Caborachi - Part 4 - Food Deliveries and Cerro Grande

On Tuesday of our trip we traveled with the Finches to a neighboring valley to drop off food. Apparently it is a bad food year in their area. The rains came late, and the corn that was planted early all died. The Finches happen to have a generous donor who donated $8,000 to buy food for the Tarahumara. When we arrived the Finches' kitchen was full of rice, beans, oil, tuna, and sardines. By the time we left, it was all almost gone.

The house pictured here was the house of the governor or chief of the tribe. He and the other men gathered to meet us and they would distribute the food.


The day was freezing (it barely got above the forties) and it was raining.

The women and children were very shy. It took us being there almost a half an hour for them to emerge from the house. That pot held some sort of corn concoction.We did end up getting to go inside the house. I didn't get a picture, but to sum it up, it held a wood stove in the center and two planks with blankets on top of them that I think served as beds. Other than some saved bags and cans in the corner. . . that was it.

That afternoon, in the rain and fog, Jay and I climbed Cerro Grande, the tallest mountain in the valley.

This is a picture of us about half-way up. You can see Caborachi in the distance.

This is a picture from the very top. . . we couldn't see a thing the fog was so thick.

Also, at one point we sort of lost the trail. . . stuck in the bushes, we thought it was an appropriate picture moment.

The next day we went to Rancheria, another nearby valley to deliver more food. They weren't expecting us, so we ended up leaving the food with the school teacher at the one-room school house. Then we set off down the valley to tell the people there that there was food waiting for them.

There was a trail part of the way and we forged the trail the rest of the way.

The valley was beautiful, and a lot more rustic than we had seen up to that point.

After we recovered from that hike, Jay and I took off on the bike to try and find a cave from his childhood that he remembered camping at.
It took much longer than we thought, but eventually we found it. Inside there was an old grain mill and a goat pen.

Much later, after dark, we ended up hot-tubbing with the Finches. Yes - Hot-Tubbing. They got one this past year, and we had a great time with them, just talking and enjoying the evening.

We caught the bus at Agua Azul the next morning. We went with another bus line than the one that we travelled (most of the way) there on. With the help of Dramamine, I had a wonderful trip back to Chihuahua.

We got back to our little house and our very excited Prince around 2:30 in the afternoon, and thus ended our Caborachi adventure.

End Note: Between Jay and I we took about 300 pictures in 5 days. This is just a warning. When we see you all at Christmas, be prepared to look at albums and relive the trip once again!