We caught the 2pm bus to Creel onTuesday and arrived there just after 6pm after being serenaded by a guy on the bus playing an accordian and singing happy songs LOUDLY! The movies were Dr Dolittle 1&2 dubbed in spanish and were fun to watch and to help us learn a little more hablar Espanole.
At Creel we were met by a guy wanting to take us to the Casa Margarita hostel which was where we were headed anyway and we were told the dorms were full so took a room with an ensuite for 300 peso including breakfast and dinner which is good value. That evening we went out to a local bar with a group from the Casa and had such a good time we rolled home at about 4am. The next day we moved to two beds in a room with no ensuite for 200 incl brk & dinner so was getting better for our budget. A goods train was derailed on the line so our plans to go down the Barrancas del Cobre/Copper Canyon had to be delayed. A group of us got together and hired a van to take us to Batopilas, a 5 hour trip sown 1800mtrs to the bottom of the canyon. We had a fun trip playing games like 'I Spy' etc with an international group with a common language of english (3 Germans, 2 Danes, 2 French Swiss, 2 English and us). Batopilas was once a thriving silver mining town but is now just a village with ruins of huge buildings in the village and a cathedral that has been built out in the middle of nowhere 1 1/2 hours walk from the village. It also has a lovely cool river which we went for a swim in. We stayed overnight at the Batopilas Hotel, a basic room with ensuite for 160p, and travelled back the next day. That was Friday which meant the new bar in Creel, the Cabillo Bayo, was onpeing so after a car game called 'Asshole' at which Carol sucked and Kent was brilliant we all headed there (beer = 20p so about the same as NZ). Evenings in Mexico start at around 10pm and go to the early hours but we headed back at midnight, tired out.
The trains were running again so we caught the segunda (2nd) class train to El Fuerte. The train was the old first class train so just great to travel in. Hurricane Norbert was hitting the bottom of the Baja Peninsular (Saturday) so we wanted to get down to the coast in case it stopped the train from running. The journey was full of spectacular scenery, huge canyons and amazing rocks and a beautiful lake.
9pm at El Fuerte brought the beginnings of wind and rain. We found the town is 8km from the track so had to take a taxi in, 40p ea. So you can see that prices here are not so much cheaper than NZ, NZ$1 = 6.25peso at our last exchange altho it is now up to 7.7 which is better.
Hotel San Jose looked dreadful in the pouring rain after walking through 4" of water on the street from the taxi but it was a cheap option in a town of American group tour hotels and it turned out to be a great choice. Our small room was 250p and had an ensuite and air conditioning and cable TV. We had a shower and washed all our clothes, lucky as the next day the water stopped and it was rainwater from a drum.
Sunday - we walked all over the town and people were everywhere tidying up the leaves and branches, we only saw one roof that had gone. Telephones and internet were out. The owner of the hotel and his wife took us for a great tour of the area in his car. We saw the local reservoir and drove in a tunnel right under the dam that generates power for the whole coast.
Monday - We caught the bus to Los Mochis.
