El Fuerte
I was feeling a bit unsure of myself by the time I reached Los Mochis, the turning point of my journey from the sea to the mountains. To catch the train in the morning, I needed to get up at about 4:00 a.m., get a taxi to the train station to book my ticket in time, for a train that would leave at 6:00 a.m. for the Copper Canyon, las Barrancas del Cobre. I had no hotel reservations up in the canyon but a vague idea of where I wanted to stay. I just couldn’t get my mind around the idea of being on the move again so quickly, or of getting up so early. But nor did I want to stay in the slightly expensive (though comfortable) Best Western in Los Mochis. I studied the tour book some more, and finally realized that I could buy my train tickets in advance, at the station in Los Mochis, but I could catch the train at the next town up on the train route, in El Fuerte. Once I had secured my ticket, I could go by bus at any time to El Fuerte and catch the train the next day, at the more reasonable hour of 8:40 a.m. So that is what I did. And it was the best decision of my trip! For so many reasons!
The restaurant was a couple blocks away, and it did cross my mind that I might be about to get lost or that I was crazy to follow this man, but I went ahead and followed. By this time we were speaking English, and he told me he is part of the tourist bureau here; if I would come find him in the center square after lunch, he had maps for me. I ate a lunch of vegetable and chicken stew and tortillas, communicating only in Spanish, and then went to the square. It is quaint and colonial, and not crowded but not deserted either. I walked toward the cathedral, and the tourist-bureau man saw me and walked me up to my hotel, which I never would have found without him as it is behind the old Spanish fort (which is now a museum) on a hill. He waited with me until we found the proprietor, who was expecting me (I had emailed from Los Mochis). I thanked my personal tour guide and tipped him and said I would find him in the square again, because he wanted to recommend a hotel up in the Canyon.
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Yes, crowing did keep me up, and a lot of other noise all night down along the river, at all hours, but aside from that, it was wonderful.
Now, here in Chihuahua, I can say that the best part of going to El Fuerte and staying at the Hotel Rio Vista was meeting Allan and Jillian, an Australian couple traveling all around the world. But even if that hadn’t happened, I would have been very pleased with my stop in El Fuerte.
Here are a few pictures: