Alamos - Day Three

It was the day of the Virgin Mary fridge; more on that later.

Getting up in the morning was getting easier; unfortunately I only have one more to do before we leave this great city. It was going to be a souvenir buying day – and that it was. We started out by visiting the lady next door. She was very nice; a half hour of chatting in a language I do not know. Great lady – what did we talk about? No idea. Then we headed to Reyna’s again – this time we ran into her husband. He was an American – Barry – that came to Alamos three years ago. He came by himself and loved it so much he decided to stay. He met Reyna, they fell in love and they got married. He now runs a construction business in Alamos. He is 38 years old. For some reason I feel like our paths will cross again in the future. Breakfast was great again – off to shop!

It wasn’t as hot today but the humidity still makes you wet all over. The sun is so much more penetrating than at home. I wore the ‘engineer’ hat mom and dad got me throughout the day. I’m not a hat person but the protection from the deadly rays was very much welcomed. Again, like one of the natives, we saw many people we had seen throughout our days here in the Mercado, the OXXO, the museum, etc. Many wave to us – not because we know each other, but simply we are now a familiar face. It is very cool and makes this city that much more appealing.

We made our way to the bakery, the hardware store, the artisan Mercado, pottery places, a really cool bookstore that had much more than books (antiques), more picture-taking of the streets and amazing houses, etc. Lunch was once again major amounts of water and Gatorade. My stomach is so weird, I can’t tell if it hurts or is upset or if I'm hungry. The heat messes everything up as far as the body is concerned – in more ways than one. One thing I am ready to do is to get to air conditioned living. That I do miss.

We came home to rest a bit, reflect on our stay here, and plan the rest of our stay. Then it was off to Taco Flora. But first the lady next door, a baker for the city, stopped by with some great little cookies. They were excellent. When arrived at Taco Flora, they were getting ready to close up – the carne asada had run out which means time to close up shop! We quickly ordered and began to eat the amazing food when who happen upon us? Tour guide Joe!! He was picking up dinner on his way home to watch the game (World Cup). A quick stay but we were able to get his picture – what a great guy. Dad had picked up a book at the bookstore about Alamos History and Joe is in the credits as one that had contributed to the book. We were lucky to have met him.

After hugs and kisses to Flora (mom and dad, not me), we went and took our normal seats in the plaza (Alameda we would come to find it was called) to watch the people that make this city so great. And that’s when the Virgin Mary fridge happened upon us. You see, every night we have been here sitting in the plaza to watch the cars go by, there has been a truck. And in the back of this truck is a brand new refrigerator – still wrapped in plastic. The fridge is tied down in the back of the truck but is first covered by a blanket with a picture of the Virgin Mary. The picture is upside down (see pic to the right). It’s a little hard to miss this monstrosity going down the road in the back of the truck. This guy would circle the plaza easily 6 or seven times with this thing – every night. Really? Cruising with the Virgin Mary in the back? It certainly was one of the things that made this trip memorable.

So now we’re back home, heading back to Guaymas in the morning. An amazing trip; I will be back here again. Either to visit – or to live. Only God knows.

Alamos - Day Two

One thing I have learned being here in Alamos is that world has become a much smaller place.

Sleeping last night was not as painful as I was expecting. The fan on me kept the heat of the night away; although I cannot say the same thing for mom and dad. Their night was miserable – and I felt bad. They were up many times drenched in sweat pondering the idea of returning home today. But alas, the purchase of a fan today would save the day – and our vacation would allow to continue. After a quick cold shower, we were off to see what the day had in store for us.
We started out for breakfast – Restaurant Reyna – a place one of Dads friends we should try before leaving town. Mom and dad become instant friends with everyone we spend more than 5 minutes with - which is very cool. Breakfast was great – Reyna and her family was great - and we were off to see about the ‘tour train’ we had heard about.


