arriving in the afternoon, we found ourselves debilitated by the heat. We decided to attempt a hike the next morning, when it was cooler. We woke up at six and had breakfast at Claritas. Then we made the journey along the river to the Satevo mission. Satevo is a mysterious Cathedral located in a nowhere patch 8km from town... theres never been a local population large enough to merit its size. In fact, until recently, theres never been a local population at all. Its rumoured that the Padre used to dump the bodies of impregnated girlfrieds in the catacombs. He wanted to avoid a scandal….
TO BE CONTINUED