ELE JOU: into the canyons, PART ONE

the Paris Hotel where we did not stay


making our luggage look VERY manageable


Sarah's knees in the death taxi


religious icons are frighteningly popular in all vehicles


hundreds of bats emerge at sunset over Rio Fuerte

(though home in san francisco now, i am dipping back to tell of our journey to the Barrancas del Cobre, the Copper Canyon...)

on the 2rd of March we left Mazatlan, ostensibly to AVOID carnaval,
a much-beloved annual event launched in 1898 and said to be the
third largest celebration of its kind in the world.

although i LOVE costumes and colors and pageantry and parades, i do NOT LOVE streets crowded with extremely drunk people. or sober people for that matter.
perhaps it's because i am not tall (as in: i am short) and cannot see open spaces or relief from the madness. perhaps it's some vestigial claustrophobia contributed by my maternal progenitor. whatever the reason, i am not a crowd person and so i was delighted that Sarah and Buz suggested we leave town and venture into the Copper Canyon during the city's wild celebration.

the first part of our journey involved NINE HOURS of bus transportation.
bus #1, from Mazatlan to Los Mochis (8 hours), was modern, fast and well-equipped.
in fact TOO well-equipped: there were video monitors hanging at regular
intervals throughout and we were subjected to NON-STOP, VERY LOUD
movies and television. even my trusty earplugs (the silicone kind - not the
useless foam jobs that crackle in my ears and CREATE sound rather than
block it) were powerless against the decibels.

upon reaching Los Mochis, which everyone simply calls MOCHIS
(pronounced MO-chis), we were surprised to find that the next bus
left from an entirely different terminal - independent bus lines with
their own terminals? hmmm.
though reputed to be a relatively short distance, we four were not prepared
to walk, with luggage, in the sweltering heat. a cab appeared, the driver stuffed our bags into a trunk that would not close and we piled into the taxi. the driver offered to take us directly to our destination, El Fuerte, for 70 u.s. dollars.
we discussed it briefly in english then politely declined in spanish.
lucky decision because within moments it became apparent that there was something grossly wrong with the exhaust system and we were breathing fumes directly from the tail pipe.

we reached the next terminal without expiring and jumped on Bus #2 -
a run-down vehicle working an extremely LOCAL route. we guessed it to be
a family operation with dad driving, mom collecting fares and chatting
with almost every passenger and the son riding shot-gun and loading luggage. no air-conditioning but great mexican music playing and no enforced movie-watching which was a huge relief.

once in El Fuerte, a less toxic cab chugged us up a steep hill to
RIO VISTA where we were installed in rooms overlooking the
magnificent river. this is the threshold to the Copper Canyon from
which we'd take the storied EL CHEPE train the following day...