Current Time in Los Mochis, Mexico

Los Mochis lies in the northern part of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, on a broad coastal plain a short distance from the Gulf of California. The city sits amid irrigated farmland fed by the Fuerte River, and its port district of Topolobampo, about twenty kilometres to the south-west, gives it access to one of the deepest natural harbours on the Mexican Pacific coast. The climate is hot and dry for much of the year, softened by sea breezes and by a brief summer rainy season.

Around two hundred and sixty thousand people live in the city, and the surrounding municipality of Ahome counts close to half a million. Los Mochis is one of the most productive agricultural centres in Mexico, known above all for sugar cane but also for maize, vegetables, mangoes and marigolds grown for export. Fishing and shrimp farming along the coast, food processing and the movement of cargo through Topolobampo complete an economy that has made the city the commercial heart of northern Sinaloa.

The city is young by Mexican standards. Its origins lie in the 1870s, when the American engineer and social reformer Albert Kimsey Owen tried to found a utopian cooperative colony at Topolobampo. The experiment eventually dissolved, but another American, Benjamin Francis Johnston, stayed on and built a sugar mill that became the nucleus of the settlement. Los Mochis was formally established in 1903, and the mill, the canals dug to irrigate the plain and the arrival of the railway shaped its rapid growth through the twentieth century.

Its best known attraction is not a building but a journey. Los Mochis is the western terminus of the Chihuahua al Pacifico railway, universally called El Chepe, which climbs from the coast through the Copper Canyon to the highlands of Chihuahua and is regarded as one of the great train rides in the world. In the city itself, the Sinaloa Botanical Garden, laid out on the grounds of Johnston's former estate, shelters palms, cycads and tropical trees over several hectares. The Regional Museum of the Valle del Fuerte traces local history from indigenous cultures to the colony era, while the Plazuela 27 de Septiembre and the church of the Sagrado Corazon anchor the centre. Nearby, the colonial town of El Fuerte, the beach at Maviri and the bay of Ohuira draw weekend visitors, and Topolobampo is a departure point for boat trips to see dolphins and sea lions.

Local life revolves around food, baseball and the February carnival, one of the largest in the region. The Caneros de Los Mochis play in the Mexican Pacific League, and seafood dishes such as ceviche, aguachile and marlin tacos are a point of civic pride. Campuses of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and the Technological Institute of Los Mochis serve thousands of students, while the Federal Highway 15 corridor, a regional airport and the ferry link from Topolobampo to Baja California keep the city well connected.

Los Mochis matters as an agricultural powerhouse, a Pacific gateway and the starting point of the most spectacular railway journey in Mexico.