The train doesn't go down to the floor of the canyon. It leaves Chihuahua where we went to confirm our tickets and goes to the coast. We chose to ride between some intermediate stops which were nonetheless 300km apart and therefore involved an overnight stay.
We boarded at Creel. Creel was where we would have started our descent into the canyon if we had ridden down. Our guidebook described Creel in the 1990's as a one street cowboy town. It wasn't that different now except that the cowboys were riding 4x4s rather than horses. There were also a large number of Tarahumara indigenous people in Creel, called the Raramuri. They are renowned for their running abilities especially ultra-marathons - Paramaribo is supposed to mean 'the running people' and of course, a bit like the Nike Maasai warrior advert from some years ago, they shun modern running footwear. The ladies all have a distinctive dress sense too. Look up the book, 'Born to run', by Christopher McDougall.
We are not sure why the train was built. It certainly provides a link from Chihuahua to the coast but the line was finished in 1961 when mining activity was dwindling. It's not for us to say but it seems like a folly to us. The train goes where it can and doesn't link all the best tourist viewpoints. We travelled Economy as opposed to Business or First Class which meant that the carriage windows were smaller and probably not cleaned as often. The train was advertised as an Express but it was a 7 hour ride and even with three locomotives it never went that fast, but there were few straight lines and on the way back we were climbing about 2,300m. Photographs were not easy; the sun was in the wrong place, there were embankments and trees blocking the view. It is also bone dry. There was very little rain in last year's rainy season and this year's hasn't started yet. So rivers and waterfalls were dried up and the views were often lacking in green.
Our overnight stop after the 300km was in El Fuerte which was another colonial outposts - one of many in the area. But we hadn't learned our lesson, heat and humidity wise - 38°C.
We then had two long hot days to the border. Stop over at Nuevo Casas Grandes where we simply did not have the energy to go and see the mud wall archaeological ruins - the heat, even at altitude. Incredible to note that the 40°C temperature here falls to -10°C and snow in winter. Not sure how Southeastern would deal with that; a bit more serious than leaves on the tracks in autumn. From there to the border where there was nowhere to stop for over 200km. The Great Wall of America was quite visible. In 2011 there were 650 miles of barrier. The Donald added an extra 50 miles during his Presidency (and rebuilt/strengthened quite a bit of the existing) and Joe Biden has committed to completing the necessary infill panels. The Great Wall is only in the West. In the centre and the East the border is the river and presumably the USA will be taking a lead from the UK on how to deal with small boat crossings...
The Border for us was interesting as we were ushered straight into the USA without being checked out of Mexico - passing 'out' meant we could collect the $400US bond on the bike. So having entered the USA with no hitches whatsoever, we had to do a U-turn and come back into Mexico to log out at the Mexican Migracion facility before doing another U-turn back into the USA. Which is where we are now with the two days spare to cover illness and breakdown still intact. Just short of 6,000km excluding our train journey and 32 nights in Mexico - we are still 'late' compared to our outline planning, but not as much.