When we came about the place where we had heard the train starts, there were many people waiting – not sure what they were waiting for, but they were waiting. As we were going to investigate, we were stopped by a large jolly Mexican man welcoming us to Alamos. I had noticed a ‘tour guide’ tag around his neck thinking he was the tour train guy. He told us he did tours around the city himself, but he was not affliated with the tour train. He said if we were looking for a personal tour around the city, he could get us into a few haciendas around town and basically, his tour would be much better than the trains. So, at 10 bucks a head, we agreed to it. Meet Joe, our Alamos tour guide.


Joe was extremely thorough in his tour. The first part was walking through the church and a few surrounding homes and buildings. Very cool stuff! The last part took place in our car – driving with Joe in the front seat guiding us through the city. The history of Alamos is amazing – a silver mining town back in the olden days, home to Hollywood celebs like Carroll O’Connor, Paul Newman, and Mickey Mantle, and because of the mining, many ethnicities are apparent through the people on the streets; namely the Chinese influence. We eventually ended up back at the beginning and about as fast as he appeared, Joe was gone. We were sad we forgot to get his picture. He made our time here so much more enjoyable. The rest of the afternoon consisted of wrong turns, major amounts of water or Gatorade, major amounts of heat, touring the museum which was awesome, finding the cyber café, more water, purchasing a fan, and water.


Funny thing happened on the way to cool off at the OXXO … Mom and I were walking when a very American-looking woman walked by into the store. After a few moments she left the store while Mom and I were still talking outside the store. She turned and said to us, “Where are you from?” Mom started to explain the normal run down I have heard – they from Guaymas, me from the States, missionaries, vacation to Alamos, never been, etc. We found out that she came down here, tired of the rat race of the states and decided to make it her new home. “What is your name?” Mom asked. “My name is Linda Kneivel.” ...second cousin to Evel. Pretty cool, huh?


We were invited to the church service at the church that owns the house we are staying in. We only thought it right to go as a thank you. The church was fairly new, yet service was held in their outside plaza area under a thatched roof where it would be cooler. It is interesting when you think about a two hour church service held completely in a language you don’t know. There is only so much time that you can think about everything going on in your life. So after contemplating the meaning of life, you just start hoping that it will end soon. And that’s no disrespect to the pastor – he was a great guy and very friendly - but 2 hours of words you cannot understand has a tendency to drive one a little crazy. The service was over, lots of hugs and handshakes, and we were off to the Mercado to eat and do some more people watching.



Another place we were told to find was ‘Taco Flora’. After a quick walk around the plaza area, we found it. Homemade tortillas made right in front of you and carne asada was the name of the game. And it was amazing! Sitting alongside the truck, we ate, constantly aware of the traffic buzzing a few feet behind us. Flora; a sweet woman. After an amazing meal, we trucked across the street to the ice cream shop. One thing I realized tonight was although we were eating out; most of the food we were eating was like eating in someone’s kitchen. That’s how it’s done here. It’s how anyone would make the food – no McDonalds or Burger King here. It is refreshing. Although I’m still not ‘completely’ normal, I can eat normal and the food is good.


Coming home, we happened upon a group of boys on ‘our bridge’ to the house. We settled in to transfer pictures, blog, and unwind from the heat of the day in front of our fans. The boys were getting loud but they just left, leaving the osund of a few trucks speeding by, the sound of our fans speeding to cool us off – and Jane Olivor. Holy cow. Over Dad’s little computer speakers was coming this amazing voice I had not heard for close to 30 years. You see, Dad used to have all of us kids sit in front of the record player and listen to music. This nightly family gathering is the place I could only guess this is where my love of music was born. We had to be perfectly quiet as many times, he was recording a record onto a tape, and the recorder was such that it could pick up other sounds in the room, not just the music. So silence was of utmost importance. We listened to the entire First Night album like we had done so many years ago. I now have the album on my iPod so I can share it with my kids – just a piece of my upbringing. Such good memories. Tomorrow will be souvenir buying, picture taking, more water, heat, driving in circles, and water; a perfect end to a perfect stay.



