Ruminations of a Sailor: Los Mochis to El Fuerte

Daytime view from the patio where we had happy hour
and watched the sunset, Venus and the moon rise

Amazing river in El Fuerte - hard to
capture fabulous sunset on my cell phone -
should have the Nikon D80 on a road trip

Our road trip from Topolobampo led us inland via two buses to Los Mochis and on to El Fuerte. We spent the morning in Los Mochis, a bustling city with a large market, busy bus station (it's quite the hub) and great 5 peso tacos. That's about 38 cents each and it was good pork. A family run operation, the entire crew was working and we were there on January 6th, a big holiday here highlighted by Roscas, a popular oblong coffee cake filled with dried fruit and a baby Jesus. If your piece contains the baby Jesus, you have to host a tamale party in mid Feb. Anyway, this family was eating their Roscas under their restaurant/tent in the midday sun and the owner brought us each a piece! How nice is that.

We continued on to El Fuerte to spend a couple days. The hotel our friends told us about appeared closed (but that's another story) and so we stopped to have nachos and a drink to make our next plan. The waitress told us about Rio Vista and we should tell them she sent us and not to pay more than 500 pesos. So, off we went, scored a great room - and this was our view from the patio.

While enjoying our afternoon nachos, an American Dr walked by and asked if were part of the medical team there to help the locals for the weekend. We said no, she asked if we'd like to volunteer so we spent the next morning working at the makeshift hospital. Mike helped with supplies, caulking and by getting rid of splints and braces that they didn't want the locals to get and use incorrectly! I translated at the station for incoming patients where blood pressure was taken and I asked the barrage of questions to get them to the right medical assistance. And once again, my Spanish helped but some of their answers escaped me. I saw some amazing things. It was great to help and a very humbling experience.

We took the nature trip to see petroglyphs that are thousands of years old. River trip sitting on plastic chairs in a fast moving panga. We were the only passengers so personalized tour and a ride in a zebra-striped Scout through town and into the countryside to the river access. Fun time!

View from the entrance to Rio Vista

Handpainted plaque in our handpainted room

Church bell tower

The iglesia/church in El Fuerte

Bougainvilla along the cobblestone streets in El Fuerte

The town is really quite magical and was so proclaimed by the federal government as a "pueblo magico" which we have to agree with! It's the access point to the Copper Canyon, where we went in 2011 with some Canadian cruising friends. This time, back to further explore this great little town with its popular city square, the Fuerte River that flanks the town, and plenty of cobblestone streets to twist ankles if you're not attentive. And, they sell an incredible array of boots here, so I bought a pair of black leather boots for 39 dollars. I had to go to a couple shops to find a large enough boot.