Clickety clack…clickety clack…..El Chepe is moving along the track from El Fuerte to our first stop where our transfer will pick us up and take us to Cerocahui where we’re booked into the Mission Hotel for one night at a cost of $2000 pesos for our room, transfers from and back to the train station, and 3 meals each. The Mission Hotel is about a 45 minute ride from the train station.
I’ve discovered that I have some kind of phobia about money….that is I have to have an extra stash somewhere or panic sets in. There are no places to use a credit card here and so running out of cash is a scary thing when you’re used to having an abundance of purchase power at your disposal. When the conductor asked for more cash than I had in our common purse….I had a moment of panic not knowing if we’d have enough left to pay for our accommodations for the next two nights. There will be no ATM until Creel (and we’re not sure if any of the hotels will take plastic) I’m breathing a little easier now though as we’ve recounted all of our cash including the American dollars we had left from our time in Mesa and the agent on the train has already agreed to take American dollars (at the current exchange rate) instead and give us our pesos back. Whew! Lynda says that the look on my face when I realized we were short money in our common purse was priceless….she asked me how much more I needed and all I could say to her was “lots Lynda….lots!” It gave us something to laugh about after it was all said and done.
We are pretty certain that we finally have the train tickets figured out. We know that the second class train only runs every second day, and never on Wednesdays, and that only the first class ticket will allow you to have multiple stopovers attached to your ticket. The bottom line being that we paid $3960 pesos (which turned out to be $174 USD each) for two multiple stop tickets from El Fuerte to Chihuaha (this should mean that we can take either the first or second class trains as best suits our schedule.)
The 2nd class train is gorgeous….it’s clean, spacious and the only thing that the first class has that this train doesn’t is a dining car and a bar car (neither of which we need). We started our day with a great bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice and have a couple of cookies and apples in the bag so we’re good till dinner time and the train will be in well before dinner! Back to the train…..bathrooms are spacious, very clean and well stocked; armed guard has already gone through checking all the new passengers; seats are high back and very comfortable; and…..maybe the best thing of all…..you can stand outside in between the cars to see the magnificent views.
We’ve been on the train for about an hour now and are just coming into the scenic parts of the journey. Just crossed our first river and of course there was a bridge over it. I believe there are 86 bridges between here and Creel (the highest point) and the tracks will climb to an altitude of 8000 feet by the time we reach Creel which is where we’ll be spending more than one night.
Armed guard just walked by again….and when I say armed….that means he is armed with an automatic (or maybe it’s a semi-automatic) rifle. Neat and tidy in his uniform with a big smile for Lynda and I as he said hello as he walked by….oh…there he goes again and another one has just come into our car for a stroll through. Yes….I’m feeling very safe!!!
Gonna head out to stand between the cars for a while to check out the view and get some fresh air. Yiikes! First look out between the cars wasn’t so nice though as there was a totally bloated dead oxen- I’d say he might have been hit by the train – sad but I’m sure that happens all the time since multiple trains run on this track every day of the year. The views are gorgeous and mere moments later we were into the longest tunnel ever……good thing I didn’t have my head out! Temps are super warm in the sun but inside the tunnel it is cool and damp…..a weird sort of refreshing.
Back in the comfort of the train car….Lynda and I are still puzzling over the fact that our train left El Fuerte 10 minutes ahead of schedule….we can’t figure out why they would leave early when people may not arrive until the scheduled departure of 9:30. And…..when did anything in Mexico ever leave on time let alone early???!!!
Train stopped at a little town about an hour prior to our stop and there was a passenger in a wheelchair needing to be brought aboard. The conductors lifted the man in his chair up from the platform into the car and then one of the conductors picked the man up (as though he were a child) and carried him in his arms along the aisle to his seat half way down the car! I wouldn’t have believed it….he made it look so easy but it couldn’t have been.
