Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico

Flashback: Creel. August 12th, 2004
We had arrived into Mexico days earlier and had been through Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City. We had been very lucky with accommodations, staying with Holly and then at Martha's (with a quickie night in a shady hotel in the red light district of Chihuahua City, no bro!) We debated going to Creel and finally decided to check out who this Padre Pato Jesuit character was, and what the Raramuri in the Sierra Tarahumara were up to.

Enter Creel.
After making an appointment with Padre Pato for the following morning, we walked around the one main street of Creel. I was listening attentively to passers-by, hunting for voices speaking the Tarahumar language. No one. Y'all were checking out the local folks. Two young chicks from Chihuahua came up to speak with us and wanted to spend time with us exotic foreigners. They spoke some English and were very young.

We told them we were going to mass early the following morning and then meeting with Padre Pato, defender of the human rights of the Raramuri people. They were not so interested, as their main focus was finding some nightlife in the sleepy mountainous town of Creel. If they only knew how hard those church nuns rocked on guitar the following morning!

The Duck Sings
The youth hostel we stayed in was cute with a colorful mélange of people. There was a short Argentine guy who was on his fifth year bicycling around Latin America. We had dinner at the hostel -- good and cheap. Much later, as we unloaded our stuff from the car, we saw Padre Pato leaving his office. We were suspicious. The next morning, Padre Pato gave mass then confessed to us his love of trova singing.