Today, just like yesterday, we got up at 5am to walk to the bus station by 6 am.  And today, just like yesterday, we missed the bus by 2 minutes so got into a cab instead. And today, just iike yesterday, we drove to the train station to take the Chepe train to Copper Canyon. If you’ve ever seen the movie Groundhog’s day with Bill Murray.. you get the idea.  Only yesterday when we paid the cab, and it left, we discovered the train doesn’t run on Thursdays. So now we are at a remote train station with no way to get back to Topolobompo (25km away)..  But before we started walking, another cab pulled in with another misinformed would be train goer.. Johnathan.  He is from North Carolina but has been living in Mexico for a few years.  We told him what we learned.. that the train won’t “leave” for another 24 hours, so we all five us jammed our gear and bodies into his cab and took us back to town.. where we had breakfast together.  Because Johnathan speaks really good Spanish, we were able to glean a lot of information. (more on the language barrier later) We offered him a place to sleep on the boat.. and in turn he cooked some really good grub.  In the afternoon we walke through the small town on a big hill..and of course to the church at the top of the hill.  There was a pickup truck using a bullhorn to advertise… a method of marketing not used much in the states anymore.. anyway I asked johnathan what the message was.. he said is is selling oranges 3 kilos for 10 pesos. (75 cents)  So I stopped the truck to investigate. Sure enough, the truck bed was full of really good looking oranges.. and they are the juicest oranges I’ve ever tasted.

Johnathon also accompanied us to dinner last night (an outdoor café where there were no customers.. but a family watching TV.  It was a family operation; Mother cooked, father waited on the table, son bussed and helped in the kitchen. When the food prepared, the father took to the microphone and did some kareokee style singing for us of classic Mexican tunes.  Brenda and I even did a little dancing. But once again, Johnathan really helped us communicate. The family knew basically no English, and it’s hard to decipher when asked if we want our food grilled, fryed, spiced hot or very hot.. you get the idea. My dish of local fish had options of being in a garlic sause, mexican hot sause, and about five other options. With Johnathan’s help, I am still alive today.

And best of all, on a train. Yes, today the train did leave. We arrive the station just as the boarding process started. No ticket. No idea what to do.. just followed Johnathan as he was told by the conducter which car to board based on our destination.. Creel.  Elevation 7,500 ft. Up in the mountains. Snow! We don’t have any warm coats.. but will be fun anyway. The train cost each of us $542 pesos.. about $40 US each way. Bargain.   More about our train adventure in another post.