Experience the best of Creel

Creel stands at about 2,300 metres in the pine-covered Sierra Tarahumara in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, a railway and logging town named after Enrique Creel, a governor of the early twentieth century. The Chihuahua-Pacific railway, known as El Chepe, stops here on its run across the Copper Canyon, a vast system of canyons cut deep into the Sierra Madre.

The Rarámuri, known for running long distances over mountain trails, live in the surrounding hills and sell baskets of woven pine needles, carved wooden figures and textiles in Creel's shops. Nearby are Lake Arareko, strange rock formations in the Valley of the Monks, the Cusárare waterfall with its old mission, and hot springs in a canyon at Recohuata. The Divisadero viewpoint over the main canyons lies further west along the railway.

Mountain cooking means burritos filled with machaca, dried shredded beef, flour tortillas, gorditas and the melting cheese of Chihuahua, and the Rarámuri drink pinole, a toasted maize drink, at gatherings. Winters are cold, with frost and occasional snow, while the summer rains from July to September turn the sierra green.