A Short Vacation

Time for a vacation, it has cooled off here now to a bearable temperature for wandering around during the daytime, so it is time to explore some of our state that we haven't ever seen.
First stop coming up.

We drove to Hermosillo and then took Highway 14 to Ures, Sonora, which used to be the Sonora state capitol.

We really enjoyed this town.  It is a very pretty little town in a beef ranching area.  Needless to say beef is what is on the menu.  We tried Carne con chili, (beef with chili), which surprisingly was not spicy hot; but very, very tasty.

 We started out by sitting and relaxing for a few minutes in the plaza in front of the Casa de la Cultura and Museum.  When we entered the museum we were very impressed by the quality and quantity of the collection housed there.  Great exhibits very well explained and great murals.  Lots of rooms all opening onto a central patio.

After that we wandered around town, took some pictures of the church, sat in the main plaza, Plaza Zaragoza, and had a nice cold coke to drink.  We watched the young people beginning to set up the altars for the Dia de los Muertos.

We checked into the Mision d' Sales Hotel for a price of 430 pesos for a fair sized room with 2 double beds, free WiFi, coffee, satellite TV, Air conditioning, hot water, secure parking, and all the information about the area from the hospitable receptionist that you can handle.

We wandered around town some more and then after eating we went back to the plaza and just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet.  What quiet, how different it is from the hustle and bustle of Guaymas.   At first we wondered where all the people were, until we remembered that the whole town has perhaps 8 or 9,000 people in it compared to the perhaps 130,000 in Guaymas.  A big difference and very noticeable.

 The next morning we could find nothing open for breakfast when we were ready, (we are early risers), so we had a cup of coffee from the lobby and the receptionist told us the bus station restaurant would be open at 7 AM.  We waited until then and crossed the street to see.  The door was open; but we were informed they didn't open for food service until 7:30 AM.  We told him we only wanted coffee right then and he said he would get us some, only to return with an empty jar and a sheepish look on his face as he told us they were out at the moment.  We walked a couple of blocks down the street to an OXXO store, (sort of like a 7-11) as they have good coffee.  The door was chained shut and the lady was waiting for someone to come with the key to open up.  We chatted with her for a bit and decided to go back to the bus station as it was almost 7:30.  The fellow shuck his head no, when he saw us coming and told us still no coffee.  We laughed and sat down to wait.  We were in no hurry.  Shortly after the guy ran across the street to the pharmacy store as it had opened and came back holding up a jar of instant coffee.  He waved us in the door and served us a cup of instant coffee.  The cook then showed up and we had our breakfast at the same time.
 In this area they serve the huge flour tortillas instead of the regular size, they are thinner, almost transparent and apparently are made with no lard.  They are called water tortillas.  When we went to pay, I noticed they had miel de caña for sale. Thinking this might be the much looked for and never found here, molasses, I bought some.  (According to my landlady it is; although to my taste it is very light tasting and not nearly as strong.)
Another regional food item here is queso cocido, a type of cheese.  We never did buy any as I had no way to keep it before we went home.

 A regional sweet here is  jamoncillo  or dulce de leche which tastes to me sort of like fudge.

After a good nights sleep we headed out on the road and onto the next town.