In the morning, we took off for a sightseeing drive in a rather unusual mode of transport:
Terry opted to ride inside. We stopped along the way to get snacks from a local tienda:
...and eventually stopped at a mirador - that is, a lookout point with an impressive view of Gallego Canyon, one of the canyons in the Copper Canyon complex:
Notice that in the second picture, you can see the town of Urique (oo-REE-kay) at the bottom of the canyon. Now take a look at a map of the area:
You can see the road from Cerocahui, past the lodge and mirador, and down to Urique. It looks like the road doesn't go all the way to Urique, but it actually does, as you can see on this closeup map:
Also notice that there are a few roads leading away from the town. But all of those roads lead to dead ends (trust me, I checked them all). Which means that long and winding road is the only way into or out of Urique!
Just imagine living in a place where the only access to the rest of the world is about 24 miles of twisty dirt road. Talk about isolated. I expressed concern as to how they get food and other supplies, and Juan told me that there's a truck that makes a delivery every day. I'd hate to have the job of driving that truck...
Later that day, after we drove back to the lodge (on the inside of the car, this time), we walked up the road a ways, and then off the road a ways, until we came to an adobe house:
...which, despite its appearance, had modern conveniences:
Inside the house, we met Lourdes Perez Cancio, a local Raramuri woman who is a friend of the family that runs the lodge - in fact, her two daughters work there. When we arrived, Lourdes was busy roasting corn kernels on the stove:
When the corn was roasted, she collected it in baskets:
...and then took it outside to grind it:
Terry and I tried our hand at grinding the corn:
...but didn't do too well. I suppose it takes practice. Esmond also tried his hand at it, and did somewhat better than we did.
Anyway, Lourdes then took the ground corn inside and shook it to separate the larger pieces from the smaller ones:
The larger pieces go to feed the chickens:
The smaller pieces are now what is called pinole (pee-NO-lay) (w):
...which is a staple food of the Taramahura people. It can be used in a variety of ways, and Lourdes showed us how to make it into a drink called pinolillo (pee-no-LEE-oh). Apparently, it can be mixed with various substances, like vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon, etc. We just mixed it with sugar and water:
...and drank it. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it very much, although of course I didn't say so.