(Nov 15 – 16, 2017)

Prior to coming to Creel we had booked an overnight tour with Eco AlterNATIVE Tours. We were not sure what to expect from the tour, we just knew that we would be visiting a village of the Raramuri people.

The Raramuri (incorrectly called Tarahumara by the colonial Spanish) are an indigenous group of people who live in the Sierra Madre Occidental surrounding el Barranco Del Cobre (Copper Canyon). Before taking the tour we knew that they were exceptional distance runners and that they were relatively successful in keeping their culture largely intact in spite of encroaching modernity.

Our guide, and co-owner of Eco AlterNATIVE Tours, Daniella, drove us and a couple from England out of Creel and towards the village of San Luis de Majimachi. Along the way she spoke about the difficulties facing the Raramuri, things like the government building an airport on their land without consulting them or compensating them, or land expropriation for resorts where active communities still resided in traditional peace and harmony. Daniella also discussed Raramuri beliefs and practices from the perspective of her personal connection to the community and her extensive studies in anthopology both in the U.S.A.  and locally at the University of Chihuahua.

I can’t even begin to tell of everything we learned about these people. They are a spiritual, gentle, generous people who live a pastoral life and believe the things they give away in this life will await them in their afterlife (an important system of care and sharing in their communities with no strings attached). The running races for which they are known are actually team efforts, with townspeople along the route assisting their favourite runners with nourishment, encouragement and massages. They live in adobe and wood structures and cook their meals over wood burning stoves while their children may watch satellite TV in the adjoining structure. They have many fiestas that are of great importance; one such festival takes place once a year and ensures that rain comes to the earth, not necessarily where they live, but somewhere on earth and they perform this ceremony each year even if they do not themselves benefit from the rains that year. They raise goats, pigs, sheep, cattle and chickens, keep a few burros, grow corn, beans, squash and some wheat. They are almost completely self sufficient.

Our host at the village was a Raramuri woman by the name of Michaella. She cooked us a simple but tasty lunch of soup, beans, corn and tortillas, and after lunch she lead us on a walk through fields and forest on the rim of el Barranco del Cobre. We were rewarded with a very private view of the canyon, one which few tourists get the privilege to see, with a “money shot right to the water”.

As we were approaching one of the view points, we could see a young man crouch down behind a stacked stone wall. Daniella quickly advised us to not point, that it was possible that the young man was a scout for marijuana growers, watching over the fields from a high vantage point in order to be able to warn his bosses if any unwanted visitors were heading towards the fields. We stood metres from the boy and enjoyed the view, careful to not take his photograph.

On the return hike to the village, Michaella suddenly stopped and spoke in Spanish to Daniella. There was a snake on the trail. Daniella said that this was a first for her, she had never seen a snake on one of these hikes, would we like to take a look….ah, no, that’s okay.

Derek called Piper, who was ahead of us on the trail but further up the slope, thinking that she would return to us up slope of the snake. Instead she dropped down to our trail and ran to us, despite our pleas for her to stay, and stepped right on the snake’s tail…yikes! Go Pipey.

Michaella looked around, and in one quick movement stooped, grabbed a large jagged stone, and hurled the stone onto the snake! Then another, and another. There! One less poisonous snake in the Sierra! Apparently Raramuri girls go out with their goat herds and learn at a very young age to throw rocks to kill things that may endanger them or the goats.

We returned to the village and said goodbye to Daniella and the English couple for the evening. While we were hiking our tent for the night had been set up and we got organised, hung out enjoying the sunset and a bit of Tequila we had brought with us while Michaella prepared our dinner.

After dinner we retired to our tent and lay under the incredible starry night listening to the clang of the bells around the goats’ necks as they munched on the debris left over from the last crop of corn. Cattle and pigs rustled in the field as well, and occasionally we were woken by braying donkeys, their loud calls echoing off the rock walls surrounding the village. Roosters started to crow and dogs began to bark long before daybreak, removing any chance that we may sleep in past breakfast.

Oh, yeah, speaking of roosters…shortly after we arrived at the village, Piper decided that a free range chicken would be a nice midday snack. Derek was able to call her off before she killed it, but she did come away with a large mouthful of black feathers. Daniella later told Derek that dogs in the village that do not learn to leave the livestock alone and do not bark are not around very long….

Daniella returned the next morning for the drive home and more talk about the Raramuri people.

The Raramuri believe that when their god (their father) created them, that he first made a brown clay figure, into which he breathed life. Their god’s older brother also wanted to create people, and he made a figure out of white clay. When he asked his younger brother how he made the clay live, the Raramuri ‘s god started with “You blow air on them…” and before he could finish, his older brother, anxious to create, ran and blew on his white clay figure. What the Raramuri god wanted to tell the older brother, is that you need to blow three times on the figurine. Because of this, the Raramuri have three souls (four for women as they need the extra soul to give birth), but white men have only one.