The town of Batopilas was founded in 1708 but a Spanish explorer found silver by the Río Batopilas around 1632. Thi silver became the source of fabulous wealth for a few.
The new road follows part of the road that was in use for almost four hundred years carrying silver thousands of feet up the mountains by mule to the high plains of Chihuahua earlier or to the coastal city of Mazatlan later in time.
Following the War of Independence (1810-1821)- Batopilas fell into disrepair and continued deteriorating until the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1840 only 10 families remained . Fortunes revived later with the arrival of the Americanos in the mid eighteen hundreds. More can be read of the towns fortunes here.
That tree in photo above has now grown some one hundred years or more later.
Below-One of two bandstands in two plazas.
It is a narrow and long town along the riverbank.
The town is very clean and colorfull .
The town has stock of old colonial houses due to the fact that it was a source of much silver.
Above the entrance to a suspension bridge across the river.
Above peering into some of the really old grocery shops
The town is home to some 1200 and here are some of that population being driven home from school.
Above- Montserrat invited us into her house and showed us her history book of Batopilas. It raises money for Christmas gifts for the poor.
Below- a wall sign in the native Raramuri language which is related to Hopi
Raramuri in their traditional dress. At lower elevations the men wore these traditional clothes but at higher elevations they dressed like all other men. The women however, always wore these bright colors. (More in another blog).
The very photogenic bright yellow church.
In the evening we were serenaded at an outside warm night dinner by the restaurant owner.
Below-Our driver and a local girl he met.
P.S. Another reason for going to the town was to visit the orphanage and leave some gifts for the kids. Karuna here with the Mother Superior accepting some games. These kids do not see these kinds of things often
