Great start to our day with complimentary desayuno (breakfast) at our hotel. Called a taxi to take us to the bus depot and settled on a price of 100 pesos (approx. $10) but upon arrival at the bus station…our driver gave me back $50 pesos. I guess good things come from speaking Spanish to your driver. The people here are so welcoming to us and although I’m happy to be leaving Mochis (it’s a bit bigger than my preference) our time here has been excellent.
Arriving at the station was an adventure in itself as we discovered that we had just missed the bus to El Fuerte and would have to wait almost an hour for the next one (they leave every hour). As luck would have it..our driver Ricardo had a tiny bit of English and was happy to let us practice our Spanish with him. Actually…we really did quite well and learned that the ticket to El Fuerte would cost us $650 pesos each (about $6.50) and that the trip would take about 1 ½ hours. Before long Ricardo’s daughter Alexandria arrived for a ride home from College (they live in El Fuerte). She is studying hair and make up and is 18 years old but looks like she is about 12! Nice girl and she took over for her dad in conversing with us. Alexandria has no English at all though so Lynda and I had to step up our efforts (which we were successful in doing) and we all learned a few new words.
$4 pesos to use the bathroom at the bus station where there were no toilet seats but it was pretty clean and when you need a bathroom 4 pesos is money well spent!
Am typing this while riding the bus. We’re stopping all along the way picking up more passengers as we go so having started with only about 4 of us on the bus is no longer the case. At this rate by the time we get to our destination we might be full! Lynda’s seat is broken so she is virtually laying in the lap of the guy behind her…..good thing he seems like a nice guy! Better put this away for now as it is likely that we’ll have to double up in our seats as the bus continues to fill and right now Lynda and I each have 2 seats to spread out our bags etc.
Arrived in El Fuerte after passing through many small pueblos and have decided that El Fuerte is una pueblo chica (a cute little town). It’s all a bustle and many of the buildings are freshly painted…there are some newly laid sidewalks and a sense of festivity in the air.
We’ve checked into the Hotel Choza and are in room #4 for $750 pesos/night…..had Lynda been thinking when she checked out the prices….she would have attached herself to the group of Dr’s Without Borders who are also here for 2 days but as volunteers they got an even better room rate. Oh well….we’re happy to pay about $30 CDN each for a GORGEOUS room with two very comfortable beds, a huge shower room, free wi fi, a beautiful tranquil courtyard and gardens right outside our door, and staff ready and willing to provide anything we need. In fact, as I’m typing this…we’re sitting in the centre gazebo with numerous humming birds buzzing about the edges stopping in to flowers and feeders for a boost of energy…..oh yes….and we’re enjoying a margarita of course :)
We did take a little walk around town before sitting down in the gazebo and en route we followed our noses straight to a little street side taco stand where we enjoyed tacos el carne (beef tacos) and coca cola with the rest of the hungry patrons. Our total bill came to $720 pesos which is less than $7 CDN for 7 tacos and 2 cokes….can’t find a better deal than that! The tacos were cooked right in front of us and watching the cook fillet the meat was sooo interesting. He starts with a hunk of meat and by cutting almost all the way through and then flipping to cut almost through again and repeating that process time after time….that hunk of meat turns into a sheet of very thin meat about 2 feet long. It’s quite an art and I’m sure his knife is VERY sharp!!
From here we’re off to Posada del Hidalgo (Zorro’s house) for Happy Hour where we’ll have 2 for 1 margaritas and a visit with the masked man himself.
We’re back…….and now find ourselves in yet another bar at our own hotel so we won’t have far to wander when we finally call it a night…..oh just a minute….it’s only 8:30….we have a ways to go and the bottle of tequila is still full – wahoo!
But to backtrack and fill you in on the adventures of the evening…..as we were leaving our hotel….Steve from California responded to Lynda’s flattened face on the window by popping out to ask where we were going? One question led to another and before we knew it we had signed up to be part of the medical team that would be performing some kind of major surgery in the a.m…..yes folks….I think we are now part of the Dr’s Without Borders team!
Steve has been coming to El Fuerte (as a volunteer) once per month for about 10 years and loves the opportunity to give to people who are so appreciative of the assistance. He commented on how so many people have misconceptions about the safety of coming to Mexico and as a result refuse to visit here. We discussed how everywhere in the world has horrible things happening for no reason but that using common sense and staying away from places where criminals congregate can make all the difference. It is apparent here that tourism is down…..I hope that it picks up again soon as the locals will struggle if it stays as quiet as it is.
After leaving Steve and en route to Zorro’s we made a quick stop at the City Hall where Lynda met a man who informed her that you could get married here and also buy stamps. He then added that he was single and we figured that it would be handy since she has been talking about making wedding plans and being able to buy stamps right there would make it so easy to send out the announcements! We then made our way to Zorro’s where we imbibed for the Hour that was called Happy and had a quick cuddle with Zorro….and when my fingers and my brain are once again connected…I’ll try to post a picture as proof of our meeting.
The rest of our evening was spent as “teachers” to Paul, our server who was struggling with the difference between ch and sh. To give you an example of the challenge that is teaching English….when T-shirt sounds like T-shits and shoe sounds like chew there can be some interesting interpretations. Both Lynda and I now have a standing invitation to Paul’s home and a fishing trip with him and his brother. They go out for black bass each day and spend about 8 hours on the water before he comes to work in the restaurant with his 30 fish/day catch (some feed his family and the rest he sells to the local restaurants). Our standing invitation includes a fishing trip BUT it’s doubtful that Lynda will have finished assisting in the open heart surgery that is scheduled for the morning or that I will have recovered from the breast reduction I have booked (it seems that medical care is free here when the Dr’s are in town) so we may have to forgo that experience. As well, the boat can only handle two people before it tips….which is a bit of a deterrent as well. Don’t worry folks….we’ll likely sleep right through our 8:00 a.m. time slot with the Dr’s.
Upon leaving the bar at Zorro’s place we “slid” our way down the two story cobblestone entrance ramp (no stairs) that Zorro would have ridden his horse up and down as he came and went from his home.
We have no train tickets or itinerary yet but….are still planning to head into the canyon in a day or two.
All in all…our first day in El Fuerte has been great! We’ve eaten on the street, drank our way through a few of the bars, and chatted with so many wonderful locals.
It’s very quiet here and we’re the only ones in the restaurant so we’re going to call it a night…..well…..at least call it a night for this place and maybe head down the street a ways to see if we can find a potato (some place that Steve told us about that supposedly has really good potatoes for a night time snack)
Till next time,
L & L
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