Copper Canyon, Chihuahua

Chepe was born more than one hundred years ago, in a North American visionary's mind when projecting a new civilization in the Mexican Pacific coast. But Chepe didn't see a complete road till 1961, when the need for a train faded with the functionality of highways and the comfort of planes. In that year, the Mexican government purchased several companies that were building and operating stretches of railways, blending them in one: the Copper Canyon route.

Affectionately known as Chepe for its acronym, this train is an engineering wonder that always offered challenges to its creators. However, through technological and social revolutions, heights and depths it travels persistently one of the most remote and steep landscapes on Earth, while its thin railroad borders the canyons of history with stoicism.

Today its utility is reduced to tourism, but it never ceases to make us feel astonished by its beauty, inside as well as outside, from the beginning to the end. Chepe is as attractive for technology fans as it is for landscape seekers. It is recommended to start off at Los Mochis, in the state of Sinaloa, because you’ll be able to observe most part of the surroundings in daylight. It is also recommended to stay overnight at Divisadero and hike around.

When advancing towards the Sierra Tarahumara from the tropical lowlands, the slow ascent will begin from about 130 feet above the sea level, to 8000 feet above the sea level on its highest point. In exchange for your patience you will get the view of Copper Canyon, a much deeper and larger canyon system than the Great Canyon. This canyon has been the refuge from which the Tarahumara Indians have resisted the Spanish influence, becoming one of the most pure Native American cultures nowadays.

When descending you'll see rivers and lakes from your window. Later you’ll pass through prairies sowed with wheat, oats and apples by the Mennonites, European immigrants chased for religious issues, which found a home in Chihuahua at the beginning of the 20th century.

As you can see, there are many pretexts to travel with Chepe. It has been called the most impressive train trip on the Western Hemisphere for a reason.