Day 2, 10th Dec.

I’m running late because we have no WiFi and I only just found out that we can buy some.

It was a bright and early start for breakfast. After which we took a tour of El Fuerte which is the home of EL Zorro. We were running low on funds so found an ATM and got some more. After checking out it was on to the train station. The platform was packed with travellers, mostly Mexican. We all wore out masks and tried to distance but it was a bit difficult.

For lunch, we had three choices, Tacos, flautas or hamburgers. They took our orders in our seats, and then we waited. Eventually, we were called to the table. We staggered to the dining car while the train was rocking like an old galleon in a storm. We sat with Pat and Sue, two very nice American ladies. We ordered white wine but Pat and Sue said they had been waiting for their drinks for about an hour so we didn’t hold out much hope of seeing ours.

Our meal eventually came. I didn’t quite get what I had asked for but that was okay as this is Mexico after all. By the end of the meal we still hadn’t seen our wine so asked what was going on and was told that they would bring it to our seats, which they eventually did. 

On the journey, we went over the highest bridge in the world, the longest bridge in the world and the longest tunnel in the world. Do you see a pattern here?

We connected with our ride to the hotel and climbed aboard. It took about 15 minutes to get to Cerocahui and our hotel. After checking in we went to hunt down a glass of wine. It was free time for a while but that soon ended with a seminar on ‘Barrancas del Cobre’ or Copper Canyon. Pancho also told us a lot about the Tarahumara, the indigenous people who own the canyon. 

After our seminar, we ordered a bottle of wine and found some other people in our party to pass the time with. Pat and Sue were at the bar so we sat with them sipping our wine. At dinner, it was noted that there wasn’t much left in our bottle. I wonder where it went? I would like to know as we paid about $36 Cdn for it. Oh well, they still had more behind the bar, so after dinner, we went there with Pat and Sue and Martina joined us. By this time we were having fun. We got another glass of wine each and I ordered what we thought might be a liqueur, ‘Azteca de Oro’ for Rosalie that turned out to be a kind of brandy she didn’t much care for. I had a tequila and sat chatting for an hour or two before bed.

When we first got to our rooms they were freezing cold but there was a large wood stove and lots of logs. Pancho said he would get it lit for us but me being an expert dived right in. In 15 minutes I had to go and find Pancho as the fire had gone out. Oh, the shame!

Up early again in the morning.