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Tuesday morning. We exited Chihuahua early aboard the El Chepe Regional train. Tammy will be a bit lonesome for the next week or so collecting a heavy coating of dust as we ride the rails clear across to Los Mochis, Sinaloa. El Chepe stands for “Chihuahua al Pacifico” or from Chihuahua to the Pacific. Sort of. See the next paragraph. It’s 673 km long with 37 bridges, 86 tunnels and runs up to 7900 feet above sea level. It crosses the continental divide and will spook you from time to time with razor-edge hugs along the mountains on one side paired with certain death drops on the other. Since we are on the regional train, we will stop at every little train station along the way, whether or not there were people to drop off, get on or just because. These frequent pauses resulted in a 14-hour train ride with only one stop for 15 minutes to stretch your legs, grab a bite from a local and possibly blow some pesos on trinkets. The thrill of a train ride wore pretty thin around hour 9.
We discovered some very useful information about traveling on El Chepe. There’s El Chepe Regional and then there’s the El Chepe Express. The regional leaves Chihuahua every other day. In between those days, El Chepe Express leaves, but not from Chihuahua. You gotta catch that one a few hundred kilometers away in Creel. Now, both the regional and the express will leave from Los Mochis but never on the same day. We had to put this labyrinth of a schedule down on paper to have any hope of getting back to Tammy.
After the ordeal of the regional train, we boarded a “group” taxi to our hotel. That’s a regular sized Nissan with double the suggested occupancy. It’s called Tsuru here but you may know it as the Sentra. Hotel El Dorado was a decent enough hotel with an open-late restaurant. The next day we wandered aimlessly from the hotel. It’s a very comfortable city and known for their Mexican influenced Japanese restaurants. Sharon picked a great one for dinner, Ishinoka Nigiri House. Super good and mighty tasty sake. They also made sure we knew that they had fresh tuna. Many, many pounds of it, there to gawk at in the main dining room.
Thursday morning we boarded El Chepe Express, or as the local say “El gallo con huevos de oro” (the rooster with balls of gold). All the locals depend on El Chepe for the money it brings in. Besides the confusing train schedule, the express also offered First Class fares which came with some pretty nice perks for not too much more dinero. However, we didn’t spend much time at our seats due to the allure of the open-air bar car. It was about 4 hours aboard this fiesta train to our first stop, Bahuichivo. At Bahuichivo, Sharon and I, along with 3 other ladies, were herded into a van that took us to Cerocahui and Hotel Jade.
Cerocahui. That must be some sort of Tarjumara Indian word for “itty bitty”, “dirt mound” or “barely a speed-bump”. We were on the main square which was mostly populated by the local dogs who joined us in packs of 3 to 4 any time we ventured out to find something to do, like visit the somewhat nearby waterfall or the really bad ice cream shop. Everything in Cerocahui requires a long drive or a much longer walk, all accompanied by a doggy faction. Want to find a different restaurant? Fuhgeddaboudit. But the local cuisine at the hotel restaurant was hardy and tasty. Plus, they had really good wine.
Next stop via El Chepe Express, Divirsadero and El Mirador Grand Hotel. The hotel name was pretty accurate, although at times it felt more like we were captive on a cruise ship rather than a hotel. It is perilously positioned on the edge of where 3 large canyons converge. There are seven primary canyons that make up this canyon system, referred to collectively as the Copper Canyon. Our stay here has been blessed with clear skies, yielding spectacular views well past the other side of this giant crack in the earth’s crust. The crystal skies also gave way to a dazzling display of the night sky. Photos don’t capture these magnificent views, but we relentlessly kept trying.
We met various interesting folks on this part of the trip. We went to a Mescal tasting, (that Sharon didn’t really want anything to do with). So, my drinking partner and 45-minute date was Roberta, the podiatrist from Phoenix. She was a sweetheart, and that opinion wasn’t because I was drinking. Then there was Bernie the banker from Austria and his friend “5-name” Diana, the YouTuber from Brazil. She was as charming as she was beautiful. She was old enough to be my new youngest daughter.
One great way to experience this area is by horseback and that’s how we met Darey. He is a restaurateur, a hotel owner, an excellent tour guide and a pretty fun photographer. He met us at the hotel with Chula, a trusty young paint and Picado, a much older red. Darey led us up to a distant summit and shared some of the Tarahumara culture. On our path back to the hotel he asked if we would like a different kind of tour tomorrow? Si! Como no! The next morning Dary picked us up in his personal car and took us to stunning overlooks of some of the other canyons. Along the way he introduced us to numerous local Indian friends and “unique” rock formations.
Leaving Divirsadero proved to be an adventure. We felt safe in our travel plans but the staff at the hotel didn’t have the same idea. We checked out around 10am and had the hotel hang on to our bags while we killed time for our departure at 3:30 for the train station. While waiting we met Jason and Mitzi from Tijuana. We were sitting around chit-chatting, minding our own business when we noticed that the bus to take us to the station wasn’t there anymore. Our bags weren’t there anymore either and in the distance was a not-to-distant train whistle. Mitzi jumped into action resulting in employees screaming over walkie-talkies, running frantically and pointing at each other with a “What do we do?” blank stare.
The rapscallion bus driver quickly appeared over the horizon in a storm of dust culminating in a power-slide to our feet. The side door flung open, a cacophony of indiscernible Spanish poured out and we four bagless passengers jumped in. This driver got us to the train station, racing like it was the Baja 1000. Turns out that the driver himself questioned why his first trip to the station was just a few lonely backpacks without owners? The answer to his conundrum became self-apparent.
Back on the “bird with golden balls”, Donnie and Sharon went directly to the bar car. We laughed about our experiences with Joe and Kera from Santa Cruz, (we met on the previous leg of the train trip). It was interesting that all of these folks we have met have been shadowing each other for the past 10 days. Joe and Kera will be staying at Hotel Doreteo in Chihuahua, just as we are. Jason and Mitzi will be a block away. Meanwhile, Roberta, Bernie and “5-Name” Diana are having the best Japanese food in Los Mochis. Hey, try the tuna! Maybe we’ll all meet up at La Antigua Paz for one of those tasty beets or a shot or two before we all disperse to various locations in Mexico.
Truly Beautiful! I have never seen this side of Mexico before. I have heard about it; but, no one before had captured it like you have.