Day 27: Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon)

We left for the Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon) after breakfast and arrived at the location in about an hour. We paid 20 pesos (~1.45 CAD) per person for the initial entry and then took a dirt road to where we could ride the gondola. There was some rain along the way so, unsurprisingly, the road from the main road to the gondola was unpaved and muddy with pools of water along the way. Our favourite biker got some off-road experience that he handled like a boss.

Once we got off the bike, we got tickets for the gondola that cost us 250 pesos (~17 CAD) per person, and then enjoyed the stunning views around us while waiting to take the ride. The magnificence of the canyons were reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, but green and with more linear rock formations. The gondola ride itself was about 15 minutes long and going at 24 km/hr. We made videos so keep and eye on our YouTube channel for that.

After the ride, we had some lunch at one of the restaurants in the park and continued exploring. It was unfortunate that there wasn’t much information about the geological history of the place like the Grand Canyon has and most of what was available was in Spanish, but I guess that is because most of the tourists that visit the place are locals.

Interestingly, a few days later, Phil discovered a travel advisory from a US government site advising travelers against going to the Copper Canyon. This was surprising to us because we saw a large number of families with kids as well as seniors there. We felt safe enough to use our expensive camera and phones out in the open.

 

We spent a good amount of time exploring before heading back to our room. No pizza for dinner tonight – we decided to be adventurous and have tacos 😉