Caborachi - Part 1- Getting there

I have decided that this trip was so massive and full of so many stories that it is going to need more than one post.

We left this past Saturday morning to go to Caborachi, the valley where Jay grew up in. It is in the Sierra Madre Mountains in central Mexico.

Our friends, the Tylers, gave us a ride to the bus stop and we caught the 11am, Estalla Blanca bus to Guachochi.

Theoretically, the bus should have had all the amenities (bathroom, T.V., air conditioning, etc), and I say "theoretically" because I could actually see them all, but the T.V. and Air never turned on and the bathroom was locked.

The bus moved SLOW. It took us four hours to make the easy part of the trip that typically only takes 2. Part of it was the traffic and part of it was the bus driver taking his dinner break while all of us sat on the ridiculously hot bus for a half an hour.

All his stops were taking a while, so when we stopped in Balleza (about an hour and a half from Guachochi), Jay got off the bus to get me some snacks for my bus-sickness. But this stop the driver did not take his time and soon we were pulling away. . . without my husband!

I quickly racked my brain and searched my very small mental dictionary of Spanish phrases to come up with one that might stop the driver.

"MI ESPOSO! MI ESPOSO!" ("my husband!") I cried from our place in the back of the bus. The woman in front of me soon joined my cry and (I think) told the driver that there was one more person. He stops the bus and everyone looks out the window to see Jay running after us, holding the Sponge Bob sucker that he had risked being left behind to buy for me.

After twenty minutes, the bus took an unscheduled stop. . . it had broken down.

Here is a shot of our trusty steed:
Here is a shot of what we had a around us at that point:

We sat there for almost an hour, cooking in the sun, as the driver kept hitting parts of the engine with a screwdriver to try and get the bus working again. Jay suggested hitch-hiking and we prayed about the decision. As we finished praying a red pick-up truck pulled up and offered a ride for anyone who wanted it.

I looked at Jay and said, "Do you want to?"

He just got this big grin on his face and he grabbed his backpack.

So we did it. We hitch-hiked the rest of the way.

Here is a pic of us in the back of the truck:

And this was our view:



The driver generously dropped us off right at Agua Azul, which is the town at the top of the mountain, 2-3km from Caborachi.





(This video cracks Jay and I up - mostly because of my hair!)

Once we got feeling back in our legs from the ride we hiked down to Caborachi. The sun was setting, and we took a few tumbles, but soon we were at the house of Tony and Lauren Finch. Unfortunately, they weren't there. All the lights were out, the house was locked and their truck was gone.

When we asked some people in the woodshop where they were, we found out they had gone to Guachochi, presumedly to meet the bus. So, we were in the tribe but unable to rest (or eat) since our hosts were waiting for our ill-fated bus in Guachochi.

Jay and I tried to call them on our cell phones, but there is very little reception in the middle of nowhere, so once again, we prayed. As we said "Amen" we heard the beautiful sound of diesel coming down the mountain. The Finches had arrived!

We ate dinner and slept about 9 hours, and looked forward with anticipation the four days in Caborachi we had ahead of us.