April 5th & 6th: El Chepe dumped us at the RR station a few minutes before midnight on the 4th. I did my usual "por favor, una hotel mas economica" to the cab driver. Three of us packed into the typical small Mexican cab and we shot off through boulevards and alleys, coming to stop in front of.....it coulda been Ernest Hemingway's hotel in Havana!

The Hotel Monte Carlo, wearing her 70 years well, captivated me. I could pretend I was in Cuba, but a modern city was right outside. I used the days to walk the streets, explore, try, observe, note.

April 7th: I left the MC and took one of the regional buses, like a big school bus with a diesel engine, to the seaport town of Topolobampo. After a rough start trying to find out what's what, I wound up at La Playa, the beach. As usual, when I most needed an angel, one appeared by the name of Willy. Sure, angels can be named Willy!

Although "only" an employee at El Maviri restaurant, he spoke English and could almost read one's mind as to needs. I was told that I could sleep anywhere I wanted to on the property. That afternoon I ate three plates of freshly harvested mangrove oysters with salsa and lime. Yum! After the customers left, Willy and I talked late into the night about life, love, and values.

The next day my cab driver Alfonso came to take me back to Topo, but it turned out that being Maundy Thursday, the buses weren't running! So he got me for a fare all the way back to, where else, the Monte Carlo.