Abby & Kris in Indiana: December 2007

In September, Kris and I and my brother Brad visited the parents in Chihuahua. We had a fantastic time and got to do so much! My parents are wonderful hosts and spare no expense at showing us a fabulous time. We got to try a lot of neat restaurants, experience the local sights and cultures, see Copper Canyon and even went to a wedding (very, very nice and incredibly interesting) for one of my Dad's associates, Martin.

A construction worker in the neighborhood... I had to post this picture! Isn't it neat?! Also, notice that the houses are completely built of concrete.

Downtown Chihuahua by the Cathedral

I am not exactly sure what the purpose of the painted dogs were, but they were very neat. Located around the peripheral of the square were many Chihuahua dogs painted by diffent artists. The Chihuhua pictured with my dad and I was "Dog Villa" in honor of Pancho Villa.

Downtown was decorated for their Independence Day. This is another church with a statue of Geronimo.

Dad, Brad & Kris in front of church, downtown Chihuahua

A fantastic chinese restaurant- odd, huh?!

Mom and Dad took us to the top of these three towers. From there, we could over look the entire city of Chihuahua. It resembled the sea... all you could see were lights that met the horizon.

Mom, Dad, Brad & I

Kris & I atop the mountain by the towers

While in Mexico, Kris wanted to see Copper Canyon. We decided to take a two day trip to Creel, Mexico and Copper Canyon. We stayed at a very nice Best Western in Creel and think that we might have even seen part of the Mexican Mafia while staying... very colorful story. The Governor was also staying at the same hotel while we were there. Really neat to see the helicopters flying above while being in the middle of nowhere.

Day 1 of the trip, we went on a guided tour to see waterfalls (Cascada), the lake (Arareko Laguna), Museo Loyola Arte Sacro (17th century church), fields of natural stone creations (resembling frogs, elephants, mushrooms, etc) and a Tarahumara cave where the Tarahumara actually still reside.

The Tarahumara are similar to the American Indians who feel that they have been robbed by civilization and do not contribute to society. Typically, the men are alcoholics while the women and children beg. Some sell crafts while others simply beg. Very sad to see.

http://www.reference.com/search?q=tarahumara%20

Waterfalls

Tarahumara lady making a belt to sell to the tourists along the path to the waterfalls.

Brad, Dad, Mom & Kris

It starting to rain right after we were getting out of the van to walk the trail to the waterfalls. We were SOAKED!

To get to the waterfalls, our guide drove a hotel van through a riverbed. This was not a problem until we tried to leave... all of the rain that drenched us while walking the trail, left us stranded due to a rolling river. Our beer supply was finished during the hour wait! Thank goodness Dad made a pitstop before the tour!

Tarahumara front-loading washing machine!

17th century church: Mision, San Ignacio de Loyola

Tarahumara cave... actual residence. AMAZING!

We tried to see some hot springs while on our way to Copper Canyon from Creel, but decided that there was no way that we were hiking up and down a mountain that took 30 minutes by car! We started and took this picture of Kris on the ledge of the mountain... he loves to scare me!