Allright!! We are to Week Three in Mexico

A 3pm shot from the house. This is another photo of Mt. Si.
A foggy day. And bitter cold.
There is still alot of snow and ice on the ground. I went to work at 4:30am and it was really cold then.
When I am not doing this or that, I work for a very large coffee company that starts with an S and ends with an S and was born in a city that starts with an S and has a picture of a mermaid as the company logo. I will eagerly tell you that if you are looking for a very rewarding career and you are not too busy doing this or that, you should work for the company I work for.....I have been there a long time.......the only sad thing is I have to leave it behind when we move.............. enough of that.........on to Mexico!

Hola, hola, hola, mis amigos....!

We are back in Hermosillo after an interesting last night stay in Guadalajara. We stayed in a motel on the outskirts of town. I had read about this type of motel, but didn't think that's what it was because it was so close to the airport. Some motels in Mexico are for, let's just say, renting by the hour...You must pass through security and then once assigned a room, you drive your car into an enclosed garage that opens onto your room. They must have known we were married because we paid for the whole night....the welcoming screen on our TV was quadruple rated x, if there is such a thing, and the brochures laying around the room invited us to order from the motel's love shop. We finally managed to find a channel that was not x-rated and fell asleep watching it. The next morning we caught what we thought was an early flight to Hermosillo, but when we went out over the water we knew it would be awhile. A side trip to the airport of La Paz showed us how beautiful the Golfo de California is, but we were glad to get back to Hermosillo.

Then...........................
We broke the cardinal rule. We drove in the dark in Hermosillo. I was like Cinderella in her coach, afraid Bill would turn into a mouse and the car into a pumpkin. I kept telling Bill to hurry up hurry up, and get to the hotel. I don't even remember now why we were out so late, but we got very disoriented and ended up on the outskirts of Hermosillo, opposite of where we wanted to be. A huge downpour flooded the streets earlier that afternoon and standing water made driving even more hazardous. I was close to hyperventilating when Bill found a road he recognized and finally got us to our hotel.

Now we have driven back to Alamos, in a new rental car and new Mexican car insurance (which by the way, is the most expensive part of our trip, but you cannot be without Mexican car insurance and your American car insurance does not work down here).

I want to tell you a little more about Alamos.
Alamos, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Madres Mountains, was a rich silver mining town in the 18th century. Many landowners were wealthy silver barons who built lavish, beautiful colonial homes. Mining was discontinued in the early 20th century, and when the Mexican Revolution occurred, wealthy landowners were forced to flee their homes. Much of the population left, leaving Alamos almost a ghost town. At some time during the 1950's a few North Americans began to discover Alamos, purchasing land and restoring the old silver baron homes and mansions. This returned some of the country's economic growth to Alamos, and the Mexican government declared Alamos to be a national monument. With a population of around 6,000, this small town is now thriving, but maintaining its small, beautiful, old-town ambience.
There really isn't any more to say, it is a beautiful town.

We settled ourselves back into San Andres on a Wednesday afternoon and as evening approached, I made sure I had my earplugs handy for later that night. We had decided to meet with the realtor from Alamos Realty the following day to see some homes and I wanted a good nights sleep. Dusk came and went, but the Alameda was quiet. We knew from our previous stay that the craziness had begun on Thursday, so we thought maybe they just take Wednesday night off.

That was good news. Town was fairly quiet, and although we could hear the delivery trucks coming around about 4am we slept well.

The following day we did a lot of walking and driving. We noticed what looked like a big outdoor banquet being set up near the hospital. It thundered and rained a little in the early afternoon as Lilliana, the real estate agent drove us to see some homes. It was all very pleasant.
We saw some very, very old, dilapidated buildings. Buildings that were once beautiful homes, now in very poor condition. A few nicer homes were on our list and the owners were very kind to let us walk through their treasured rooms. But we are looking for a project, a place in need of a lot of fixing up.

So most of the places we looked at had been empty for 2 or more years. We were in awe of the architecture, as much in disrepair as many of the buildings were, the Moorish archways, the Spanish portals, columns and walkways, the forged iron gates and immensely huge wooden doors let us in on some of the beauty of their history.

Later that evening we sat on the balcony at Don Andres, talked about what we had seen that day and geared ourselves up for some noise. We watched as nicely dressed teenage boys walked along the Alameda and up the streets. What appeared to be their mothers and grandmothers walked with or behind them, laughing and talking, and carrying potted plants. We guessed they were returning from the banquet. A few cars drove by, but mostly we saw a lot of families walking, and enjoying the evening.
There were no horns honking, no radios blaring, no yelling and screaming; we did see the truck with the wire reindeer on its roof and the little fire glowing beneath it. We did see that maroon trooper and the silver truck with all the kids in the back, but they were just going places, just doing whatever it was they were doing.

It was a quiet evening in Alamos and we were very surprised, but we were also very pleased to see that family was important in this town, and that all the craziness of the first week there seemed to have disappeared.

The following day, we walked up the hill to take another look at the small place we had decided might just become our project. Lilliana met us and gave us the key so we could take our time looking again. She happened to mention the celebration of the Mexican Revolution which had happened the week before last. Had we been here, she asked?