NOVEMBER & DECEMBER, 2004
November 23. 2004 and 27, 2004
The first class train from Chihuahua to Los Mochis arrived promptly at 11:26 am. - a second class trains also run, but they tend to run late and you miss a lot of the scenery during daylight hours as they leave later than the first class trains - loaded everybody up, and chugged onward to Los Mochis. Along the way, the train made several stops in small towns, including a 20 minute stop in Divisadero, where we were able to get out and walk around. We ate some yummy gorditas from one of the many food vendors, browsed through the market, and took some great photos. As you may be able to tell from the pictures, the views of the canyon were spectacular.
Other than Divisadero, we were not allowed to get out at any of the other stops during the remainder of what was supposed to be a 8 to 9 hour train ride to Los Mochis, but what turned into a 12 hour train ride. Apparently, there were problems with the tracks in several areas, so the train went even slower for safety reasons. The safety was good, but of course were not too pleased with the corresponding lengthening of the journey. This long journey was made significantly more pleasurable by the gorgeous scenery through the canyon, from the gorgeous views in Divisidero, to the huge canyon wall between there and El Fuerte, and the cascading waterfalls. The train also makes several 360 degree loops and goes through a bunch of tunnels, which are pretty cool. And, the guards with machine guns (to scare off banditos) also made for some interesting conversation.
Of course, the bar car and Armondo, its proprietor, helped matters too, as did Morgan, from Santa Barbara and Bob, from San Francisco. Bob is retired and now spends his free time traveling and drinking his way around the world. Morgan is the guy we met at Casa Margaritas who had flown in for the week to meet up with his friend Greg, the biker. Thankfully, Morgan had a deck of cards. He, Bob, and the two of us played hearts for two hours (incidentally, Bob kicked our butts) and worked up quite an appetite. Starving, we headed for the dining car, which had previously been closed until 6pm, and was immediately packed with a big group of tourist, preventing us from getting a table. As our luck would have it, the dining car was closed when we got there. Whew, we were not happy, mostly because our blood sugar was so low from hunger! But, Morgan came to the rescue yet again, this time with snacks from Trader Joes. After dining on a dried fruit mix, mixed nuts, dried banana, and cliff bars, we kicked back for some apre-dinner conversation. And, before we knew it, the train arrived in Los Mochis.
November 27 - 28, 2004
After bidding our farewell to Bob and Armondo, we headed for a taxi with Morgan, who was flying back to Santa Barbara in the morning from Los Mochis, and had decided to stay at the same hotel as us. Our hotel, formerly Los Arcos, and now under new management, certainly left something to be desired in the way of accommodations. We do not recommend it. Granted it was cheap (approximately $10 each US since we shared a two bedroom "suite" with Morgan), and it did have hot water, but putting it mildly, it was not very clean and very noisy. These may have been easier to overlook had it not been for the worst 'beds' any of us have every slept on - it was as if we were sleeping on springs, with no covering and no padding. The floors probably would have been better.
Our hotel aside, we did not get to see much of Los Mochis as we arrived around 12 midnight and left the following morning at around 11 am. We did walk around the area near our hotel for a bit as well as to the bus station. From what we saw, it appears nice and somewhat modern. Apparently, it has excellent seafood (it is only about 30 miles from the ocean), although we did not get to sample it. But, we did eat some delicious, perfectly ripe cantelope for breakfast, before we caught the bus for a six hour ride South to Mazatlan.