Arrived at our stop and as soon as we stepped onto the platform we heard our names being called above the noise of the crowds. Neither of us could figure out where it was coming from until we spotted three women we had met in El Fuerte a couple of days ago….they were boarding a car behind the one we just got off of and they were so excited to see familiar faces even if it was just in passing. We were immediately met by Jesus and our driver who loaded our cases on top of the suburban and us (along with two others) inside. Our driver was excellent and maneuvered us along the rough and windy road until we reached our destination of Ceracahui and the Mision Hotel (yes…it only has one s in Mision). The reason that it is called the Mision Hotel is that it is adjacent to a mission that was built here a couple of hundred years ago. It was at this time that we discovered that the reason our train had left 10 minutes early was that we were on the first class train that was leaving 50 minutes late!!! This also explained why when we said we would like to buy a second class ticket for our travel today and a first class ticket for our travel tomorrow (because there would be no 2nd class train) that the conductor looked at us like we were a little “off”. Go figure….here we thought we were on the 2nd class train all that time but really we were on the 1st class!!! LOL….what a great story/memory this will be!!
We toured an all girls residential school (run by 5 nuns) that houses 85 girls between the ages of 3-15. All of the girls who attend this school come from very far away and may not see their families again for a year or more. Most of the girls are Tarahumara Indians so their families live in very traditional ways in the mountains around the canyon(s). This school is run on donations and appears to be quite well supported. We also visited the public school that is for both boys and girls (from not as far away so they may be able to go home on weekends or once per month. They would have to walk great distances to do that but the Tarahumara pride themselves on their ability to run and walk great distances without tiring) and it is obvious that the level of support for this school is not as healthy. For example…where the girls each had their own bed with matching spreads etc….there were 45-50 boys sharing a dozen bunk-beds some of which were obviously broken…..so if you do the math that means there are 2-3 boys to a bed. Their soccer balls are flat and tattered but that doesn’t deter their ability to have fun. The kids (boys and girls) are all very shy and don’t like to have their picture taken but a little boy posed for me with his big brown eyes and ½ inflated soccer ball.
We also toured the church and heard about the vineyards and wine making that goes on here. The vines are from Italy and some of them are a couple of hundred years old! After Jesus finished our tour he took us into the bar for a wine tasting and surprisingly the Chardonnay I tried was excellent. The Mision only bottles 3000 bottles each year and it is all done by hand and on site. The only place that you can get it is at one of the Balderrama Hotels (there are 7 of them I think) and I believe this hotel is the only place you can buy it by the bottle to have shipped home.
Our room here is great……we have to wander down a walkway through the vineyard to get to it and it is clean comfortable and very welcoming. The towels are fluffy and soft and the shower is AMAZING with lots of hot water and pressure. The staff here are so friendly and we enjoy their company as we practice our Spanish and they their English. Aimee, our server grew up in California so her English doesn’t need any work and she is able to help us when we get stuck in a conversation with some of the others. Jesus, our guide, also has excellent English so it’s very easy to spend time here. The chef produced a delicious lunch of soup, black bass with julienned veggies, and rice with a piece of cheese cake for dessert and then a dinner of cream soup, chicken stir fry, a baked potato and warm apple pie for dessert. If lunch and dinner are any indication….I’m guessing breakfast will also be stunning.
Happy Hour before dinner was lots of fun with great conversation at the bar with our host and a margarita or two to whet our whistles in this dry region of Mexico. While we were enjoying our 2 for 1 refreshments (or in Lynda’s case….3 for 1 cuz she drinks way faster than I do!!) one of the staff asked if he could light the fire in our room for us so it would be warm for us when we staggered home. Daytime temps are very warm but night time can go down to +3 or 4 degrees Celsius. True to his word…he did just that and when we arrived back in the room it was toasty warm with a welcoming fire awaiting us. Yep….this place is some nice!!! We’ve left the state of Sinaloa and are now into Chihuahua where I’m happy to report that the men are in fact tall and the dogs are really small.
Breakfast will be served at 7:00 a.m. and we leave on a 3 hour tour into the canyon at 8:00. We’ll be back here by 11:00 which will give us just enough time to get back to the train station.
p.s.
They did take plastic here so all is good in my world – wahoo!!
L & L
No comments:
Post a Comment