Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Chihuahua, Mexico
Manflu has set in. Cold night again. If you want to send me virtual TLC, please feel free to do so.
Train from Posada Barrancas to Chihuahua is due to depart 1345hrs and arrive at 2130hrs. Nearly 8hrs train journey. Leisurely morning on balcony admiring the view and catching up on diary before checking out at noon. Transfer to the station is scheduled for 1315hrs. No idea why as it’s a 2mins drive away.
Quick lunch and have arranged a packed lunch to take away which I’ll have as dinner on the train. Cold, congealed, toasted cheese sandwich and a pack of crisps to look forward to. Yay. It’s a giddy existence this travel malarkey.
It’s only at 1300hrs that word starts to spread that the train is running 2hrs late from Los Mochis.
Which means arriving Chihuahua gone 2330hrs. Going to be a long day. Some other ladies going to Creel an hour away decide to take a taxi.
Which gets me thinking.
Enquire about a taxi to Chihuahua. A 4hr drive.
Gulp.
£280.
Gulp.
Guide has a mate who will do it for £230.
Still gulp.
Really don’t want to be arriving at hotel in Chihuahua near midnight especially as have to be up early for flight to USA tomorrow.
Take the hit. Can be in Chihuahua by 1800hrs if we leave now.
Driver turns up 10mins later and off we go.
The second most expensive taxi journey I’ve had.
The most expensive was from Harwich ferry terminal to Birmingham airport in 2010 when flights were cancelled due to snow. Working in Frankfurt at the time and we all had to get home for Christmas. Journey home entailed many hours on delayed trains from Frankfurt to Rotterdam, then Hook van Holland, overnight ferry to Harwich, taxi to Birmingham airport to pick our cars up, then a drive home. 36hrs travelling. A couple of colleagues will be reading this, nodding their heads and smiling at the memories.
Twisty mountain roads which generally follow the route of the railway line give way to straight roads on big flat plains. Make good progress.
Pass through the apple growing area. Thousands of acres given over to orchards. From what driver says, understand it to be Golden Delicious apples they grow.
Arrive Chihuahua at 1800hrs. Best decision. Really couldn’t be doing with a delayed rail journey today. Have got the bit between my teeth now.
Ready for USA.
Plenty of big houses as we drive into Chihuahua. There’s lot of money here from the cattle business and the many ranches.
Back in the late 1980s I used to work behind the bar in the village pub (and I know one of my fellow barmaids is reading this). There used to be a quiz night and the landlord was not the sharpest tool in the box. One of the questions he asked, in his broad South Yorkshire accent, was, “What is a chee-hewer-hewer?”. Obviously, he meant chihuahua. We still laugh about it to this day. And I hope Miss T is laughing too?
Check in to Hotel San Felipe El Real (http://hotelsanfelipeelreal.com/hotel/the-hotel/), a very small hotel. Greeted by the night porter who speaks no English and has a passing resemblance to Sloth out of The Goonies (Google it). As it’s quite cold, and still I have manflu, ask if there’s any heating. He goes and gets some matches to light the gas fire in the room. Fire looks like something out of Del Boy Trotter’s flat in the 1980s.
Erm.
Thinking I don’t want to die of carbon monoxide poisoning tonight, forego heat and ask for more blankets instead.
I know what you’re all thinking.
Wuss.
Manflu remember.
Driver pointed out a top notch restaurant on the way in so head for that for dinner. It’s in the former home of Din Luis Terrazas, a 19th century rancher and businessman who owned most of Chihuahua way back when.
Wow. What an interior.
As it’s the final night in Mexico, and, more importantly, is the end of the Central America sector of this trip, and as I haven’t spent enough money today, enjoy one of the finest filet steaks I’ve had. And obviously, one needs a glass or two of fine red wine with a fine filet steak. Doesn’t one.
Beats a congealed cheese sandwich on a delayed train.
Well. That’s that.
Central America. Tick.
Can’t quite believe I’ve made it this far without any mishap. Central America has surprised. Felt very safe. Interesting things to see and do.
El Salvador was the highlight. Go see.
My only regret.
Not seeing any dead bodies by the roadside.
Was expecting them to be littered all over the place given what I’d read.
