Hotel Best W Los Mochis

... by Officer Obed he kept me talking for almost an hour and was trying to set me up with some women at the market, I don't know if it was a honey trap or he was concerned about my welfare. At least it wasn't lady boys. The Chinese was closed so I had a monster chicken soup with half a chicken in it and a steak instead.
Somehow lost an hour to the time bandits, they don't warn you when the time zone changes you just arrive late or early.

We have a new addition to our crew! Can't wait for you all to meet Ballena, (Our little whale). Her name Ballena, means "whale" in spanish, but she is in fact the most beautiful and smart puppy in the world! (but of course not more so than Velvet, Lola, Tyson, or SnoopDog!)

Wade & I already got her shots for fleas, worms, heart worm ...

... I was not a helper....I was Sous Chef!!! He had no idea what that was...but let it go....and the demonstration began. I guess if you are 90 years old, or thereabouts, and you've made several million tortillas by hand the process is dead simple. If you have never hand-made a tortilla you look like an idiot! There was Granny right beside me patting her tortilla into a perfect round 1/8th inch thick piece of delicious loveliness....while I pounded the hell out of ball of matza ...

Nothing really special in Los Mochis on the Sea of Cortes. This is where we were catching the train to Copper Canyon. We drove around a little bit but nothing too exciting. The traditional city grid setup and a short drive outside of town is the car ferry terminal. This is where you can catch a car ferry to La Paz, Baja Califorinia. We were up at 4:30am to catch the 6:00am train to Copper Canyon. Yes, when the train ...

... stem of the peace sign three simultaneous water drops slid up the windshield. These were the first drops to move on the whole shield. The middle went straight up and the two on each side angled up at the same angle as the real sign went down. If you are following this the drops made an upside down peace sign across the whole shield. Ah Nature!!! About an hour of this fog hanging in among the tall cactus made for a surreal but wet ...

... is, an empty one stops beside us and tells us to jump on. As we say Chepe station he wipes off some writing from his windscreen and writes up Chepe with what appears to be white boot polish. Mariachi music blasting out, we're travelling in the shell of a bus, the metal undercarriage apparently doubles as the floor. Arriving at the station we de-load and tuck into our cereal bars and concentrated apple juice. Chewing away, we're approached by security and ...

... the place was littered with piles of those huge, square, check, plastic zip up bags, nylon sacks of clothes, taped up card board boxes, the odd DVD player or kettle - they were obviously travelling to the mainland with all their worldly goods. The ferry itself was a pleasant surprise - we had expected little more than a rusty hulk but it was similar to our cross channel ferries, if stuck in a seventies time warp. When we saw the melee at the terminal ...

... town. Checked out the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Paz (built in 1861..not stunning from the outside but built in such a simple way it was charming and very spacious inside) Then walked around the back streets watching the Mexicans go about their business. Its amazing that they don't seem to sweat in this heat. I'm having to duck from shop to shop with aircon pretending I'm interested in their goods just to keep awake. Also, with so many people around and ...

... Better yet is the ice cream desert. Then over to the Plaza. Lots of palm trees and wrought-iron light fixtures, but the crowning jewel is the gazebo/bandstand. The railings are designed with wrought-iron musical symbols. The first "band stand" that I have seen with these. A stroll thru the small plaza, passing by lots of families and couples, then the walk "uphill" to the hotel. Still too early for bed, we take a walk up to the hotels' mini-museum to look at the ...