Heading North after crossing the Sea of Cortez on the ferry, our first scheduled stop is Alamos. Alamos is a beautiful town with its natural beauty, rich culture, and narrow concrete pavers streets.
The town of Alamos, from the late 1600s until the early 1900s, was booming until the silver mills closed. The declining price of Silver hurt the economy in this area deeply. Only a few hundred people remained. With the unrest in the country and the revolution progressing, business owners and people of wealth vacated, and their mansions became disrepair. After three decades of abandonment, in 1946, foreigners began restoring homes to bring employment to the area. The area’s top industries for decades were ranching and tourism. The present-day economy includes copper, silver mines, and tourism.
Alamos has many festivals year around; the most notable is the Festival of Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado (FAOT), attended by many national and international musicians and celebrities. The annual Festive Alkonso Ortiz Tirado is a nine-day event held in January. The Alamos film festival is usually held in March. Those are just two of the well-known festivals held here in Alamos.
As most fellow travers know, Google Maps can take you down roads and put you in places that a motorhome with a tow vehicle shouldn’t travel on. That’s what happened to us here in Alamos. The streets are very narrow and lined with cars. To make matters worse, the RV Park we planned to stay at no longer existed. After shrugging, which seemed like hours to unhook the tow from the motorhome at a right angle, we worked our way back to the main road. Now what? Where were we going to stay?
While Rick was figuring out where he could turn the motorhome around and find a place to pull over, I took the Jeep and searched for a new RV park or a hotel with a large enough parking area to accommodate our vehicles, and that is dog friendly.
Dolisa Hotel is located just blocks from the historic center of Alamos Sonora. It is a beautiful hotel with amazing flowing trees and landscapes. It has an RV parking area with hook-ups, but they cannot rent them or tell us why. This RV area is used strictly for parking.
At first, the hotel staff said our dog Gus would have to stay in the RV. We agreed to it, sadly. We would leave the generator on for the a/c unit. But then she changed her mind and asked for a 100-peso (USD $10) dog deposit. We happily agreed and rented a room for three nights. The rooms were clean and within walking distance of many restaurants.
The town park is beautiful with its giant trees and historical statues. The big arroyo in the center of town is used for parking and a way of getting from one side of the town to the other. When we were there, they were holding a big bazaar. There were hundreds of people with tables of items for sale and food vendors lined both sides of the arroyo.
One of the most fascinating museums is the Maria Felix Museum, located blocks from downtown. Maria de los Angeles Felix Guerena was a Mexican actress and singer. Alone with Pedro Armendariz and Dolores del Rio, she was one of the most successful actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was born on April 8, 1914, in Alamos and died in Mexico City on April 8, 2002 at the age of 88.
The museum was interesting, and the grounds are so beautiful. We had a great time there.
Alamos has many restaurants with excellent food, all within walking distance of our hotel.
Alamos is a beautiful town to visit, and we enjoyed our time there. There is so much to do and see. We saw a couple of Missions as we walked around, but unfortunately, they were closed then.
We could have spent several more days in Alamos, but our Visas time was running out. Time to hit the road!