Beyond Alamos: Explorations to Enrich a Visit to Southern Sonora

Story and photos by Alison Gardner

Alison Gardner specializes in researching ecological, educational, cultural and volunteer vacations worldwide. She is author of guidebook, Travel Unlimited: Uncommon Adventures for the Mature Traveler, and publisher/editor of Travel with a Challenge web magazine, www.travelwithachallenge.com  

Aduana 

While Alamos has emerged from the ruins of its silver mining history with incredible vigor, Aduana, a few miles beyond the town limits along a potholed dirt road, is clearly a piece of the past.  

Claiming near-ghost town status with its present population of about 300 struggling souls, the evidence of its vibrant history lies mainly in a simple but impressive 250-year-old church and the derelict mining buildings now being reclaimed by nature. Mine shafts in the surrounding hills speak of a time when thousands of people lived and worked here before the silver ran out. 

Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Balvanera, built on a miracle apparition site, is particularly revered by the Mayo people who, at 72,000, make up the largest tribe in Mexico. Each November, the church is the focus of the state�s second largest religious pilgrimage when the village no doubt takes on a more lively countenance.  

A visit to Aduana is one of several interpretive tours offered by Alamos resident, Stephanie Meyer, whose affection for the area and its residents brings her stories alive. Before stepping out of our vehicle, Stephanie cautioned clients about giving money to the children: 

�It�s not healthy for them to get something for nothing,� she emphasized, �so we have agreed with the parents that the kids should collect attractive, unusual rocks from the hillsides and riverbeds and sell them to visitors. In that way, they learn entrepreneurial skills, and visitors can satisfy their desire to help these obviously poor children.� 

Everyone took Stephanie�s advice to heart, while patronizing as many different children as possible with their rock purchases. Judging by the bulging pockets at the end of our walking tour, I�d say it was a good day, but, of course, the next visitor might not appear for a week! 

Another local entrepreneurial venture is the Co-operativa Artesanal La Aduana. Here 18 ladies work full time producing and selling arts and crafts made from materials found naturally in their area or recycled in a variety of ingenious ways. Their little shop fronting the square was stuffed to the rafters with visible evidence of their creative thinking. 

West of Alamos through Navojoa and on to Huatabampo lies a stretch of Sea of Cortez coast rich in just about everything nature has to offer. A natural history tour, also arranged and guided by Stephanie, provided a taste of it all and still had us back to Alamos in time for dinner.