EL FUERTE

Once we'd all recovered from our crazy ride to El Fuerte the day before, Saturday morning we piled into Bill and Carol's Jeep - Willie - and headed downtown. 

El Fuerte dates from 1564 founded by the Spaniards. As a colonial city it is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the state of Sinaloa. It is also the gateway to the Copper Canyon. Ahhh - the Copper Canyon - boy would we LOVE to do that train trip one day. Just add it to the list.

If you were with us on last years adventure you know that I can really dish out the photos when I find a place we like. And we really LOVED El Fuerte. So - if you are going to see this post to the end - find your comfy chair and a few snacks - this may take awhile. El Fuerte is filled with photo opps.

The first building we saw as we began our stroll. Now - you really have to LOVE all the colours on Mexican buildings.

Do the colours match?! Who cares!!!

Where exactly are Mexican electricians trained?

When was the last time you saw a sombrero on someones head? - other than a drunk tourist that is.

El Fuerte's central plaza. One of my favourite things about Mexican towns and cities - their plazas. Such a pleasant way to deal with life.

A little girl gets to walk around the fountain.

The Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Temple.

El Fuerte's Palacio Municipal, built between 1903 - 07.

As Carol mentioned to us - all Mexican Municipal Buildings have murals or artwork of some kind. 

The Palacio Municipal on the exterior.

Next we came upon the Hotel Posada del Hidalgo. The building dates from 1650 built by Franciscan Friars as a rectory and used for that purpose until the early 1800's when it became the private house for the Ybarra family for the next 200 years.

You would not BELIEVE how good it felt to be in the shade of these walls!

The newest addition at the Hotel Posada - the Casa Veija - is believed to be the birthplace of Don Diego de la Vega - that's Zorro!

And if you can believe we actually missed meeting Zorro at the special Zorro Happy Hour!

May as well go home now.....

You've just gotta love a country that grows bananas - platanos. Cassia learned that word today while meeting a little girl eating a platanos.

Meet Mr. Prawn.

And across the street ......

Derek was your photographer for the Hotel El Fuerte. He did a great job. But even so pictures in know way do this place justice. It is filled with antiques, artwork, and beautiful furniture.

Get that!

We then walked back towards the plaza.

A closer look at the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Temple.

One of the side streets next to the plaza. Very clean - right?!

Just can't get enough of those electrical lines. The lamp isn't half bad either.

We took a quick detour (did someone say detour!) into an interior market. 

Snake skin anyone?

Always lots of fruit and veggies around.

Down the next street and we found the Jeep back. A few streets over and we found the TelCel store - but no parking. So Bill expertly drove us to the entrance to the stairway down to the El Fuerte River - which at this point we didn't even KNOW there was an El Fuerte River. Nice.

But HOT! A quick looksee and back to the air conditioning.

We did return to the TelCel store and jumped out while Bill and Carol stayed in the Jeep - you know - parked on the street. Derek and I did our best to explain that we were looking for an internet stick. To no avail. While Derek was retrieving Bill to help with our conversation I had found a picture of the stick in a magazine sitting on the ladies desk. Nope - no telcel sticks here.

Chased back to our RVs by the heat - we returned later in the afternoon. Bill and Carol had heard the night before that there was to be some sort of celebration or festival in the plaza that night.

We toured the plaza by night. Beautiful with the lights.

And we enjoyed a really wonderful dinner at the El General restaurant. Sadly nothing was happening at the plaza but that was just as well - we enjoyed walking around in the cool air of the evening.

Bill and Carol were also kind enough to get us hooked on introduce us to churros. Have you had churros? They are a 'you just can't have one thing'. Deep fried batter rolled in sugar and cinnamon. I thought Derek was going to come apart at the seams!

The NEW churro guy - Bill's churro guy went off to Guasave.

Pretty neat to watch the process. Quite the skill to pump this stuff out.

Bill talking with the churro guy.

Hard to photograph but there was a trolley decked out at the front like a train. 

Boy, Cassia was pretty taken with it. 

The next day, Bill, Carol, Cassia and I went to visit the Museum - a replica of the old fort. 

The fort houses lots of old photos of El Fuerte and it's history.

And.... a great view of the river .....

and of the downtown.

Of course, Carol posted about our tour of El Fuerte too! You can check out her photos as The Golden Years. 

What a GREAT day. As I mentioned - we love the beach but there is nothing like walking around a beautiful Mexican town. Even better?! We were the only gringos there. It was nice to be ensconced in a typical Mexican day.

El Fuerte ..... you should go.

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK:  If you want to read more about the history of El Fuerte - visit The 3 Amigos site for a map and description of the downtown walking tour.

YOU CAN FOLLOW ME .... BUT IT'S GOING TO HURT.

