Exploring the Los Mochis area

We had a full day in Los Mochis to explore the town and surrounding area and being true "gringos" our first stop was WalMart! I can hear some of you groaning but I won't name names... WalMart was playing American Christmas carols in English and we heard a few locals singing along as they shopped. We were hoping to find items such as beach chairs, a wireless FM transmitter for our MP3 player so we could listen in the truck, John's medicine, cat litter, and a deck of cards. No beach chairs, found a cassette tape transmitter (only had wireless FM transmitters for Ipods), got John's meds, no cat litter or deck of cards. I'm getting a little worried about the cat litter. While there are plenty of street animals-dogs and cats, there are few domesticated animals. WalMart only had one short isle and limited selection of dog food or supplies. The city of Los Mochis, pop. 175,000, seemed fairly prosperous but we didn't find any area that interested us enough to walk around. We instead drove out to the nearest port town of Topolobampo. We noticed anti-drug signs, a few around town and more the highway out to the port, discouraging both use of drugs and drugs as a way to improve one's life. Maybe the port adds a dimension of drug trafficing here.The town is very small, a couple thousand at the most and appeared very poor. We don't know why but while most villages appear poor, some are very clean and have an orderly, even inviting feel. Topolobampo did not. We took these pictures at the waterfront. All the fishing and shrimping boats were tied along the L-shaped sea wall. There was a bustle of activity. There was a small area about 1/4 mile from here where about 10 private boats were docked. The area was secured by locked gates at each road so we were unable to get close enough for pictures. We'd heard there were seafood restaurants near Topolobampo but didn't find them. When we returned to the campground later we learned from Felipe that the restaurants are out on a pennisula, accessed from a road we'd seen but I had felt too uneasy to venture onto as it seemed to lead to an isolated area. We told Felipe that when we return in April we'll take him with us. Hopefully our Spanish will be better by then so we can have more conversation.

Los Mochis is a necessary stopping point and maybe we'll find its real virtues when we return on our way north. We felt a little anxious there. The barren campground, the anti-drug signs, the size of the town with increased traffic and congestion all added to our anxiety. We were glad to be headed south to Celestino Gasca, an area 45 minutes north of Mazatlan.