Family Vacation in Mexico, Installment I

Cuauhtemoc’s Motel Tarahumara treated us well Tuesday night. It was a quiet, enjoyable evening, including a lively card game and a good laugh at poor Mom’s expense, who just couldn’t understand the concept of losing-in-order-to-win in the game of Hearts. After a traditional Andy Griffith to close down the night, we hit the sack around ten.

Wednesday morning’s events included an easy check-out of the hotel, a delicious (and nutritious) breakfast at a nearby Nutri-Vida store, and the unfortunate discovery that my poor brother had a horrible sore throat and the beginnings of a nasty cold.

Leaving Cuauhtemoc turned out to be pretty easy - we found the highway without a hitch, and began passing by endless, perfectly ordered rows of apple trees, staked out and pruned, ready for the summer growing season. These apples are the famous Cuautehmoc Mennonite apples, which along with its Mennonite cheese, makes up a large part of the region’s economy. This part of the state of Chihuahua is highly populated with German Mennonites that immigrated to the area in the early 20th Century from Canada and Germany, in order to found a religious community free from persecution. Through German ingenuity, hard work, and John Deere tractors, they transformed this dry valley into a fertile, highly-productive farmland. It’s quite interesting therefore, to pass by several businesses along the highway, whose names and advertisements are in Spanish and German!

We passed out of the Cuauhtemoc region in the mid-morning, and began entering the more mountainous and forested Sierra Tarahumara. Our destination for the day was the famous Basaseachi waterfall, which is reported to be the tallest waterfall in North America. Although it was a long 3-hour (one-way) drive through the mountains to reach the small Basaseachi national park, it was well worth it. We parked at the little tourist town, and then started a short 15-minute walk on a stone/gravel path through the delicious aroma of pines and alongside a quick-flowing little stream that cut through a stone gulley until we arrived at the waterfall itself.

Although I had first surmised that we were going to encounter the waterfall at its base, I quickly realized that we actually arrived at its mouth! Suddenly the little stone path gave way to a large opening, the ground now completely made of rock, and the little stream gathered up force for a 1000-meter tumble off the cliff on which we were now standing! As my eyes took in the majestic sight before them, I couldn’t walk any further. Monstrously tall cliffs, the big brothers of the one on which we stood, encircled and formed a massive pine-carpeted canyon, through which flowed the same stream that was falling from our feet to the canyon floor. The immensity of those sheer cliff walls astounded, frightened, and awed me.

Grand. That is probably the best word to describe Basaseachi, although it falls short. Staring into the grandeur, watching stone cliffs rocket out of the evergreen reminded me of the abruptness of Petra’s regal rock face, jutting out of the desert floor in declaration of its uniqueness and majesty. It was as if they had kingly countenances, mouthing words of defiance to the puny, camera-toting tourists standing on their little brother’s bald stone head.

Still savoring those words of terrible beauty in my mind’s eye, we returned the way we had came and found a small, home-kitchen restaurant that offered authentic Mexican food to hungry travelers like ourselves. We devoured the enchiladas, burritos, caldo de res, and chile pasado, my family relishing the new flavors of Old Mexico, and I taking joy in their relishing of my newfound culture.

Coming to places like Basaseachi and experiencing its breathtakingly majestic scenery often puts a mixed emotion in my heart. Yes, I feel wonder and joy, astonishment and even dazzled disbelief at the spectacle before my eyes. But I simultaneously have a sense of disappointment, which is attached to my inability to fully experience the beauty. I can only go as far as the chainlink fence will allow me, and there must my experience stop. Or, even if I am able to go past the legal boundary and explore the depth of the beauty until my body wears out, I am not confident that I would be fully satisfied.

Here’s what I mean: the part of my soul which is so greatly thrilled by the majesty of Basaseachi’s cliffs can only truly be satisfied by drinking from the Source of such beauty.

Delighting in the depths of the Creator is the only means to fully experience the beauty of creation.