Copper Canyon Bound

 



Travelling in Mexico US Hwy 18 Mex 15 - Copper Canyon Bound

Tucson to Los Mochis via bus is a long ride.  Gone are the rickety busses so stuffed with passengers they’re hanging out the windows as live chickens squawk in the aisles portrayed in old western movies. This bus has air conditioning, comfortable seats, and drivers professional in crisply ironed white shirts and dark blue slacks.  A video screen plays American movies voiced-over in Spanish, the audio lingering a few beats after the lips stop. 

Crossing the border proved easy.  Everybody got off the bus, lined up with their bags and punched a metal button on a pole hooked to a stop light.   We foreigners were directed to a Customs counter where we filled out a form, bought a tourist visa ($200p), then back on the bus.  

Mexico Hwy 15 stretches narrowly across flat desert, oncoming traffic rushes by with a suction of wind shear.  My travelling companion gasped in terror as another bus plowed toward us at crazy speed, the road looking too narrow for both vehicles, certain a crash was inevitable.  But no.  With inches to spare, we emerged unscathed. I was more blasé having survived a similar bus trip along the Amalfi Coast where the choice of crash site was the cliff on one side and a mind-boggling drop into the ocean on the other.  This was a piece of cake – the road was flat.  

The bus stopped at a roadside stand outside Nogales for a food break at a rusted tin-roofed palapa.  A pot of beans simmering over a wood fire that smelt like mesquite enticed me into buying some pretty tasty quesadillas.  

There are many toll road stops which cost the bus $85p at each. Boys selling snack foods hop on during these stops, make a trip down the aisle selling their wares to passengers, give a gratuity to the driver, then off the bus.  A policeman got on at the border and rode along to the next passport check station, standing by the driver, them chatting away.  

At one point, the bus slowed way down, and still moving the driver opened the door for a man, some guy in a tee shirt.  They traded places in the drivers’ seat with the bus still moving.  This new guy reached down and moved a big rock that sat on the gas pedal controlling the speed.  With that we were off.  I entertained some thoughts on the odds of being kidnapped.  

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