This Mexican canyon is alive with the sound of music
This Mexican canyon is alive with the sound of music
PRI's The World
April 01, 2016 · 3:15 PM EDT
By Mónica Ortiz Uribe
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Romayne Wheeler's Steinway & Sons grand piano was transported from the city of Guadalajara and now sits inside his home on the edge of a cliff in the Sierra Tarahumara.
Credit:
Jesus A. Rodriguez
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The short route to Romayne Wheeler's cliffside home in Mexico's Copper Canyon is an hour-long ride in a five passenger charter plane from Chihuahua city. From the air it looks like a glass cocoon clinging to the edge of a canyon wall.
Wheeler is an American-born concert pianist whose career spans nearly half a century and has taken him to 52 countries worldwide. Since his student days in Vienna and Salzburg he's reached for his backpack and hiking boots in his spare time. His dream was to one day unite his love of the outdoors with his passion for music.
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Romayne Wheeler can see over seven mountain ranges through the windows of his home.
Credit:
Jesus A. Rodriguez
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That dream came true 20 years ago when Wheeler put his Steinway grand piano in a dump truck cushioned with four tons of potatoes and drove it 28 hours into Mexico's northern Sierra Madre.
Copper Canyon cuts six slits into the Earth, four of which are deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Its jagged cliffs and remote valleys are home to the Tarahumaras, an indigenous tribe made famous for long distance running. It's here where Wheeler has finally set down roots.
More:
http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-01/mexican-canyon-alive-sound-music
If you have the time, please take a quick look at this Google images page of this area. It would be impossible to pick one picture to add below this article, to illustrate how amazing Mr. Wheeler's and his friends' neighborhood actually is:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1261&bih=533&q=sierra+tarahumara+chihuahua+mexico&oq=Sierra+Tarahumara&gs_l=img.1.1.0l5j0i8i30j0i30l4.784.784.0.3498.1.1.0.0.0.0.104.104.0j1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.1.102.t5fxql39x7g#imgrc=_
