Copper Canyon and Creel

Sorry again for the delay. I had this pretty much written but needed to add the pictures and I've been a little sick.

10 - 11 March, 2008

After leaving Puerto Vallarta we had to change buses in Tepic and we got to Los Mochis around 5:30am. There was a 1 hour time change between Puerto Vallarta and Los Mochis and Alaine got mixed up and set her watch forward instead of back. She woke up and thought was 4:30 and she asked when we would get there and they said 3 hours. Since the train leaves at 7 she was pretty worried but they finally set here straight. I slept through all this because Alaine had moved to an empty seat a few rows back.

After asking a lot of people we finally found where to catch the buses to the train station, which our guide book unhelpfully proclaims "depart for the train station from outside the main bus station." No, they pass by the main bus station.

Alaine waiting to board the train

In any case, we did make it to the train station and got through the metal detector, which is a ridiculous thing. Everyone goes through it with their luggage and sets it off, then the one security guy will look through a bag at random for maybe thirty seconds. He didn't look in any of our bags.

I waited in line to buy tickets, but when I finally got near the head of the line, they said we should all board the train and buy tickets on board. The conductor assigned us seats as we boarded and we just put our big suitcases in the large open area at the front of the car. There were three passenger cars and a sort of dining car at the front, right behind the engine. We were in the second passenger car. The one behind us said first class and was occupied only by a guard who would tell you that you can look out the back but not go outside of the car. I couldn't see much difference in the quality of the accommodation except that the upholstery looked newer. The actual first class service is supposed to be on a different train so i assume that they were just transporting the car somewhere else.

Basket sellers

We got moving pretty soon after boarding--moving at about 5-10 mph that is. I guess because of going through populated areas they were going slowly. We also made made stops to pick up more people.

The first part of the journey is on flat agricultural land, but eventually we started moving up, and moving faster and the views got more exciting. The 650 km (390 mile) rail line has 86 tunnels and 39 bridges. There is one point where the track actually crosses over itself.

When we got to Divisadero there was a 15 minu;te break and we walked down to an overlook with a spectacular view. We also bought some delicious burritos.

View from Divisadero

We got to Creel at around 6:30 pm and there were a lot of people trying to get guests for their hotels. We went with a guy who offered us a $19 for the two of us including breakfast. He took us in a little bus to a hotel a little outside of town called Hotel St. Cruz. It was a nice looking place and seemed great for the price. We were so tired that we didn't really want to look for another hotel. After we checked in we got him to give us a ride back into town and we looked around a little and then had dinner in a nice little restaurant.

When we left it was getting a little cold; Creel is at 2330 meters (7644 feet) and we were well above the Tropic of Cancer now. We picked up some beer at the store and walked back to our hotel. There was a gas heater in the room and I got it lit. We watched some old Daily Shows on the computer. There were lots of warnings on the heater about not using it while sleeping so I shut it off, though it was still pretty cold in the room. I woke up later and it was very cold so I lit the heater again, but it went off almost immediately. I gave up and got back under the covers. In the morning I tried unsuccessfully to light it again and Alaine went and got someone to light it for us. It took him about five minutes to get it going. He said the gas was frozen.

I had a headache, I think from altitude sickness. Alaine volunteered to go and get me some Gatorade to try to rehydrate. It took a while because she was getting conflicting stories from people on where she could find an open store. She also checked about coffee and breakfast but they said not until 9. The guy said he would bring us up a pitcher of coffee. We went back to sleep for a while and woke up around 10:30 and still no coffee. We went downstairs and did manage to get coffee but we never did get any breakfast. The whole thing was very weird and I'm pretty sure we were the only guests in this 30 room hotel.

After checking out we got them to give us a ride back to town and left our luggage at the bus station and bought tickets for the 3 o'clock bus to Chihuahua. We went and ate lunch and I got online for a little while. Then it was almost time for the bus so off we went to Chihuahua.

Puerto Vallarta

Sorry for the delay; this blogging is hard work. We've finished our journey now, but I still want to tell the rest of the story so I have an update today and then probably two more posts to finish it up.

6 - 9 March

Our bus from Zihua to Puerto Vallarta was late. We got to Vallarta around 11:30 am and called and talked to Catherine. She told us to catch a bus back to the center of town. We had passed right by their neighborhood but we didn't know where to get off. The bus station is 4 km on the other side of town and a taxi is $10. We found the bus and lugged our suitcases on. We were the only ones on the bus and things seemed to be going well at first. The bus was following the reverse of the path we had come out on. Then it turned off onto a dirt road and began a crazy path through colonias. It picked up a lot of school kids and soon filled up. It ended up taking an hour-and-a-half to go 4 km. We didn't really mind the long trip but we felt bad that Judy was waiting for us.

