Today was the day to go to the famous Mexico Zipline, the biggest in the world.  We set up a driver to take us to the Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon) the night before but after waking up early and waiting around for him, we ended up having to call him and wake him up.  Once there he drove us to the center of town where we switched to a different car with a different driver.  This guy was a real Mexican cowboy with white hat and pointy snake skin boots.  He drove fast out of Creel on the road which follows the famous tourist train, El Chepe, into the the deeper parts of the canyon.

Mexico Zipline in Barrancas del Cobre Adventure Park!

The views were magnificent as we passed through small towns of tiny log cabins and indigenous people looking for rides.  This area was home to the Tarahumara (or “Raramuri” as they call themselves) people, famous for trail running (check out the book Born to Run) and the women’s colorful skirts.  Supposedly it is also a hideout for many narcos, as we were advised by our Mexican friend from the area keep to the main road.  We headed for Parque de Aventura Barrancas del Cobre, the adventure park, and stopped about 10km out to check out a mirador (view point).  The view was grand, reminding us of the US southwest with its pines and high desert colors.  There was a family of indigenous people selling pretty jewelry, woven blankets, and baskets made from maguey leaves.

Up ahead was the park.  We paid 20 pesos each to enter and were left off at the lodge overlooking the canyon.  He was were you found a restaurant/bar, many shops, along with the “adventure” part consisting of a seven-zipline route with hiking, a rappel and ropes course, and the world’s longest zipline that took you three km into a point in the center of the canyon.  From there you rode back to the lodge on a teleferico (cable car).  Edward Abbey would have rolled over in his grave, but this is Mexico and they don’t always have the same ideas about conservation and such.  To our eyes it seemed like the adventure park actually brought many more tourists (hence more money to the area and the locals) to Barrancas del Cobre than would otherwise come.  Hopefully the increase in tourism is helping with conservation.  The ziplines were quite expensive for Mexican standards and few of the locals we asked had actually tried it.  We ended up buying the seven-zipline and rappel course as a package, and were ushered off to get harnessed up.  First up was a 48-meter rappel onto a ledge below, woo!   Next we followed a path which involved climbing rebar steps bolted into the sides of the rock hanging over gaping chasms, then a rope bridge, a Tarzan swing across a chasm, a four-wire bridge, more rebar traversing, a windblown tightrope bridge about 100ft off the ground, then finally up a chimney.  It was way cooler and more thrilling than we imagined, and the guides practiced safe procedures.

Back on top we were told that the Mexico zipline park wouldn’t start for 45 min so we would have to wait, problem was that we needed to leave with our driver before then.  After expressing our frustration, they agreed to let us do the ZipRider, the world’s longest and fastest (2.5 km long and reaching speeds up to 80mph) zipline for the same price, which we were glad to do!  After waiting behind a family of 16 (it went two at a time and took 2.5 min to get to the bottom), and some standard Mexican slowdowns (they had to wait for the cable car to bring the harnesses back up) it was finally our turn.  Here is a video of our ride on the Mexico zipline in Barrancas del Cobre Adventure Park!!

The view from the end of the Ziprider

Back up top we looked for our driver, who was nowhere to be found.  We got worried cause we were late, but of course he was just later than we were.  We got some delicious gorditas while waiting.  On the drive back to Creel, we stopped at Divisadero, the main train stop with a cliffside hotel and gorgeous view into the canyon.  Back in town we got some chicken soup since it was cold and had a chill night, buying bus tickets and souvenirs, very glad we had came to this place far into the depths of Mexico.

Crafts market at Divisadero

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