Alamos

Alamos grew on the silver of the Sierra Madre foothills and spent it in a style borrowed straight from southern Spain: single-storey mansions built around interior courtyards, arcaded portales lining the plaza, high walls, wooden doors and iron grilles, with the parish church of La Purisima Concepcion, finished in the eighteenth century, as the centrepiece. The mines failed, the town emptied, and by mid-century many houses stood roofless - at which point American and Mexican buyers began restoring them, a process that has left Alamos with the most complete colonial ensemble in Sonora and a notable foreign-resident community. It is now a pueblo magico with a serious cultural calendar, above all the Festival Alfonso Ortiz Tirado each January, a week of classical and Latin American music in the church and plazas that fills every room in town. The rest of the year brings warm dry winters, birding in the surrounding tropical dry forest, the jumping-bean trade of nearby villages, and hot afternoons under arcades.

History

The area was named by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, which camped in 1540 where the two main arroyos meet; its first known name was Real de los Frailes, after tall white rocks on Mount Alamos that looked like hooded monks. After three decades of empty mansions, foreigners began restoring the houses in 1946, among them the American farmer William Levant Alcorn, who opened a hotel in one (Wikipedia, Álamos).

The main sights

• The portales - arcaded mansions around the plaza.
• La Purisima Concepcion - the eighteenth-century parish church.
• The courtyard houses - restored patios behind high walls.
• The dry forest - birding country around the town.

When to go

November to April for the pleasant season; January for the Ortiz Tirado festival, when the town is at its liveliest and fullest. Summers are extremely hot.

Things to know

Festival week requires booking months ahead. Outside it the town is very quiet - the point for some visitors, dull for others. House interiors are private except on organized tours.

Nearby

Navojoa and the coast lie west; the Copper Canyon rail terminus at Los Mochis is three hours south.

Key facts