We arrived in El Fuerte from Topolobampo by bus from Los Mochis about 50 miles away. This charming town was founded on the Fuerte River in 1564 by the Spanish Conquistador Don Francisco de Ibarra. It was a major trading center for many centuries and was important administrative center.
As a frontier town, of the Western Sierra Madre Mountains, it played a major role in the development of the states of Sonora and Sinaloa. As a result, it has many fine colonial buildings and old Haciendas that have been converted to Hotels. Our Hotel, the Hotel Posada del Hidalgo is a fine example of this.

Our day had started in Topolobampo where we had planned to take the bus to Los Mochis but finished up in a Taxi which had offered us a great deal. In Los Mochis we needed to replenish our Pesos and went to the Santander Bank where we found a very long line at the cash machines as banks are closed on Saturdays. A short walk from the bank and we arrived at the Bus terminal for our one and a half hour, 70 Peso ride in an air conditioned bus to El Fuerte. This was to be the start of our trip to Copper Canyon on the “El Chepe” train.

After locating our hotel, we took a walk around this delightful colonial town to take photographs of the many old buildings and the cobblestone streets. The people were very friendly and helpful in the town and we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere here. On our way to the Hotel, we had stopped at another Hotel, the Torres del Fuerte, to ask for directions and the old gentleman in the Hotel kindly walked us over to our Hotel, such is the helpful nature of the people in this town. We did go back to this Hotel to take photographs of the picturesque interior with its fine architecture, gardens and original artworks. On the floor was something which we immediately recognized as an original Turkish Bergama Carpet, something we did not expect to find so far from its original home in Anatolia, Turkey.

Our Hotel was built in 1890 by Senor Rafael Almada who was once the Mayor of the town. It is in the town center and next to the old fort, now the museum, which was built in 1610. There is a statue in the gardens of the legendary Zorro who is supposed to have been born here, the son of the Don Alejandro de la Vega family. This is something the town is quite proud of.

We enjoyed our one night here however El Fuerte is worthy of at least another night which would provide more time to visit the Museum and tour more of this historic town with its very relaxed atmosphere and interesting architecture.