PART 2:
I think I forgot to mention that this was not my first trip to the Copper Canyon. My friend and I have visited for a few days in 2015, but we only went to Posada Barrancas (Areponápuchi) and Creel that time.
CREEL:
We spent 4 nights in Creel altogether - 3 of them at Hotel La Estación and 1 in Hotel María (brand new building), because the other hotel was fully booked for that night and they arranged the swap for us. Both hotels were very nice and breakfast at Hotel Estación was included - always consisting of eggs, waffles, some fruits with yogurt and granola, a glass of apple juice and coffee or tea. The hotel is located at the back of the small shady plaza just south of the main plaza. There are vendors there every evening selling elotes, fruits and I think a few of them sell tacos, too.
Hotel María is hidden in a little yard just off the main street on the NE corner of Adolfo López Mateos and Elfido Batista Caro. I didn't see any signs indicating that a hotel was there and even our local guide has not heard of the place, so it must be very new.
We basically wanted to do things the easy way, so before the trip I e-mailed a handful of hotels to ask about their prices for private tours to the places we wanted to visit. That's how we got our guide Jorge who took us on private tours every day.
There are of course much cheaper public tours you could join to visit some of these places, but we didn't want to be rushed. For example, we spent a good hour and a half exploring the Valley of the Monks. Here is what we did...
Day 1:
We started off by visiting the most interesting nearby attractions - the San Ignacio Mission, the Valley of the Mushrooms, the Valley of the Frogs. Those three places are within walking distance of each other (admission is M$40 per person). Then we continued to the Valley of the Monks (admission M$15 per person). By the way, the original Rarámuri name is "Valley of Fetility" and our guide told us that there is only one rock formation there that actually looks like a monk. Incidentally, the road there also passes the Valley of the Boobs - "Valle de las Chichis".
After that, we stopped at Lake Arareko and then moved on to the Cusárare Falls (admission M$25 per person). The waterfall is actually quite far from the parking lot and the path is lined with Rarámuri vendors, so this is a good place to buys souvenirs. There was a little girl there who entertained herself by saying "Hola!" to everyone who walked by. There must have been at least a hundred people at the bottom of the falls and we were getting tired by then, so we didn't bother going all the way down.
I already mentioned that I've been to Creel 3 years ago and this time I couldn't believe how crowded it was compared to that trip - both the town itself and the more popular places that the tours visit. It was exactly the same time of the year, so the reason has to be something else. I remember that in 2015 several locals mentioned to us that even though the region was always safe for tourists, people stopped coming there because of the troubles in the state of Chihuahua (mostly in Ciudad Juárez). Well, it looks like maybe people are finally starting to come back.
Day 2:
On the second day, we went to visit Basaseachi Falls, which is probably one of the most scenic waterfalls you'll ever see. There are several places to view the waterfall - you can go to the top of the waterfall, you can hike down to the bottom (which is fairly tough and takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours to go down and then climb back up) and there are also 3 viewpoints along the canyon rim across from the waterfall. That's where the bests views can be had. There are trails connecting all of these places, but if you want to see everything, you'll probably need 4-5 hours. (Admission to the park is M$68 per person.)
Day 3:
We didn't want to visit the Recowata Hot Springs, so for the final day we asked our guide to recommend something. We ended up going to Bocoyna (where we visited a church), Sisoguichi (where we visited another church and a waterfall outside town). We saw no other tourists at any of these places, so it was a quiet day. On the way back we visited the Cristo Rey statue on the hill above Creel and then walked down from there. That was probably the least safe I felt during the entire trip, mostly because it was a lonely area, but it was a fairly short walk down and nothing happened.
As far as food, I liked Restaurante Veronica and especially Restaurante La Cabaña. Restaurante Lupita was so so. Regarding the weather in July and it being rainy season, it usually started to be overcast in the afternoons, but didn't rain until maybe 3PM or later and only for a short time and sometimes not at all, so we were fairly lucky with the weather. When it did rain, it usually started raining as we were heading back to town after our tour or right after we arrived in Creel, so it never stopped us from doing anything we wanted to during the day.
