Category: 2021-01 (January)

We got up at 7 am, had breakfast at the hotel then back to the room for packing. Then out the door and across the street to the station to get on the train.

Pretty uneventful, but it is nice to be in first class. Even nicer to be traveling during covid, in that well over half of the seats are empty. When we go to the bar car to see the sights, it is only moderately crowded. The car where our seats are is arranged in 6 sets of 8 seats, pairs facing each other on both sides of the car. The row behind us has a faintly of 6 or so taking up that many seats. The row in front of us has a couple on the right side of the car, taking up 2 out of 8 seats, the row in front of them also has 2 taking up 8 seats etc. Oh, and we have two seats out of 8 in our row as well.  The seats are high backed with headrests and arm rests and tilt back quite a ways. Each side of the car has a table with sides that fold down making it plenty comfortable. There is a pair of bathrooms in each car, and a unisex bathroom in the bar car. As I have said we are in first class, and we are at the back of the train. The bar car is at the back of the train and we are the first car forward of that, there is one more first class car ahead of us, then the dining car with upstairs dining and view. Forward of that car is a bar car for the executive class, then a couple of executive class cars and then the luggage car to separate economy from the executive cars. Forward of the economy class are the two engines pulling the train.

The service is pretty good, either lunch or breakfast is included in the price of the ticket, and lunch is served in the dining car. We elected to have lunch, and it is the same menu as the trip up. One of the waiters finds us on the train, and gets our order then will go get our lunch made up. The order was taken at about 10:30 and lunch will be about 1 pm. We were in the bar car seeing the sights when he found us and brought the menus. Lunch will be in 4 courses again, and all non alcoholic beverages are included in our tickets. We had coffee in the bar car in the comfy swivel seats there. The front half of the bar car has low swivel seats arranged with two facing each other and a small table in between. There are about 8 or 12 of these seats and then the bar with the bar tender. The back half of the bar car has bar stools around the outside and windows that open all the way around. There is a bar to hold drinks at the windows, and another bar down the middle to hold drinks as well. Other than the fact that the temperature is in the 40’s, it is a great place to hangout and see the sights!

We have had a couple of stops since we got on the train, it started at Creel, and we got on at Divisidora. The family that was behind us has disembarked and I think that there is one other couple in this car with us. Like I said there is a pretty low number of people in the train. As a snack we had one of the grapefruit from the day before, very juicy and sweet.

One of the nice services they do on the train is have the steward(ess) come and tell all the passengers about upcoming things on the trip. For example we were just told about the “most important part of the trip” and that we should go to the bar car to see it. This particular part of the trip has the train going through several short tunnels and then a much longer tunnel in the last tunnel, the train drops several hundred feet and makes a 180 degree turn inside the tunnel, then when it comes out of the tunnel, it makes another 180 degree turn as it crosses a bridge. We were able to get pictures on the way up and video on the way down. Also, as this is the “most important part of the trip” virtually all of the first class passengers were in the bar car, all of about 25 of us! There are 96 seats in first class.

We just had lunch. Served in 4 courses, first course was a tamale, second course a broth, third course chicken breast (I am not sure when we have had chicken that was that dry) and finally a desert of a small chocolate pie with ice cream on it. About an hour for lunch. Not like we have a schedule to keep.

We had cell service for a few seconds, long enough to find out that our conversation a month or so ago on Satellite, while free to us cost him $35 for 6 minutes. We still have some figuring out to do as to exactly how to use the satellite phone to the best advantage. It was charged as an international call. What is bad about that is if we had called him, it would have been deducted from our free 150 minutes per month. Like I said we have some figuring out how to use this best.

After lunch and a nap, we played a game of rummy 500. Well okay, we use the same rules but we don’t keep score, as we wind up being too competitive. This is a good compromise for us. We also had the last of our expensive beer.

Earlier in this blog I mentioned that we had been told we needed lots of small bills. We had several thousand pesos in 200 peso notes. Which we had sort of thought of as small bills ($10 each). We also had a few 100 peso notes ($5 each), 50 pesos notes ($2.5 each)and some 20 peso notes ($1 each). Probably a dozen or more of these bills smaller than 200 pesos. This was no where near enough SMALL bills. We had several lunches that were less than 200 pesos, including drinks. So, how much do you leave for a tip? What about when you go to the store to buy a bottle of water? (30 pesos) or you want to buy a thing that someone made like a basket and it is 80 pesos. There was only 1 ATM that we saw, and our experience with them is no small bills, so we did not try. So, should you contemplate taking this trip my suggestion is that you bring about 5000 pesos ($250) in small bills less than 100 pesos each. Also don’t be afraid to carry coins of 1, 2 or 5 pesos each.

We got up around 7 am, had breakfast (with a very good view), then out to our tour.  The driver had met us at the bus, given us his card and described his tour. What I liked about him was his command of the English language. Yes, we are in their country and I am the one “at fault” here for traveling in their country without learning the language, but I still appreciate the effort to cater to all languages.  In any case, he was on time and had a GMC Tahoe to drive us around. He said we needed something like this for our planned trip. 4 wheel drive and a comfortable seat.

