Cam Honan, originally from Australia and now living in Jalisco, may have done more walking than anyone else on earth. Honan has hiked over 80,467 kilometers in 55 countries and his next goal is to stroll through Chihuahua’s Barrancas del Cobre, where he expects to cover from 300 to 500 kilometers, all on foot. Perhaps “stroll” is not exactly the right word to describe Honan’s upcoming adventure. “It will be a combination of canyoneering, bushwhacks, scrambling, wading, hiking and hopefully avoiding drug fields,” he explains with a wide smile. “Nevertheless, I consider Copper Canyon one of the world’s best hiking sites. In fact, I would put it among the top ten on the planet.”
For years Honan has followed a light approach to hiking, carrying on his back only three kilos of gear plus food and water. “For me, the principle behind it all is simplicity,” he says.
Honan’s original introduction to the Copper Canyon is one he will never forget.
“I first visited the Copper Canyon back in 1995,” he says. “I had only arrived in Mexico six weeks before and I decided to take a bus from Guadalajara to Los Mochis, where you get the train into the Canyon. Well, you wouldn’t believe it! Here I was on my very first bus trip in Mexico and I wake up at 2:00 in the morning and there are these three masked bandits with rifles and pistols robbing everybody inside the bus!
I rubbed my eyes and it was no dream. Now, my friend had an extra wallet ready for just such an occasion. As for me, I put my passport and credit cards underneath the seat and when they came to me, I gave them the equivalent of maybe 30 dollars.”
Honan says the bandido was not at all happy with this contribution and began to speak to him in high-speed Spanish, of which he understood not a word (Today, however, he speaks it fluently). “I kept saying, ‘No entiendo, no entiendo’ but the bandit just got more frustrated and finally he put his pistol to my head and kept it there for what seemed like an eternity.”
Finally, Honan raised his hands as if exasperated and the bandit’s reaction was to hit him on the head with the gun. “I ended up with a big bump…and that was my introduction to the Copper Canyon!”
Despite this lamentable initiation, Honan liked the Copper Canyon so much that he returned on three other occasions. “The name of this canyon in English is a bit of a misnomer,” he says. “It’s actually Barrancas del Cobre in Spanish, six canyons 59,545 kilometers long, and what is most amazing is that this system is actually four times bigger than the Grand Canyon in the USA.”
Most people who visit the Copper Canyon take the train ride, get off at a few stops, shoot a few photos and are delighted with their Copper Canyon experience. “Instead of doing this,” comments Honan, you can actually go down into the series of canyons and hike through them. In some places they are 2,000 meters deep!”
Whereas Creel is one of the coldest towns in Mexico, Honan discovered that at the canyon’s bottom the weather is almost tropical. “You stand at the bottom and look up a sheer wall 500 meters high. Everywhere you go down there you find hot springs. There are beautiful swimming holes like something out of a Tahitian postcard. It’s simply gorgeous.”
In this exotic setting Honan discovered the Tarahumaras. “They are,” he says, “simply the world’s greatest ultra-long-distance runners, and this is where they live. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the Himalayas and the Andes, Peru, Pakistan, Bolivia and I’ve never met a people who come close to Mexico’s Tarahumaras for their ability to cover long distances. A part of what has drawn me back to Copper Canyon again and again was the opportunity to see, learn and hike with these incredible people.”
The Tarahumara moved into the Barrancas del Cobre five hundred years ago in order to escape from the Spanish invaders. They refer to themselves as Rarámuri, which means “foot runners” and according to National Geographic writer Cynthia Gorney, “they’ve been known to irritate American ultramarathoners by beating them while wearing huarache sandals and stopping now and then for a smoke.” Gorney adds that most Tarahumara women still wear multicolored head scarves and “long skirts of flowery prints or deep-hued pleats or billowy pastels gathered into scallops like fancy window drapes.” Many men continue to wear wide headbands and loin cloths that leave their legs bare even in sub-zero weather.
Unfortunately, narcotraficantes are planting more and more marijuana and poppies in remote corners of the canyons to feed the insatiable habits of Mexico’s northern neighbors, causing all kinds of problems for the Tarahumaras and their traditional way of life. The narcos are also a cause for concern to Cam Honan. “In some ways,” he says, “this hike I have in mind could be one of the most challenging in my life…I better start working on my rabbit’s foot and St. Christopher medal collections!”
You’ll find more information on Cam Honan‘s adventures and philosophy at his fascinating website www.thehikinglife.com and in a previous Guadalajara Reporter article: Australian Walker Clocks up the Miles (June 28, 2013). To read this story at theguadalajarareporter.com, just click on Subscribe and then “1-day Free Subscription.” Honan spends part of the year in Jalisco and occasionally gives presentations on some of his most spectacular hikes. If your organization is interested, you can contact him through his website.