The early morning flight to Los Mochis with Volaris was on time and comfortable.  It’s a tiny airport with one luggage belt so 15 mins after landing we were in the taxi queue.  Most airports in Mexico operate a fixed price taxi system whereby you buy a ticket as you leave arrivals.  It’s a wizard wheeze to allow the taxi drivers to charge around 25% more than the fare you usually pay to return.  That said, it is slick and does remove the tedious bargaining process we faced in Cancun where there is competition and the further you walk into the baying mob of taxi drivers the more the price falls.

There was also airport free WiFi and we checked on any replies from the booking agent about the hotel and train tickets.  Partial success!  The night before we resorted to splitting the credit card details between our separate email addresses and Fanya replied that she had taken payment from the card. Yay! But there were no train tickets in the email and we still had to sort out the part of the journey which Fanya couldn’t book so we took a taxi to El Chepe, the Copper Canyon railway station. 

As it’s low season there are only 2 tourist trains a week, and there wasn’t one running the day we arrived, so the station was deserted.  The young lady on the ticket counter spoke very good English which made the whole complicated explanation much easier.

We told her how we had tried to book tickets on-line without success and that the hotel we planned to stay in had reserved tickets for us but we had been unable to pay because Fanya, the girl we had been emailing, had been off work plus there was a Sunday involved when she doesn’t work at all, but we had now paid but we didn’t actually have tickets and we needed more tickets for the second leg.  The girl at the ticket office was very patient, she found our names on the list for the first journey – yay! She also found that there was availability for the second onward journey we needed 3 days later – yay again! But we couldn’t add these on to the first booking as the tickets couldn’t be released as the agency hadn’t submitted payment – what???  We could pay for the additional journey separately but that would double the price.

She agreed to call Fanya’s mobile number and find out what was going on.   After about 30 minutes they sorted it all out.  The system would take a few hours to update for the payment from Fanya, we would pay cash to the ticket counter for the difference in ticket price for the extra part of the journey we wanted to do and Fanya would email us all the tickets once the systems had updated.  We were pleased with the solution but still uneasy that we had to walk away from the station without printed tickets in hand as we were moving on to another location and this was the last place where we could physically get a ticket before boarding the train.

Meanwhile, the taxi driver who had delivered us to the station had also asked where we planned to go next.  We realised there would be no taxis hovering at the train station so we told him we were going to El Fuerte where we would board the train a few days later.  It was about an hours drive and was a better place to stay than Los Mochis. We had planned to go by bus but hoped he might give us a good price to take us all the way.  We thought that with the distance involved we felt that the old USD $50 note we had been carrying around for the last 2.5 years would be around the right rate.  He started off with Peso at a high rate, no surprises there, and then we said ‘what about USD’?  Sure enough he started way too high so Neil waved the $50 bill under his nose and he thought for a while and then said ‘Si’.  One hour in a taxi enabling us to get rid of a $50 note we didn’t really want seemed like a good deal when the bus journey would probably take at least 2hrs and leave ‘sometime never’.

He was a gentle driver which made the journey very pleasant and eventually we arrived at the hotel in El Fuerte.  The room seemed ok and as we were tired and hungry from our early start we went to get some lunch.  We found a lovely spot under the trees overlooking the pretty Plaza.  The food was good but we hadn’t anticipated the local menace.  Tiny little daytime black bugs with a bite that itches for days.  Americans call them ‘no see ums’ and we encountered them a few years ago in Florida. We hadn’t thought about putting on bug spray and they soon  started to hover in number all around Cheryl and even took chunks out of Neil.

Back at the hotel and Neil started to think we had been given the wrong room.  We booked a quad room which came with a fridge, but we had been given a triple room with no fridge.  It was warm here so we needed a fridge to keep the milk cold.  Arrrrgggghhhh – another hotel giving us a room different to the one we had booked.  Neil went to see the guy who said ‘you are two, why do you need a quad room’?  ‘Because we wanted a fridge’ Neil replied.  ‘I don’t have a quad room to give you’ he said.  ‘Then we’re leaving’ said Neil.  Luckily this one hadn’t been pay on arrival but was to be taken later on a credit card.

Back in the room we quickly packed up and used the wifi to find another hotel and chose The Posada del Hidalgo.  It was more expensive but it was absolutely stunning, and we’re worth it!  It was only a short walk so it was a winner.  As we left and dropped off the keys the guy said absolutely nothing – his loss for trying to cheat us.

El Fuerte is a sleepy place with several hotels and restaurants and a central plaza with church, that’s normal, and just a gentle vibe about it.  We needed supplies of tea and coffee so walked to the biggest supermarket about 15 minutes away.  Next day we went to the town museum which had some films about the history with English subtitles plus ramparts that allow you to see for miles around.  From the viewpoint we also saw the river which snakes past town.  There is nothing in the guidebooks about it but we did notice a walkway, or Malecon.  It turned out to be a long stretch of paved footpath which was a pleasant place to walk and watch the kingfishers, cormorants, herons and eagles. 

The river is also home to a fish called Lobina which appeared in most restaurant menus.  We’re not great fish eaters so we didn’t try it. We tried the ‘top’ restaurant in town according to Tripadvisor and it was a terrible dud with almost inedible food. We’ve noticed that there are hardly any up to date reviews on TA and we think it’s fallen out of favour partly due to Covid, and also as it was plagued with false reviews. We finally hit lucky and found a great restaurant which served up delicious camarones, but not as good as in Campeche.

The hotel was within an old colonial building and was like staying in a museum.  The amazing public areas were regularly by brides to be to have stunning photos taken in their glamourous gowns.  We were also nearby the town clock which provided a loud two minute melody chime three times a day, very quirky and we loved it. At the bar area there were a number of hanging feeders full of sugar syrup which attracted hummingbirds. They were mesmerising to watch as the hovered in mid air before expertly dipping their long beaks into the feeders. We tried to get photos but almost all were blurred as they didn’t stay still long enough.

Knowing that tour groups used the hotel we worked out that they would run a bus to the train station when El Chepe ran.  In exchange for eating one breakfast there we managed to blag a ride. The added bonus was the breakfast came with lots of delicious crispy bacon – yum!

The day before we left the train tickets arrived by email – phew!

Next time it’s all about one of the main reasons we came to Mexico.  To ride a section of El Chepe which runs up to Possadas Barrancas, The Copper Canyon which is said to be bigger and deeper than The Grand Canyon.