No truer words were written. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The plan for Friday, as made on Wednesday, was for us to follow Bill and Carol inland to El Fuerte. Having been there numerous times before, and therefore knowing the way, they were excited to show us this beautiful colonial city. 

And well, we were pretty darn excited to a. just follow in behind and b. see this beautiful colonial city. After all - as much as we love the warmth and beaches we really do want to see the real Mexico and it's people.

All started out well........

Behind our leaders leaving Huatabampito, out the road we came in a short three days ago. Funny it didn't seem near as bumpy or as long as it did on the way in.

Back on the toll road headed south. We passed from the state of Sonora into Sinaloa - Mexico's 'fruit & veggie basket'.

An inspection station, I can't remember what this one was for ..... there seems to be quite a few along the way. I think this was the agricultural inspection station. 

Yup - that's right - this is the one where the guy spoke perfect english and had his guy come over and lean into our van. Then the first guy says - "He smells marijuana." Hmmmm. Nope - says Derek - and holds up his smokes - maybe these. As we were about to drive away the guy says - "How about giving us $5 or $10." And that was American dollars - not pesos - that would have been 65 to 130 pesos!!! Derek - thinking on his feet says - "Are you collecting for the ambulance or something?" as we had seen earlier on. The guy says "No." So Derek says - "No pesos" shrugs his shoulders and drives off. You gotta laugh. The guy figured he'd try us with the marijuana - guess we fit the profile. He wasn't all that sure of himself asking for money so it wasn't too hard to get away without paying him. 

Ahhh - you gotta love Mexico, and it's less common now practice, of mordida.

At El Carrizo we made a U turn on the highway to make the turn east to get on the road to El Fuerte. This is sort of a back way into El Fuerte. Bill had mentioned that is was a good but narrow road and at times we'd have to go slow due to tractors and such. 

We all found out together that the road is under construction! 

No worries -- look -- they have a detour set up.

Okaaaaaaaaaaay...............

Hmmmm - it's looking a bit rough......

Hmmmm - it's lookiing a bit narrow......

Hmmmm - it's looking a bit small ......

(Later Carol told me that she calls these 'Oh shit bridges.' Yup - pretty sure that was going through my head as we approached. It would have certainly come out of my mouth if we didn't have a minor on board.)

Hmmmm - it's looking a bit dirty.......

Well, we were definitely taking the 'back way in' now! The detour wasn't exactly well marked. At one point Bill stopped at an intersection. Which way? Thankfully Bill (being from Argentina) speaks Spanish and was able to ask someone driving by. 

This way, that way........

All went well again until we came to a T - we needed to go right. As we were waiting for the traffic to clear I looked out at the road and thought - oh no - how are we going to fit. I mean - seriously - aren't we taking this narrow road stuff a bit far?!

And here it is! Well, if Bill and Carol can make it so can we. But what if another vehicle comes?!

Where'd they goooooooo?!!!

Close your window!!!! Choke, choke, gasp, gasp.

Ahhhhhh - finally back on the 'real' road. I didn't get a good picture but just before this the detour ended with a major 'Oh Shit bridge'. I almost couldn't watch Bill take it on. 

One last little detour. Nothing after what we just did!

So, after that hour or so of Mexican backroads....

..... the sticker on the back of Bill and Carol's jeep that says

YOU CAN FOLLOW ME - BUT IT'S GOING TO HURT.

Made absolute sense.

Getting close to El Fuerte.

Yaaaa - we have arrived - pulling into Hotel Bugambilias.

And getting settled in our spot on the grass. We are backed in so that we could run our extension cord into a hotel room for power. Interesting system but it works. Well, sort of - there were a lot of power surges.

The shade from the trees along the front of the hotel were our saving grace. It was hot!

Bugambilias (Bougainvilleas) perhaps?

I bet you Moonie is looking at a lizard.....

Amazing flowering trees here at the Hotel. I thought you'd enjoy - particularly if you are knee deep in snow and ice up there.

Two pictures of the Pulmerias (as provided by Carol). If only the picture was a scratch and sniff. Unbelievable fragrance.

One of the workers - Martin - brought us two toronja and mandarinas to eat. 

Must be bugambilias.....

We arrived in El Fuerte Friday afternoon and booked in until Monday morning - 450 pesos - a great deal. Our hosts were lovely people. Cassia and I spoke briefly to the Owners daughter - she is a preschool english teacher. On Sunday, the Owner waved us into the kitchen when Cassia and I were walking around and presented us with a delicious bowl of soup. Everyone was very friendly even though we could only speak to them a little - decimos un pequeño español, ellos dicen un pequeño inglés.

