Summer 2007 Car Trip - 47

THIS POST IS NOTHING BUT VIDEOS OF THE TRAIN RIDE AND SCENERY. SKIP IT IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED.

The train ride was an adventure like I have never had. Sure, I had ridden the fast, flat trains in Europe but they didn't prepare me for what I was about to experience on this ride.

We first passed through flat, brown scrubland. Full of candlestick cactus and skeletal looking trees with no foliage. We did not whiz through this area. We would gain a little speed and then, inexplicably, slow down again. No rhyme or reason for it. Unless, just maybe, it was because a freight train shares this one track and they have to adjust their time so we don't all collide head on!

We gradually started to climb into the foothills, which didn't last very long. We were soon in the mountain ranges themselves. The track was carved out of the side of these mountains and, at times, the view out the window was straight down. Scary stuff. We passed to quickly or I would have taken pictures of old boxcars that had somehow come off the track and skidded down the mountain. Some were hung up on rocks, some had made it all the way to the bottom. Vivid reminders of just how treacherous this route. could be.

The track between Los Mochis and Chihauhau contains 87 tunnels that cut through the mountain. Some very brief, some so long you are blinded when you again enter into the daylight. So, let's take a ride for awhile!

A view from the tracks sliced into the side of the mountain.

Crossing one of the many bridges.

Look how the terrain just drops away from the tracks.

Passing by a town somewhat off in the distance.

The bleak and barren hills in the dry season.

Dropping away again.

Watch your head!

It took me two days to get Blogger to upload all of these videos. I hope you enjoyed them.