Ornate metal balusters color the view from a hotel balcony in Batopilas, Mexico. This history-rich town, located in the depths of Batopilas Canyon, arose in the 1800s with the region's silver boom. By 1900, the mines were closed, but some residents stayed on. It's now a tourist stop for visitors to Mexico's picturesque Copper Canyons region.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Two Faces of Tourism," July/August 1999, National Geographic Traveler magazine)