RELAXING AT PORT TOPOLOBAMPO
RELAXATION IS EASY AT PORT TOPOLOBAMPO, SINALOA, MEXICO
By Malcolm Callister
Most tourist guides would neglect to mention Port Topolobampo, in the state of Sinaloa. But they are wrong. You should plan on spending a few hours there, at any time of the year. Walk the Malecon, take a tourist boat out, relax. See this attractive town on a hill from the water, a picture waiting to be painted. Experience the pure pleasure demonstrated by the bay dolphins that swim up to greet your tour boat.
RELAX AND ENJOY
Enjoy a casual stroll along the Malecon, past the blue and white inshore fishing boats with their bamboo booms, past tour boats with their blue canvas canopies designed to protect the tourist from the sun. This is a picture-postcard setting. Coupling the visual sensation with the fresh smell of salt sea air, helps you relax. It was worth the twenty-five-minute drive from Los Mochis.
To sit on a bench, while the warm sun, from a clear blue sky, fills you with that primeval feeling of wellbeing. You can watch a giant ocean-going freighter being pushed and pulled by tug boats through the narrow channel and onto its dockside mooring. This is an act of seamanship that most people have not witnessed. Appreciate, contemplate the skill involved. Alternatively, you can mimic the pelicans, just enjoying the sun.
Take a tour boat, and you see the town for a new perspective. In the clear tropical sea-air, you can see the harbor as an artist would. You experience for a moment the artists’ pleasure.
Then, just as you are relaxing, there is a splash beside your boat, the Dolphins have arrived. Splash the water with your hand, and the Dolphins will circle around. In groups of two or more, they play in the bow wave and wake of the boat. Real, uncomplicated fun. You laugh and point at the next dolphin to surface.
THE SMALL BUT MIGHTY TOPOLOBAMPO
Port Topolobampo is dwarfed by the neighboring city of Los Mochis. But the giant of Los Mochis, with its population of 230,000 cannot survive without this little town of only 6,500 people. Its secret is that Port Topolobampo is a deep-water harbor, on the Mexican mainland coast of the Sea of Cortes. The port is also at the end of the Chihuahua-Pacific Railroad (El Chepe). A railroad that connects Mexico’s farm produce of the northern interior states and the fertile “Valle del Fuerte,” to the shipping lanes of the world.
LUNCH
After a day and relaxing day, complete your stay with lunch or dinner at one of the many fish restaurants in town. Or get your taxi to take you one of the beach restaurants located just out of town, for a fish meal to be remembered.
M&L TIP OF THE WEEK:
There is no RV parking in the port, but most Tour companies will arrange for you to spend a few hours in Topolobampo, but you will have to request it. Then again, you can just hire a taxi for the day. Fix the price before you leave Los Mochis.