Note: An American woman down the way heard the boys and called the cops – the boys had disbanded before the cops showed up. It is illegal to drink in public here – only in the bar and in your home – so the boys (18 is the drinking age here) try to find places to hide to drink.

Alamos - Day One

After a fairly uneventful three hour drive south from Guaymas (although we did stop in Navajoa to eat lunch where Mom and Dad stayed on their honeymoon 48 years ago so that was cool) we got to the quaint little town of Alamos. Upon entering the area, it looks like any other Mexican town I had pulled into the last several days: lonely brick houses amongst large desert trees, piles of trash with lines of laundry drying in the 106 degree wind. But after passing the grand arches that welcome you to the city, I could tell it was going to be a little different than I expected. After a quick call to the woman that oversees the house we will be staying at, we were on our way to see the place we would call home for the next three days.

Upon entering the city, the streets became very narrow and the buildings on each side very tall. Two cars could barely pass each other on the cobblestone or tile roads. Buildings that look like they are from the 1800’s line the streets. The sidewalks are easily 2 to 3 feet higher than the street – not for water when the hurricanes come, but for the horse-drawn carriages that used to carry the townspeople. Most of the city’s business signs look as old as the city itself – established in 1682. The old church in the town square towers over all other buildings in the vicinity – there are very many old buildings here.
We winded through town, driving at a crawl sometimes, to take in the many buildings and eateries we saw while driving in. Finally we arrived what we were to call ‘casa pastoral’. It was a house that looked not like many of the other houses we passed on the way in. A white one-story house with large beams keeping the roof in place, it had a large front porch, bars on every window (more common than not in Mexico), a large drainage canal passes across the front of the property making it necessary to pass over a bridge to get to the house. It is situated directly below a mountain called ‘El Mirador’ which has a lookout area and restaurant on top from where you can see the whole city and mountains for miles. The housekeeper let us into the house.

It was an old-style home inside – one I could see the army using in the Mexican Revolution hundreds of years ago; archways throughout and visible crossbeams holding up what looked to be like tile or bricks. The ceiling was slanted but was easily 15 feet high at the highest point; tile flooring throughout the house. The kitchen sat at one end with the dining room next to that and then making an L shape were the bedrooms and bathrooms. Most of the bedrooms opened up to a common plaza area where the local flora and fauna grow and are tended to. We are told that while there is no air conditioning, it does get ‘fresco’ (cool) at night. We shall see.

So after grabbing some dinner at El Mirador (and getting rained on right after moving our table outside for a better view of the city), we grabbed some water and cookies and sat at what would be the city park, a rectangular shaped park about ½ mile around surrounded by most of the shops in the city. It seems there would not be much to do in Alamos for the townspeople. Because on a Wednesday night, the popular thing to do seemed to be driving around this park – over and over and over again; cruising, if you will. It was people of all ages, with the best Mexican music blaring from many. People-watching was the best it had been in a long time!

Finally after an hour of that we came ‘home’ and are now settling in for the night. I have already spotted a few cockroaches elsewhere in the house (which has all its doors open to let in the cool night air) --- I am just hoping they decide not to bed down with me. It’s still pretty hot in my room but I was able to find a fan in the living room. I quickly moved it to my room so I could actually sleep tonight. Oh and none of the outlets have a third prong plug-in. Yay! But luckily Dad had an extension cord I could jimmy-rig so I could charge my camera, laptop, and cell phone. Ah, technology. Even with the fan I’m still hot. Do I leave the light on so I’m not surprised by any many-legged intruders? I haven’t decided yet. Does the large white armoire in front of me lead to a magical kingdom with beasts that are half man and half horse? I’m afraid to open it and see. Is this the fresco night air? Lord I hope not! Tomorrow - our first full day.