FM3 Renewal and the Church

We have just returned from a trip to Tucson. It began as a trip to Hermosillo to renew our FM3 Visas. We received our visas in March, 2008, in Seattle.

We established a Mexican corporation when we came to Mexico and the corporation is registered in Hermosillo, so we needed to go there for renewal.

At the immigration office in Hermosillo, we were told it is not when you got your FM3 that matters, it is when you entered the country. We entered the country on June 18, 2008. We were also told it is not necessary to renew within 30 days, but we needed to be alot closer to June 18, than the month of February. Senora told us to come back in March.
Some of this information is contrary to what we have been told by other people and also to what we have read on the internet. We will have to keep you posted on this one.

We continued north to Tucson for 3 days, where we just played. We watched the food channel at the Red Roof Inn, ate prime rib and barbeque at some very good restaurants, and drove up and down Ina Road for alot of shopping. I love Ina Road, it is very easy to get everywhere from this road and I am sure I have told you that before.

We also drove through Saguaro National Park. The park is beautiful and has a number of buildings that were built in the 30's by the CCC. The road is very winding and rough in some places. The terrain and scenery are not that different from the topography here. Everything was very dry, but like here, colored with hundreds of shades of browns and greens. It's amazing how colorful the dessert can be, even during the dry season.
Below are some photos of the Saguaro National Park.

After a stop in San Carlos for the night, we returned to Alamos.

So, we will make this trip again in March to Hermosillo to attempt the renewal of our Fm3's .......

And, by the way, our truck was packed with the last 2 antique chests and the long 8x4 painting and no one said boo! to us as we crossed the border.....yes, I had the 'list' ready. Unless we have an unusual border crossing in the future, I won't bore you with any more border crossing details.................

I am including some information on the church here, because a question was asked about it on the FAOT post. The church in Alamos, Iglesia Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion (sorry, I can not fairly translate that), is indeed a baroque design. Construction began in 1786 and was completed in 1804.

Many contributions were made during the building of the church: china plates were placed in the outside walls, near the arches and the initials of families making silver or money contributions for the construction can be seen along the bricks at the bottom of the church.

The church clock came from Rome and there are also Moorish architectural points inside and outside of the church.

My information comes from several of the books I have purchased at the Alamos Books and Maps shop which is located in the Terracotta Tiendas across from the Plaza de Armas, where the church is located.

You can see more photos of the church in the previous post, FAOT, and on flikr.com, in the Alamos set. I will try to get more photos of this beautiful town on a future post.

Now that we are back, we are in the swing of it all once again, and as I write Bill and Umberto are working on the trench for the remaining columns. And I have made two cupolas, the first one broke into several pieces when we removed it from its form. the second one is drying now in the sun...............................I will tell you all about it in the next post.

the back of the church at night, local stones from the Alamos area complete the wall..............

the church only has one tower................according to a book from Alamos Books and Maps most churches in Mexico have 2 towers, so construction on this church was probably interrupted. But a church in Mexico with only one tower is considered an incomplete structure, so it is not taxed.