Tramps

After a rather awkward stay in Mexicali, we headed to the trainyard to (finally) go south. Soon after we got there we met Luis, another train hopper. He was headed south to Mexico City, so the 3 of us decided to stick together.

Mexicali was my first experience hopping a freight train in any country. Luckily, the train was going pretty slow when we got on and Josh and Luis described to me very thoroghly how to board a moving car. Although my entrance wasn't at all graceful, it was successful. Unfortunately, neither of them gave me detailed directions on how to get off a moving train, and I ate shit twice before they finally explained to me that you have to run with the train. Duh!

I´ve been finding riding freight trains to be surprisingly comfortable and really fun. Compared with passenger trains, there´s way more space to move around and you get better views because you can climb on top of the cars. Because freight train riding is legal here, the crew in the yards have been really helpful to us, and they often let us get on the train in the yard before it starts moving.

It took us 3 days to get to Serfragio, where we took another train north into Chihuahua through Copper Canyon. From the yard, we hitch hiked back to Creel, a small town in the canyon which serves as a center for the tourism industry there. Somewhere between the train and the cold ride through the mountains, I started to feel incredibly ill. By the time we got off in Creel, I was so sick I could barely move. Josh and Luis started asking around for places to stay, and quickly found an old drunk named Jesus who offered us a small house for free. That night, we slept in a warm bed in a cabin with a wood burning stove. What a nice surprise!

I spent the next day in bed feeling only slightly better. It turned out that Jesus´s generosity was in some ways too good to be true. Although he told us that he used the cabin only for drinking and had another house he stayed at, his sister stopped by that afternoon and asked us why he wasn´t staying there: it was his house. Later, his tweaker wife saw us there, freaked out, and took the bed out of the cabin. That night Jesus squeezed in with us on top of about 8 blankets. We were happy to have a place to stay, but decided it would be best to leave the next morning.

So, we hitch hiked to Rikowata, where we hiked down into the canyon to some hot springs. Actually, the springs were more just warm, but they flowed so much water into the river there that it was really comfortable to swim. We camped out and swam and hiked the next day, too. After checking out the amazing views of the canyon at Divisadero, we headed back to San Rafael to catch the train again.

Last night, after another 24 hours of train hopping, we arrived in Mazatlan. We are now trying to find a small house to rent for a few weeks so we can relax and recharge. I am really exhausted to be honest, and I´m excited to have a home base, if only for a short time. Also, finally got around to uploading some more photos!