You'd better grab something to drink because this ones long, very long and has probably more pictures than you want to look at. That's ok, just skip over them.
Our adventure started out with a raining deluge just about the time we needed to catch a cab at the end of our street to get to the bus station!! We had actually toyed with walking the 5 blocks to catch a local bus to take us to the station but I sort of nixed that idea early on.
So when the heavens opened up about 5:30pm, our goal was to stay as dry as possible getting from our front door down 2 flights of stairs to get into the cab with luggage. Yea, right!! Not so dry!
We have gotten quite used to getting wet, if not soaked, during rainy season here. You just give up on your vanity because everyone is in the same boat. The rain is warm and very refreshing and it makes you feel like a kid again! We won't melt and we will most certainly dry pretty quickly.
As this was our first long distance bus ride here in Mexico, we really didn't know what to expect but thought it would be similar to all of our other excursions in other Latin American countries. And, we were right. Nice modern bus station with actual waiting room seats. It's very organized, which isn't always the case elsewhere.
Once the bus arrives, you're allowed to exit the inside station to go stand in line to deposit your luggage to be stored under the bus. We haven't lost our efficient packing abilities as we each only had one small overnight piece and Mike carried a backpack. That was it for a full week of vacation that included warmer clothes for the mountains and our normal hot weather clothes for the days in the hotter climate areas.
Our seats were assigned for our 14 hour overnight journey that would deposit us in Los Mochis, a very bustling metropolis way north of PV and inland a bit. The seats were quite large with leg rests and good reclining for sleeping. And, we were very happy that they didn't have the AC on full blast but we still zipped on our legs to our shorts, put on footies, and had long sleeved jackets.
The bus made stops in Tepic, Mazatlan, Culican, and finally our destination of Los Mochis at 8:30 am the next morning. Our sleeping was ok but interrupted at each stop. And, this older body got way too many kinks in it. Will have to rethink overnight rides in the future. However, because we are certified Senior Citizens in Mexico, our ticket fare was half price. So our total roundtrip cost was only $75 each. That will be a consideration factor also in the future. Way less than airplane tickets, if the airlines aren't running specials.
So once we arrived in Los Mochis, we caught a cab to take us to our first pickup point, Hotel Santa Anita. Let me digress a bit and explain that Superior Tours, with headquarters in PV, put together a private tour for us. They made all the arrangements for all tickets, cabs, vans, trains, hotels, a few tours, and some meals. Thalia Martinez, our agent, is fantastic!! So, if you're coming to PV and need airport transportation (at the same price as a cab), day tours, overnight tours, plane reservations and anything else you might think of, they're terrific and I highly recommend them!! Thank You, Thalia and Astrid, for all you do for us! Www.SuperiorToursVallarta.com.
We arrived at the hotel, where they paid for our cab, with enough time for breakfast in their lovely restaurant. It's quite the place for lots of local business people to have breakfast and conduct business. At 10am, our private van driver, Juan, settled us in his van and drove us an hour and a half to the town of El Fuerte, home of Zorro! Juan gave us quite the verbal tour of the area and its history along the route. The area is quite a major agricultural center.
Hotel Santa Anita restaurant
Arriving in El Fuerte, we discovered that it's a beautiful old Colonial town that reminded us a bit of Granada, Nicaragua with all of its charm, history, and color. Our Hotel, the Posada del Hidalgo, is rich in its own history and encompasses the home where Zorro was born and lived in until he was 15 when his father relocated the family to what is now Los Angeles. Our room was a fabulous suite with very high ceilings, king sized bed, living area, and full bathroom. Everything was charming and keeping with its history but with modern upgrades. Just the way we like it!
Original Entry to Hotel with painted murals.
Bar area
The legend of Zorro.
They tiled around the tree's roots.
Town Square
Church on the square.
Old Haciendas turned into shop/restaurants.
Courtyard of Municipal building.
The Fort.
We walked the main part of town around the city square, climbed up to the old fort, swam in the pool to cool off, watched wedding pictures being taken, then after a nice nap, watched Monday night football and had dinner at the bar. I went back to our room a little too early but Mike was there when Zorro appeared!! A perfect day!
Awoke to the alarm the next morning in time to enjoy the wonderful breakfast in the garden and be driven to the train station by 8:30am. The Chepe train runs from Los Mochis to the city of Chihuahua. So on we went sitting in the first car behind the dining car. We had first class tickets but there are economy seats, as well. A beautiful 4 hour ride up into the mountains of Copper Canyon. Copper Canyon is really 5 valleys with surrounding mountains. It's 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon and some of the valleys are much deeper than the Grand Canyon.
New natural gas pipeline being installed
One of 89 tunnels on the route
Great wildflower displays
Our first stop was at Bahuichivo, where we were met by our driver and shuttled 40 minutes into the mountains to the village of Cerocahui and our Hotel Mission. A beautiful hotel where they also have a vineyard. The village was originally founded in 1694 by Jessuit missionaries.
