The Exploration of Quiriego

Buen Dia. Here is the pretty full moon from last week. You can almost touch it.

I have been sick now for exactly one week. Yes, I am keeping track of the days. I cannot stand being sick. I hate lying in bed and I hate taking medicine. I know, I know, anyone reading this is saying the same thing, blah, blah, blah and so what else is new.....................But, when I was a little over a year old, I drank a whole bottle of Vicks cough medicine. My mother was distracted, the chair was easy to move to the cupboard, the liquid in the bottle was pretty.

The doctor told my distraught parents they would have to walk me around and keep me awake all night. I figure this could have something to do with why I like to be on the go all the time. But, of course, it is also possibly why I do not like taking cough medicine.

I have been so cold. Senor went and bought us a little heater and it works very well, but it makes weird noises. One night I thought I was listening to bongo drums far off in the distance. After awhile I sat up in bed and realized it was the heater making a little drumming sound. Then the following morning, it sounded like a little jackhammer was out in the street. I sat up in bed and realized it was the heater making a little jackhammer sound. I have been warming up slowly.

I can lie in bed for only a short while and then I will be looking for something to do, which won't last long, because I will start coughing and get tired and go lie down again.

Because I need to go and do something, I convinced Senor to take me for a drive on New Year's Day. Senor never needs much convincing over this, he loves to go and explore. After giving him several options as to where we might drive, we agreed to go to a small town called Quiriego.

It was just a town I found on the map, but the interest lay in that it appeared to be up in the mountains and once there, the map showed a back road, winding and twisting back down to Alamos.

To get to Quiriego, we drove to Navajoa and then half way between Navajoa and Obregon, we took a road east up into the mountains.

Quiriego turned out to be a fascinating old Spanish colonial town. It was very very quiet, but this could have been due to New Year's Day. Even Alamos was quiet as we left town and very few businesses were open.

There was a hand painted sign outside town that stated there were '3,330 habs' in town.

A beautiful little town plaza was surrounded by old colonial buildings that were falling apart. The Palacio was decorated with wreaths, trees and Christmas lights. The church, with dates painted on it, led us to believe that the town was even older than Alamos.

People were gathered here and there at parties, in trucks, along the roadside and outside small casas. We walked around, took photos and generated more than a few stares.

Below is the town plaza.....very quiet.

The Palacio. You can see Senor in the photo, coming down the steps.

Below, I am looking up at the church. The church had four bells.

There are two bells in the far right tower.

The same type of columns and capitals we see here in Alamos, are inside the church and on many of the houses.

One business was open, a small fruit and meat market.

We saw alot of old buildings, the architecture very similar to some of the structures in Alamos, with doors and windows surrounded by the same types of ironwork. We could see that there were some large, but rundown and unused courtyards inside some of the buildings.

There was a party going on here, carne asada being cooked on the grill, lots of tecate and horse dancing. We drove by here at least five times, and I am sure they would have given me a group picture if I had asked. But by then, we were getting a little concerned that we were driving by way too much.

We were so fascinated with Quiriego that we drove around as many streets as possible as many times as we could. Then we tried to find the road that would lead us out of town, through the mountains and down to Alamos. We asked directions six times, got six different answers. We tried to get directions from people who appeared sober on this day of celebration and the answers then were as different as before. We drove through town again. We drove through again.

Finally we gave up and decided we will approach it, another day, from Alamos and through the mountains to the north. It will be interesting to see if we get to Quiriego. Maybe it will be like the paved road to Masiaca or better yet, the paved road to El Fuerte......................

I plan on getting well soon. The really cold weather seems to be gone for now, the days are warming up. The little heater seems to have adjusted to us, or maybe I have adjusted to it.

I am getting up and doing more things, laying in bed less and by Sunday, maybe we will finish the exploration of Quiriego.