If you love looking at historical buildings you'll LOVE the next post. We spent Saturday touring around El Fuerte. 

B E A U T I F U L .........

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: For an even better rundown of the crazy detour we took to get to El Fuerte by Carol  - check out her blog over at The Golden Years. She's has some great photos that I didn't get - especially since they were in lead position. The guy that asked Bill if he was Mexican was the same one that asked us about marijuana. He was on a roll.

HUATABAMPITO

Tuesday morning we were up and once again back on the road pretty early. Another day of driving - our destination was Huatabampito Beach, about 240 km (150 miles) to the south.

The plan was to stop at Walmart in Ciudad Obregon - a fairly large city - as we saw on google maps that it was right beside the highway. However, as we were entering into Guaymas on our way back to the toll road - look what we spotted - right a cross the street from Home Depot.

Our first Walmart shopping experience in Mexico. Yup - it's a Walmart but Mexican style.

Derek found some shorts and Bohemia Chocolate Stout beer, we got a new case for our new camera, and some groceries.

That only took and hour or so......we were a bit disoriented in the store and of course our brains were constantly trying to figure the peso price out to Canadian $$.

We then continued on to Guaymas because I had found out that there was a Scotia Bank there. Great - Derek - let's drive right into the downtown of a Mexican city so we can go to the bank! 

Entering into Guaymas - it only got busier - I should have taken more pictures - darn!

We found the bank no problem but parking was a whole other ordeal. That was eventually accomplished with only a short walk back to the bank. 

Nothing like taking money out in the thousands!

According to my google map we could turn left on the 26 to get us back to the highway. Funny that the 26 never appeared! As we drove the road went from asphalt to dirt.....hmmmm.. maybe we should turn around. So back towards the city we went - turned right on the 20 and back onto the highway.

Our final stop was for gas in Empalme. All went well and we were back on the 15 - only three hours behind! Sheesh!

You see all sorts of things on Mexican roads. This was our view while waiting for our turn at the toll booth. 

A really nice strip of road south of Ciudad Obregon.

Driving through Navojoa.

HUATABAMPITO BEACH

DAY 1: We pulled into the El Mirador Restaurant and RV Park in Huatabampito at around 4:30 pm - so it turned out to be about a four hour drive. As everyone says - the distance you can do in Canada or the US is much different then Mexico - so true.

We were going to come in the back way to avoid a toll but since it was late afternoon we just went to the 129 km marker and headed straight west. It was only a difference of $5. I didn't know how long the free road would take us since it goes through a few towns. Sounds like it may have been a better decision though since the road in that we took was VERY bumpy. LOTS of pot holes. Derek was seriously starting to wonder where I was leading us. I guess the 42 kms IN didn't help either.

But we were pretty happy when we arrived! 

What a beach!

DAY 2: Wednesday was spent at the beach .......

The cost per night at the El Mirador is 234 pesos - so around $18 for full hook ups.

When we first arrived their were two other rigs - Pete and Lynn from BC and Bill and Carol from Indiana. Late Wednesday we were joined by Karin and Klaus from Germany. Lots of new friends.

Here's a movie of the beach!

After the sunset we spent some time with Carol and Bill. Bill was the one flying the kites. We were invited to their RV to talk about places to visit in Mexico. C & B have traveled extensively throughout Mexico - and Central and South America by the way.... and can be found here. 

By the time we left we were C & B's new travel buddies. They were headed to El Fuerte on Friday and we were going to join them!

DAY 3: Thursday began with more beach time and then I joined Carol and Bill on a visit to Huatabampo - 16 ams away. They showed me around the downtown and we did some grocery shopping. On the way back we stopped at the central plaza so Carol and I could take a look at the mural in the Municipal Building.

 Back at the beach.....

Shells collected by Mom and arranged by Cassia.

Not a lot of shells on the Huatabampito beach but enough to make the walk a little more fun. 

You gotta love a beach with no one on it. Derek was able to walk Roofous off his leash. 

Amazing - right?!

We LOVED our three night stay at Huatabampito. It was a bit of a drive in but it was definitely worth it. We'll stop in again on our way back north.

The only negative was that we couldn't get wifi. Everyone else was able to - not sure if it was an Apple issue or what. A bit frustrating but I guess we got more beach time in that way. 

WoW! Mexico is just getting better and better. We sure enjoyed visiting with our new friends at Huatabampito - how nice to swap stories with fellow travellers. 

Hope this all makes sense - we didn't have wifi tonight until after 10:00pm. I was already done with today but figured I should keep trying to get caught up. (By midnight I STILL couldn't get this posted - but it's here now - Saturday morning!)

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: And speaking of Mexico and shells - here is a link that my sister passed my way. Pretty interesting and well, pretty strange - take a look!