We had to get off the train and walk between the 2 trains.
The national solders in town.
After a delicious huge lunch, Mike and I took a walk around town. The meals are included on a set menu, but they accommodated my no sea food diet. We were also able to meet several Mexican couples traveling the same itinerary that became friends, between their generally good English and our weaker Spanish we got along fine. Literally, we walked around the town. It's a very small community with a wonderful population of the Tarahumara indigenous tribe. These beautiful small people sometimes still live in caves without water and electricity and they walk everywhere throughout the mountains and canyons. As a result, they are wonderful long distance runners but are not allowed to compete because they refuse to wear shoes.
The Mission church.
The market in the square.
My new buddy!
The vineyard & river in the valley.
Front of Hotel Mission.
After a short nap, we took a walking tour that turned out to be the same route Mike and I had just done earlier. Except we did get a tour of the all girl's school right next to the hotel. Here 104 girls from the age of 4-14 live on site. Their parents don't have the means to care for them and bring them to the sisters to be raised and schooled. They're hoping to give them a good education so that they won't continue the follow the tradition of getting married at 14 and having children. A wonderful experience to be with these happy, well cared for children!
This dog found a cool place to do siesta.
Entry to vineyard.
The next morning, after another wonderful breakfast, off we went on a 3 hour excursion further into the mountains and the Cerro del Gallegos overlook of the Urique Canyon. The overlook is at 7,500 ft and the canyon is the deepest of the canyons. After enjoying the views, we walked to the Little Virgin spring, and a visit to a typical Tarahumara home. A beautiful drive!
The morning fog engulfing the valley. Stunning!
Urique Canyon at 6,900' deep. Deeper than Grand Canyon.
The Spring.
The stove/oven.
Hand made wood stove.
A friendly rattler crossing the road.
The village of Cerocahui.
We were then driven back to the train station where we boarded for a short hour and a half ride deeper into the Canyon to Posada Barrancas and our overnight stay at Posada Mirador Hotel. The hotel is nestled into the mountain side and surrounded by a pine tree forest. Our room was generous in size with a terrace overlooking the spectacular canyon. Staying at this hotel was truly a wonderful experience all by itself!!
Friendly federales at one of the stops.
Bag of apples anyone?? Several people got off & bought them from him.
Children playing between the cars.
Typical Tarahumara woman's clothing.
Entry to Hotel Mirador.
Lobby
Huge fireplace that we thankfully didn't need.
Bar area.
Walkway to our room. If you look closely, you can see that it is leaning to the right for rain runoff. Trippy to walk even when sober!
View of the rest of the hotel from our room terrace. We were up there hanging over the cliff.
Wood stove now just for show. Didn't need heat at all at night.
View from our terrace overlooking the Canyon. Spectacular!
Looking down from the terrace to Tarahumara cliff homes. We took a hike down there later.
Views.
More views!!
A walking tour that included more spectacular overlooks, walking out to the balancing rock, a hike down into the cave/cliff homes of the Tarahumara, an opportunity to buy hand made baskets and hand beaded jewelry, then hiking back up to the hotel, was certainly enjoyed. Fabulous exercise at 7,000 ft.
View of the hotel while on the hike. Our room is almost to the end on up
This is looking down on the Divisadero Overlook where we went the next morning.
Our friend Rene on the balancing rock.
All handmade baskets & beaded jewelry. I bought a sweet bracelet.
This cliff home we can see from our terrace. It only has a hole in the roof for the chimney & you can see the black soot on the rock. But, then you see a solar panel that they now use for lights. Quite the dichotomy!!
Their water supply.
I bought several baskets from this sweet woman who I got to smile. Her whole face lit up!
The tour that had been arranged for the next morning began with a short van ride to the Adventure Park overlooking the Canyon. In the park is a Tram that travels over the Canyon to a mountain peak over a mile away. There is also a 12 line zip line run AND the world's longest and fastest zip line at over one mile and achieving speeds up to 90 mph.
Mike and I chose to experience the longest and fastest zip line over the canyon then climb 700 verticle meters up to the tram station and ride it back. There are no words to describe the rush and exhilaration we both felt!! So the only way to share it with you is for you to witness the video that Mike took of his whole ride and one taken by another tourist that we met. So click on the links and have the ride of your life!!
Short video of our take off:
https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D646513_91069994_085836
Full video taken by Mike:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204859916319101
The zip line starting point.
Looking through the glass floor of the visitor center to a precarious walking bridge below & the valley even further below. If you don't like heights, don't look.
Our guides.
This is a picture of 2 others just leaving the start gate.
Our turn!
This is after we finished the zip line from that plateau way up there in the distance.