Piedra

Once we met up with Judy she helped us find a hotel in her neighborhood. Hotel Iris, $25. We left our stuff there and then went to Catherine and Judy's apartment. It's a great little place. Catherine has a sweet little chihuahua named Piedra. She makes and sells fleece chihuahua sweaters because apparently the little buggers are always cold. The five of us (including Piedra), went to a little taco stand around the corner and had some yummy fried fish and shrimp tacos which Judy was kind enough to buy for us.

Catherine went home after that but Judy played tour guide for us. She showed us the island in the middle of the river which you get to by crossing a little suspension bridge. There are a ton of tourist shops there. Stuff is much more expensive than further south. Then she took us to the Malecon, which is a seawall walk that goes for about a kilometer in front of the city. We stopped for ice cream and then walked on some more. When we spotted a sign for $1 beers we of course had to make a pit stop. We got to the second floor bar and found out they also had $1 margaritas. I figured it would be a little plastic cup, but it was a good-sized margarita glass and not bad.

Puerto Vallarta Zoo

We continued our walk along the Malecon and saw some nice bronze sculptures and also sand sculptures. Then we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out to the Santa Barbara Theater where Judy and Catherine work. Judy got us free tickets to the show, which was a tribute to Bob Fosse. On the way there we stopped at a taco stand for some of the best food we've had. It's incredible the food you can buy off the street in Mexico.

The place was sold out but Judy had gotten us two chairs but no table. It was comfortable enough though. There was no set for this show and no costume changes, just the dancers interpreting various Bob Fosse numbers. The Director and choreographer, both Mexican, were also in the show. The rest of the dancers seemed to be Gringos. The crowd, all older than us, were familiar with the tunes and I could see them singing along and really getting into it. We enjoyed ourselves. After the show we went upstairs to the bar and had a few beers. We chatted a little with the owner of the theater and some of the other staff. We didn't get back to our hotel until 11:30.

We got to sleep and were happily dozing until about 1:30 in the morning when someone opened our locked door and said "What are you guys doing here?" in accented English. It was a couple, an older man with a young woman. Alaine had woken up while he was unlocking the door, and had been yelling at them to go away, but I was so fast asleep that I woke up at the moment they were standing in the doorway. We responded that this was our room and he said no it was his. Finally he left. We were so freaked out we didn't know what to do. I locked the door again and we finally got back to sleep with no more disturbances. In the morning we talked to the night watchman about it and he said that the guy had gone with the key and not paid for another night or something. They assured us that all the keys were now in their possession so we would not be disturbed again.

Punta Mita: Alaine, Catherine holding Piedra, Noble, Judy

We had plans to go whale-watching with Judy and Catherine, and her little dog too. They knew how to get the bus to Punta de Mita, so we let them be the tour guides again. We got there around 11:15 and some guys were already at the bus stop asking about doing a tour. They wanted $120 for the trip. We said we'd like to wait and see if we could get more people to go so we could reduce the cost. While we waited we had some beers at a beach-side restaurant. Catherine got some chips to feed to Piedra. After about an hour-and-a-half we found a family from Saskatchewan with two boys who wanted to go.

We went out and did see whales, although not as close as I would have liked, but it was a fun outing. We got back and had lunch at the restaurant and then went back to town around 6.

We changed out of our sandy clothes and went to a little pizza place we had scoped out the day before that had $1 beers on Saturdays and WiFi. I believe it was called Pizza Roma. We ended up staying there until closing.

Next morning we slept in and then got packed up and left our stuff downstairs while we headed over to see Judy and Catherine. We all went out to the fish taco place again and then they showed us a great store with nuts and dried fruits where we stocked up for the train trip.

They came back to our hotel with us where we sat in the lobby and drank beers we bought next door until it was time for us to go. They took us to the bus stop and made sure we got on a bus that would get us to the station in 30 minutes.

It seems to me that there are two Puerto Vallartas. Walking around the town center doesn't seem that much different from any other Mexican city and the people are wonderfully friendly, but when you get to the shore and see all the high-rises you get a different and, for us at least, unpleasant feeling. Condo billboards advertise "Life built around you", while in the town center it seems that life is built around a community.

Moving, moving, moving

We traveled for 27 hours straight to get to Creel last night and we're leaving here in 30 minutes. I probably won't have a chance to post anything more until we reach Texas on Thursday. Oh yeah, sorry about the straight line between Los Mochis and Creel. It was anything but straight. You can see the map of the train route here.