| Travelling south from Guaymas at Empalme we came
across this old steam engine on display at the side of the road near where
they hold a market some days. |  |
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The countryside is changing now from the desert scrub which we have had for
the last 700 miles to farmland. The crop looked like wheat but seemed very short in height.
They have started harvesting the grain already. I guess they maybe grow two
crops a year here. |
| Alamos is some 50km from the main road heading
eastwards. The campsite, behind a hotel, was completely empty thus enabling
us to select a shady spot. Sadly we had not bargained for the nightclub
which blasted out a bass drumbeat until 0500hrs in the morning. It made me
physically sick. |  |
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This was one of the shade trees. Jan tried one and decided they were
kumquats. Alamos is a town of about 8,000 inhabitants and is about 50
miles from the coast and at 1300ft. It was established in 1685 when rich
silver deposits were found in the area. There is a lot of work going on in
the town at the moment to improve it as they are applying for it to be given
World Heritage Site status. This is being led by a group of Americans. |
| The campsite is half a mile from the village centre
so we walked in early the following morning. It gets too hot by midday. Most
of the better streets and houses are like this with big shuttered windows.
Many of the windows have grilles so you can open the windows but people
can't get in. |  |
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Many of the buildings, like this hotel, have internal courtyards and shade and airflow have been carefully
managed in the design. |
| Everybody in Mexico works - you don't work, you don't
eat. There are hundreds of street vendors trying to sell you all sorts of
things. |  |
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Some of the windows are quite ornate and the security grills are similarly
artistic. |
| This impressive building acted as the town hall but
also as a theatre at some point in its life. It is a very imposing
building. |  |
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The wide passageways opening onto the theatre area made us think that there
had originally been a central courtyard that was then roofed over when the
stage was built. Council type
offices are behind all the doors in the side aisles. |
| This is the biggest but not the oldest church in
Alamos. The outside of the church is very ornate as it often is with
catholic churches. |  |
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Inside is plainer than many we have been in but there are still lots of
statues and folk praying. Mexico is still a very religious country. |
|
A point of architectural detail. This light fitting in the biggest church is
quite beautiful. |  |
 | They are even repairing churches. The scaffolding
around the cupola is quite complex but it also seems more secure than some
of the jury rigged scaffolding we have seen in some places. |
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There is a garden square just in front of the church with several folk at
work on it. Mexicans seem to take gardening seriously. |  |
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We suddenly heard trumpets and drums and found these kids practising as a
marching band probably for the big celebrations on the 5th May. They had
some way to go to match the high school and college bands in the US. |
| We were offered a tour around the town and up to
the viewpoints in this Toyota. It had had the top cut off and more seats
fitted and a makeshift roof. 200 pesos for a couple of hours didn't seem
expensive. |  |
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We would never have walked up to the top of the hill overlooking the town
even if we could have found the way. This is the river bed for the river
which flows though the town. Today it was a muddy trickle but last October
there was a flood which washed away several bridges. Many of the streets
have pavements almost a foot above the road but many houses were flooded and
you can still see the level reached by the flood waters on the walls |
| Alamos has an airport which you can just see in the
distance but there are no regularly scheduled flights. |  |
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Our guide pointed out the iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. They
weren't very big. |
| As we drove round the outskirts of the village he
pointed out some white tailed deer which someone keeps in their garden. |  |
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We visited the local jail and he showed us where they took the prisoners out
to be shot. They used to do a lot of that. |
| .I liked the cell phone tower which had been skilfully
camouflaged to look like a tree. Unfortunately the storm tore off or damaged
many of the 'branches'. |  |
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This house was on the market before the slump for $600,000 US. Now they are
adding the white bit as an extension. Of the 8000 odd inhabitants in the
town, over 1000 are Americans |
| Many of the services in Mexico are a bit unreliable.
However with TV aerials like this one I can see why. |  |
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And so we headed out back down the road we had come in on and under (round)
the welcome arch currently under construction. |
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