From the mountains to the sea

Today it was back on the Chepe Express to complete our journey to El Fuerte. So after a good breakfast we finished packing and checked out. The transfer to the station of both passengers and luggage was much better organised than it had been in Creel, and we were there well before the train. There was time to take some last photos of the canyon before the train arrived.

After a short wait to let people disembark we boarded. We were in the same carriage as previously, just a little further forward and on the opposite side.

Our view was again partially obscured, but I was able to get some photos, especially when we crossed a bridge or a clearing, though the reflections in the window made it challenging.

Equally challenging was our attempt to get a snack on board. The bar was four carriages to the rear of ours and was crammed with drinkers. Plus, the coffee machine didn’t look promising, and the difficulty of carrying a hot drink that far on a bumpy train put us off further. One of the crew told us we could get coffee in the restaurant car, right next to ours, but her colleague stopped us from entering without a lunch reservation.

As we travelled further down the canyon the views opened up, especially at the point where we descended quite quickly in a series of bends. I was able to get more photos.

We passed through several ecological zones on the journey and the pines of the first part gradually gave way to deciduous trees, some flowering, and cacti.

The last part of the journey dragged a bit, and we were about thirty minutes late arriving in El Fuerte. There we certainly noticed the change in climate! It was very hot as we hunted among the cases lined up on the platform to retrieve our two.

Exiting the station we were met by a man holding a sign with my name, and ushered to a minibus. But mine wasn’t the only name and we realised our supposed private transfer was to be shared. We had to wait some time for our five fellow passengers and then more time was spent dropping them off at three different hotels in El Fuerte, but then there were just the two of us left. We were off to Los Mochis with our driver on a mostly straight road across a flat landscape with farms (I spotted quite a lot of corn) and small communities.

We were dropped off at the Hotel Santa Anita where we receive a warm welcome from a receptionist who enthused about our accent and offered us a complimentary bottle of beer! The room was large and modern with everything we needed for our one night stay. We spent some time puzzling over the time, as my phone and tablet both seemed to be an hour slow. Some Googling revealed that this part of Mexico is an hour behind most of the country, something we hadn’t realised!

Lobby of the Hotel Santa Anita

In the evening we ate in the hotel’s restaurant as there weren’t many options in the immediate vicinity. The guacamole was excellent and for a change we followed this with burgers which were also good.