Our first stop out on the tour was a small grocery store for him (Roy) to get a drink, and the second was another small store to get gas. Roy said there was a small town on our route that had gas with regular pumps, and was a little cheaper, but the last time he used them he got water in the gas and spent a bunch of money getting the truck fixed. This “gas station” delivered the fuel from the tank in the back yard of the store to the truck with empty water bottles about 5 liters at a time. Biggest advantage I saw with this is the ability to see if there is water in the fuel.

After this we drove for a while, and stopped at a little restaurant/store and used the bathroom. We saw a few armored cars going the opposite direction from us, Roy said that they were from the gold mine on this road, the mine is owned by a Canadian, they used to use helicopters and planes to move the gold, but after an accident where they lost the plane they switched to armored cars.  Then back on the road (we will get back to this restaurant later). We saw a man on the side of the road in one of the towns we drove through selling bags of grapefruit. Three to a bag for 20 pesos (about $1) we got a bag, but did not eat any on this day.  The grapefruit are grown at the bottom of the canyon where the climate is “tropical”, and if you have ever grown citrus you are aware that it has to be hot for oranges and lemons to grow and hotter for limes and grapefruit. Roy said that the temperatures in the canyon in the summer time reach 50 degrees Celsius (about 122 degrees Fahrenheit) so the locals typically have two homes one on the bottom of the canyon and one up on the rim. They have goats, it is too hot for them on the canyon floor.

We drove and saw great views and then we turned off the main road and went into a small town, then out the back of the town and up a mountain. VERY steep, about a half mile out of town the pavement ended. We drove about 20 miles further on the dirt road, details below. Roy said that this road went all the way to Los Mochis on the coast.

We drove further out on the road and then off the “main” dirt road onto a side street of it. From this point it was about another 20 miles or so to get to the lookout point. We stopped at a small shop along the way, and while we were stopped Renee’ went in to look at what was being sold, and I talked to Roy about where we were going.  He described the point and I used an app called MAPS.ME that works offline (we had very intermittent cell service all day. The app said that we had 8.4 miles to go to the lookout point, and that it was a 4 hour walk or a 2 hour drive. I should point out that Roy said, no it should only be 40 minutes or so, or about 12 mph! He was pretty accurate. This road was not something to be taken lightly. That it was a “maintained” road would not be completely inaccurate, but it had no gravel, a couple of signs along the way, and not much else. On occasion there were cliffs on one side or the other of the road with no barrier. Because of this, we really did not want to talk to Roy as he was driving.

This lookout point was the highest point overlooking the canyon. The city below us was Urique which was on the floor of the canyon. Roy told us that he does a tour to this town, but that it requires an overnight stay in town.

He told us some of the history of the area, showed us a hotel or two that were really nice, one that has a winery (Renee’ got coffee in the bar), and a mission. We saw sights and views that were breathtaking, and finally it was lunch time.

We stopped at the restaurant where we had used the bathroom on the way out, and Roy suggested the “Aqua-Chile” we thought what the heck lets go with that. It was served in a large stone dish with three legs. Pretty spicy, and was a cold dish of shrimp (about 20 or so) cilantro, cucumber and fresh red onions. This was an excellent lunch. As Renee’ has pointed out several times, the food is more than half the reason to travel!

After lunch, it was about an hour or so more to drive back to our hotel, and we said goodbye to Roy and went to our room and relaxed for awhile before dinner. This tour was supposed to take about 5 hours, Roy picked us up at 9 am and dropped us off at almost 3 in the afternoon, we were satisfied with our tour!

Dinner was at the hotel and was pretty good, not as good as lunch but still worth the price. Then off to our room and bed. This is our last night away from the boat. Tomorrow is the Chepe train back to Los Mochis.

We got up at 7 am, saw the view from the room!!!!! It was fantastic! Then after showers we went to breakfast (included with the room) and then met the shuttle driver who took us to the “Adventure Park” with ZIP lines and a Gondola, some hiking and more crafts to buy. One thing about the Adventure park, we had our temperature checked and were given antibacterial hand soap frequently, at least 4 times from when we got out of the car to when we got into the Gondola. Many times, within sight of the last place we had it done. On one occasion we got a little sticker on our shoulder after we had our temp taken. This place would have easily handled several thousand people but today there were probably about 100 or so.

I have no desire to do a zip line, here in Mexico or anywhere else either. Renee’ thought about it, but it was pretty cold. We took the Gondola, it goes down about 3000 meters into the canyon and from there we got a guided hike. Probably a good thing to have a guide as the trails are not really well defined, and since some of the canyon has livestock in it, some of the sloops have literally hundreds of paths cut by the animals criss crossing them. The hike we picked was listed as 3 hours for 250 pesos, and Renee’ and I walk somewhat fast, so we only walked for two hours, probably 2 or 3 miles long. We saw some beautiful views and our guide was a 17 year old local he did a pretty good job of waiting for us. (As in yes he could certainly out walk us, probably on his hands!).

