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New Material: The following brief descriptions lead you to more complete recent additions to this dynamic website. Check back often, both the site and offerings at the Hotel Paraiso del Oso and Rancho del Oso change frequently. Our photo gallery has a new section highlighting Google Earth imagery of the area we travel in. Parts of the previously available low-resolution imagery has been updated to a high-resolution photograph and the results are stunning. We've received some additional historical photos of the Lluvia de Oro area and some details of the American engineer responsible for the power plant design and construction. Our Lluvia de Oro - Historical Photos page has details. For some time now, we have worked to sponsor deserving kids from the region who need financial assistance in order to attend school. We have updated our description of this work and invite you to read about kids that have received scholarships as well as those who still need assistance. Our Community Action page has some local efforts. Also check out the new web site that has details on many of the area kids that are in need of support. We've added a video clip (actually six minutes worth) of the Tarahumara Easter celebration we attended in April. It is difficult to adequately capture the sights & sounds of the weekend but this will give a hint of the celebration. We keep seeing bits and pieces of historical information arriving related to the history of the Lluvia de Oro mine south of here. Of particular interest is a photo we were given showing the mine site when it was in operation - a big difference from what remains today! As always, we are interested in hearing from anyone who has historical knowledge of this place. As of April, we now have wireless internet access in the lobby and bar area of the hotel! A number of people are traveling with portable computers and have already used them here for e-mail and checking and/or changing their travel reservations. And for some time now, we have been receiving reservations electronically here at the ranch - progress in rural Mexico! Last November was the month for hikers. Groups joined us for trips to and from Batopilas. There was enough time to do the route over Mesa de los Isidros and spend one night on top at Yesca. Mesa de los Isidros offers some of the best canyon vistas we know of. The last entry in the photo gallery virtual reality list gives some idea of what it is like. Our bird list has grown to over 200 species - check it out.
Recently we've had some mushroom enthusiasts become excited about area findings. This is a new subject for us. Click on the photo to the right and check out the size of the mushroom being held up in the middle by Tania! A brief description is on our mushroom page.
Wildflowers abound but no guidebooks exist.
Linda Ford visited recently and is
continuing to work on her We've just upgraded our website server to get more space. If you happened across our site during the transition, you probably found us off-line. Well it was planned and intentional but the brief outage was unavoidable. Welcome back. Participants of the Mexican Mushroom Tours sighted 80 different species of mushrooms (hongos) during their late July visit to the Oso. According to Technical leader Ricardo Valenzuela, at least one species was new to the country. We'll be describing this in more detail soon. We've posted some virtual reality panoramic shots of our area including a new one overlooking a familiar sight to many who have visited us - the view down into the Urique Canyon. Check it out. After writing about visiting Lluvia de Oro, several people have contacted us to offer how the mine was a part of their family's history. Sr. Montoya of Cd. Obregon sent along a few early photographs of the area which we have included on the Lluvia de Oro page. A recent and sad note for those of you who have been with us on foot or horseback and stayed at Naranjo - Ambrosia Mancines recently passed away. Micah's stories of running with the Tarahumara are an eye-opener. We've added an update of his accounts on the UltraMarathon page along with some photos of the runners themselves. So if you like to run and are in really good shape... Recent time on the trail included a trip to Batopilas with a little more time in the back country. We've added a first-person account of what such a trip is like in case you've considered going with us but were unsure about the details. Read about it in A Diary of a Horseback Trip. We've recently returned from traveling the new road that links the gold mine at El Sauzal with Choix to the south. Bulldozers have a cut a wide path through previously road-less mountains and people are already feeling the impact. The route is now shown on our satellite map. The image also now shows the paved/dirt road to Batopilas. We've been in touch with a descendent from Lluvia de Oro and are trying to add bits and pieces to our knowledge of the area. It's a slow, but rewarding, process. And after our 2nd trip there, we've added an update and more pictures to the original story. As a part of our attempts to gather more local historical knowledge, we are interviewing area "old-timers" and asking them to describe their histories and life stories. These accounts are being added to our Human History section. Much of their knowledge has not been formally recorded and will be lost when they pass on. Life can be hard today but it is a vast improvement over past years. Take a few minutes of your time and read what people like Carlos Silva Valenzuela of Urique and Natividad Urias Delgado of Huicorachi have to say! We actively seek bilingual volunteers to help with this program as our resources are disappearing faster than we can interview them. Reading several of the oral histories prompted Nancy Brown to contact us in hopes of locating the grave of her grandfather who died while building the railroad to Creel. Read about her grandfather and this rewarding adventure in the story of the Lost Grave. ATVs have been added to the Oso and we have already had several great adventures on them. We've added more trail maps and a satellite image showing trails in the back country - look under "Horse Packing" for details. Riding on ATVs, we just returned from a place we've wanted to visit for years - Lluvia de Oro. A preliminary write-up describes the area, more information will be forthcoming when Doug Rhodes gets off his tail to transcribe notes taken during interviews. Likewise, more road logs will be added. Last summer we sponsored an archeological survey of a nearby site. Interested individuals from Arizona participated and produced a survey map of the site which contains some bones and pictographs. In September of 2002, Dr. C. Melvin Aikens studied many sites. His report, Cultural Continuity in the Sierra Tarahumara of Southern Chihuahua, Mexico, appears in this site. A portion of our proceeds are returned to the community and support worthy causes and individuals. We'll describe a part of this to you. We've updated out butterfly list thanks to some energetic souls from Arizona. Those whose interest run to moths will have to wait for a comparable list. We've acquired a muzzleloader that is supposed to date from before the Mexican Revolution, it could possibly be home made. If you are familiar with firearms from this era, help us out with some details. We've recently documented our program for volunteers and researchers wanting to do work at the Oso. A local friend, Caballo Blanco (the "White Horse", a.k.a. Micah True) likes to run the inner canyon trails between Batopilas & Urique. We use the same trails too but we are horse people. Micah has been sponsoring foot races with the Tarahumara between the two towns. Read his description of the last race and realize the route is longer than a marathon with more than a mile of elevation gain. The Tarahumara are renowned runners as you will see.
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