A Little Road Trip

We have been planning on a short road trip for a while now; but wanted to wait until it warmed up a bit. Where we wanted to go is quite a bit higher altitude than where we live right at sea level and therefore much colder at night.
We thought that after Semana Santa, (Easter), would be a good time so we packed up some extra blankets and left for a few days.

This was our route.

We headed north Wednesday morning, on the south side of Hermosillo we got onto Highway 20 and were on our way to our first "sightseeing" stop on the Ruta de la Sierra, which was Mazatán , Sonora.
Other than one short detour around the workers installing some huge pipes the road was fine. The pipes continued pretty much all the way to the town, sometimes above ground and sometimes underground.  It diverted here and there; but pretty much followed the road. I assume that it is a new water pipe for Hermosillo from the dam; but I might be wrong. Mazatan apparently means place of the deer in the Opata language.  We wandered around, checking out the plaza and church.We decided to have an early lunch so looked at the menus at a couple of places and picked the place that was serving Carne con chili.  This is not what people from north of the border think of as Chili con Carne.  It is basically just beef cooked with some really tasty concoction of chilies, it is not spicy hot; but it is very good.  We ordered from the menu painted on the wall and the older man who seemed to be the only one around bustled into the kitchen and began preparing our food. We wandered outside and sat in some chairs under the awning and waited until lunch was served.  We were pleasantly surprised with his servings.  Homemade french fries,(which were not greasy), beans, tortillas,shredded cabbage and tomato and of course the meat.  Very good food in a humble establishment.
After paying our bill we headed off towards Bacanora.
(Click on the photos to view them larger)

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.