The plateau/mainland starting point.
Our friend Jacobo as he is finishing.
And Randy.
Looking down into the canyon.
The Tram that you take to return or you can just take the tram both ways.
Almost to the top after our 700 vertical meter climb.
Tram station for return.
Again back on the train by 2 pm to return to El Fuerte where we would be picked up again by Juan for our ride back to Los Mochis for the night.
Our track as seen from above.
Mike was able to catch the waterfalls coming down from the mountains.
The next day, our bus ride was only 7 hours because we were going to Mazatlan for 2 nights. I had never been there and Mike, not since 1972. Early on in our thoughts and plans to come back to Mexico, we considered a month in Mazatlan to see if we might want to settle there. So we were looking forward to our visit.
Friends of ours, who had recently stayed in Mazatlan, recommended a gentleman by the name of Freddy as a tour guide. There are many many Pulmonia's, which are jazzed up golf carts that will give you tours for about $25/hour. We got quite the 3 hour tour and saw much more than we had anticipated. Freddy was terrific!! So if you're going to Mazatlan, be sure to contact him for one of his tours. He's on FaceBook at city tours Pulmonia's. He actually was born and grew up in San Diego, so he's perfect for Gringos.
We enjoyed many beautiful view points of the ocean and the city. It has an Old Town area with a city square. In the evenings, the car traffic is stopped and the many restaurants on the square pull out tables and chairs and the streets become outdoor cafes. Quite charming. And, we did enjoy our Saturday night meal at one of them. And, of course, there's the "Gold Coast" where most of the hotels and resorts are. It reminded us of Nuevo Vallarta here where everything was built new for tourists.
Mike & Me in front of one of the 6 cannons used to defend Mazatlán against the French in the 1800's.
An old original street in Old Town.
Part of City Square.
Shrimp, shrimp & more shrimp.
A view of the waterfront.
Lots of statues & fountains.
This is Freddy & his Pulmonia with me in the back.
A huge nightclub on the waterfront.
Old Town.
Restaurant Row.
The city has been hit hard by the lack of tourists and the cruise ships that stopped coming in spring, 2011. Unemployment is very high and the city looks worn. With a population of 1 million, it's not as walkable as PV and feels disjointed to us. We also noticed that even though there's a very long, several mile long Malecon, we didn't witness many locals enjoying it like they do here in PV.
Our trip was completed after another 7 hour bus ride back to PV just in time for Sunday night football. And, even though we thoroughly enjoyed our trip, it was good to be going home. And, sleeping in our own bed!
This little blue dyed Chihuahua puppy was just precious!
This last week was mostly spent by me trying to get well since I had come down with a bad head cold on our bus ride to Mazatlan. The air conditioning had been extremely cold on that ride. Plus I needed to be well enough to celebrate my 63rd birthday on the 9th.
On Monday, while biting into a piece of bacon, Mike broke off his front tooth crown. Really. So he spent Tuesday going to the dentist. And then again on Thursday after he it broke off again. So our unexpected expense this month will be a new $600 crown. But, that's way less expensive than it would be in the states!!
On my birthday, we met up with friends, David & Judy, who've just returned after their summer hyatis in the states, and friends who we met due to this blog, Tim & Georgina, who have decided to live here now. After drinks at the Signature Lounge happy hour, off we went to Bravos for dinner. What was fun was that none of us had eaten there before. Let me tell you how wonderful it was!! Outstanding would be a fair word! So, if you're looking for great food at a moderate price with a cozy bistro atmosphere and excellent service, you must eat here in Old Town.
Happy Hour at Signature Lounge with Me, David, Tim, Georgina, & Judy.
Sunset.
Dinner.
Surprise BD cake!!
My wish!
The evening continued for Mike and me by dropping by Nacho Daddy's that just reopened this past week and running into another friend, Mel Enge, who just returned from Canada. And, a final night cap drink at Andales with Mel. A wonderful birthday!
And, on Friday, we got to help celebrate another birthday for Christie DuChateau. She decided to throw herself a pool party and we got an invite! So much fun getting together with friends to have fun!
The Los Muertos Pier from her rooftop.
Christie with some chocolate frosting on her face. Happy Birthday sweet girl!
Town is beginning to wake up after many shops and restaurants closed down during August and September. They take this time to do any renovations that are needed and to take vacations. October is used to iron out any kinks with opening in anticipation for high season that begins in earnest in November. It's also a time when the live music revs up at venues that begin to open. We took advantage of going out Saturday night to hear Chris Kenny and her band playing at Nacho Daddy. But I'll tell those stories in the next blog.
That's quite enough for now, amigos! Hope you've enjoyed taking this journey with us. Mike apologizes for the "hair" that got onto his lens and he couldn't get it off.
And, our life in PV just gets better and better!