After the hike we found a restaurant at the park and had hamburgers and beer. This was the first really good beer we have had in quite a while. It is a Porter that is brewed in Chihuahua, under license from Bolivia, and is 6% ABV. It was pretty expensive, but we are on vacation so we bough an extra 6 bottles to take with us. 95 pesos per bottle, 570 pesos or $28.54!!!! But, it is really good beer! We enjoyed the view for a while then got in touch with the driver and went back to the hotel.  At about 3:30 or so.

Showers and a nap, then down to the lobby for a game of cards and dinner. Tonight, dinner started with Chicken noodle soup for me and Cream of Carrot soup for Renee’. The main course was a tee bone steak, with beans and guacamole, served with tortillas, desert was cake.

We have arranged an all day tour tomorrow with an English speaking driver. But for now, it is time to get some sleep.

Yes, we got LOTs of pictures! When we get back to the boat, I will have a pretty big job of sorting them to post on the blog.

First an update on the travel plans, the van is 500 pesos each. The bus station at this end is a short walk. So, we’re taking the bus.

The bus ride was pretty good and dropped us off at the station for the bus and the Chepe train and the hotel is across the street.  So, not quite door to door service, we had to walk about 300 yards more than if we had gone with the van. (That includes both ends of the trip).

Once we got to our hotel and got checked in, we took our stuff to our room and saw a fantastic view of…. FOG. No surprise, we had seen it coming as we came up in the bus. Our room has a balcony, and is set back from the edge of the canyon at least 20 feet (but not 100 feet). We are hoping for a clear day tomorrow. We walked out the front of the hotel and went looking for lunch. What we found is that the hotel sells lunch (pretty pricey for Mexico) and there are some small stands across the street where they also sell the crafts they make.  Then back to the room, for a movie, we watched “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”. The area (can’t even call it a town) is very small, and the small shops across the street close up at 3 pm. After lunch we went back to the room and took naps before dinner.

Dinner at the hotel is served from 7 pm to 9 pm, and was as I said before pricey. There is no competition, at all, anywhere. But, it was pretty good. Dinner started with Cream of Cauliflower soup for Renee’ and nothing for me. The main course was chicken grilled, and on top of mashed potatoes (creamy) for Renee’ and spaghetti noodles for me. With cooked vegetables squash and onions and all was pretty good and followed up with lemon pie for desert.  I had a glass of red wine and Renee’ had a bottle of Topochico (sparkling mineral water) total bill was 770 pesos ($38.55). Again, pricey for Mexico but reasonable for the states.  After dinner we headed back to the room and bed.

We woke up to rain, something we have not experienced much in the last year or so. Our lifestyle pretty much prevents us being where it rains, when it rains. In any case, we decided to take a tour today and discussed it over breakfast Huevos Rancheros and waffles, fruit with yogurt (for Renee’, without for me). The couple at the other end of the table from us, were already booked for the tour and we were able to tag along.

The price for a 5 hour tour was 1000 pesos ($50) for the two of us, and was money well spent. Except, did I mention it was COLD!! Even in the van. We saw more rocks snapped like animals and things (Elephants, Eagles, Hawks, Mushrooms, Chi-Chi’s (boobs) and “Monks” which in the original language are penis’s). We also saw a fantastic waterfall (Cascade de Cusarare’, Eagles Nest Waterfall). The walk from where we parked the van to the waterfall was about 500 meters, and 450 of it was after we left the parking lot. Construction was nearing completion of a government sponsored improvement to this site. Which included new store fronts (about 400 meters long!) for the locals to sell stuff. Because of the inclement weather (still raining) crowds were down, and nobody was selling anything.  We also saw a lake and the same mission we had seen the day before, which was ok, as the driver explained some of the symbols that we saw here. The monks had incorporated the sun and moon to match the indigenous people’s spiritual beliefs. We were also told about the boarding school next to the mission. This is a boarding school for 5 days a week and is government paid for school. The wife of our driver works periodically at the school making meals, I think that is there part of what they would have to “pay”.  After the tour, we were back at the hotel around 2:30 or so, we ate our snacks and then walked across the square to the museum and from there the arts and crafts place. Both fairly interesting. Our tour guide George told us that Topolobampo means SEA LION, this is a new word for us!

Then back to our room for showers (to warm up) and a nap. Of course that is when we found out our ceiling had a leak right over the bed. I will have to look again, because this doesn’t make sense to me, we have a main floor room, and I believe that there is a room above us. In any case, they got us moved into another room within minutes. Certainly satisfactory to me, also on the main floor. (I think there are only two on the main floor).

Then out to dinner, to make a point here, I virtually never go to the same restaurant twice when I am traveling. Also, there are plenty of choices here. And OH YEAH! I am not a fan of generic beer. So, for dinner we went to La Estufa. This time Renee’ had the Chicken Fajitas and I had a Beef dinner that was served “on fire”. It was actually served in a steel cooking bowl (smaller in diameter and deeper than a wok) on a support over a chunk of varnished wood with a burning ember in a little pot. There was an avocado in the mix as well. This was another excellent dinner!

Tomorrow we will get a ride from the same guy who gave us the tour to our next hotel in Divisidora. We had planned to take the bus, the difference is 60 pesos ($3) for the bus (with a walk at both ends) and 500 pesos ($25) for the van which is door to door.