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<\/a>Click here to see the map of the Anza Expedition.<\/p><\/div>\n
Nogales, Arizona is much smaller than Nogales, Mexico. The border crossing was only 4 lanes total but was very quick. In Mexico, Nogales is a medium sized city. There was a lot of factories, they all had signs saying they were hiring. It made me wonder why immigrants would want to cross into the USA when there was so many good paying jobs in Mexico. We did not stay very long in Nogales because it was late December and it was snowing, we just wanted to get out of the snow as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Many Factories in Nogales, Mexico are advertising for workers.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Some random car art in Imuris, Sonora<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Juan Bautista Anza trail marker.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Palo Verde Restaurant in Imuris, Sonora<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The sunset on Mexico interstate 15.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>For $6 dollars you get two enchiladas, flat steak, and a chile relleno.<\/p><\/div>\n
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For lunch we stopped in a small Mexico roadside town called Imuris. We went to a restaurant called El Palo Verde (the Green Stick). It was a nice little family restaurant. Very simple, but clean. I ordered the most expensive item on the menu for $6 USD, which was Cecina (flat steak) , enchiladas, and a chile relleno. Needless to say that food in Mexico is abundant and very inexpensive.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>BMW dealer in Hermosillo shows there is some money in the city.<\/p><\/div>\n
Getting back on the road we didn’t get into Hermosillo, Sonora until kind of late but I was able to make a hotel reservation on-line with Hotel San Alberto. The hotel was a nice hotel, but very basic. The light bulbs didn’t work when we got in so the guard had to get some from another room so we could see where we were going. The beds were hard and the first day I had a cold shower. This said it was clean, had wifi, and was safe.<\/p>\n
The city of Hermosillo, Sonora is a beautiful city but very underrated. Like many northern states Sonora has been racked by the drug trade violence, but the truth about that is you find what you are looking for, if you are looking for bad you will find it, but if you look for beauty you can find it as well.<\/p>\n
<\/a>.50 cent snack burrito.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A close up of the dome of the cathedral showing God, Jesus Christ, and the Virgin Mary.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The dome of the Cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Root Beer bars were all over the city.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Perfectly cooked top sirloin steak and a diabilito (stuffed yellow pepper wrapped in bacon).<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Fancy lunch.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Hotel San Alberto<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>In Hermosillo the Sonora Dog was born.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The left is peanut sweet water, a Sonora dog (sweet bread, bacon wrapped hot dogs, beans, and salsa), on the right is a mummy hot dog (bacon wrapped hot dog, wrapped in a flour tortilla and fried).<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Inside the bicentennial building where Denise got too close to the statue and was jabbed by Father Hidalgo (representing independence) while Madero (representing the revolution) urged him on.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A little umbrella covering cafe.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The Hermosillo Temple.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>If you don’t take a picture in front of the letters you can’t say you were there.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Orange trees were all over the plaza.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Sonora became the state it is today in 1830.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The Cathedral of Hermosillo.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>In front of the Governor’s Palace.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Don Juan Navarette y Guerrero was a priest during the revolutionary time that was from Aguascalientes, Mexico<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Denise at her urgent dentist appointment.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Denise waiting at a restaurant in Imuris, Sonora<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Sinaloa State Supreme Court.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Callejon Condesa<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Sonora Membrillo Bread.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Alonso Vidal is a Mexican poet. The first one translate to “It is better to have been in a good love for a minute, than to have lived a lifetime.”<\/p><\/div>\n
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We were in Hermosillo just for two days and the main day we were there was a Sunday so we didn’t get to even scratch the surface. What we did discovered quickly about Hermosillo was that there is a big community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In fact so many congregations are in the area that they have their own temple. The temple, like most temples is in an affluent area of the city. The other surprising fact was that in addition to regular bars there is a bunch of root beer bars in the city. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go visit one but they looked really interesting.<\/p>\n
At the time we went Denise had a temporary crown on her tooth and she wasn’t supposed to chew gum, but she did, and her temporary crown fell off. So we had to go and find a dentist to do an urgent reapplication of the crown. Considering we were walk-ins and had no appointment, we were very fortunate, it only cost us $15 for the visit. I have never heard of a dentist being available on a Sunday afternoon and even my copays are higher than $15 in the USA.<\/p>\n
After the emergency dentist visit we got to visit the Hermosillo plaza which was just a few blocks from our hotel. Like most Mexican cities, everything originates from a plaza park. On one side of the park is the Governor’s Palace and the other side is the Hermosillo Cathedral. The state of Sonora started as the state of Sonora y Sinaloa in 1824 when Mexico gained it’s independence, but split in 1830 to become Sonora and Sinaloa, two different Mexican states.<\/p>\n
Sonora is home to seven original tribes: the Guarij\u00edos, Mayos, Yaquis, Pimas, Peris (Comca’ac), P\u00e1pagos (also known as the Tohono o’odham), and Cucap\u00e1s. The Kikapoo and Apache have also been in the region for over 100 years but are not natives to the area. A block away from the plaza is a regional art\/cultural center called the Bicentennial building that celebrates the 200 years of Mexico by exhibiting native artwork. Next to this building is the Sonora State Supreme Court Building and a library dedicated to Alonso Vidal, who was a Mexican poet. By this time we were starting to get hungry so we decided to find a place to eat.<\/p>\n
To eat we went to a little street called El Callejon Condesa. The restaurant, by the same name had a very artsy vibe and was very fancy with many waiters serving multiple servings of meals. Even for all it’s fanciness, the whole meal only cost us $35 (which included a generous tip) for the two of us and that included top sirloin steak. The steak was cooked a perfect medium well (just a little bit of pink in the middle, but still juicy), it had an interesting regional sauce on it that was a little bit sweet. Denise tried some chillaquiles with three different sauces: green mole, green, and red. We have never been much of a fan of enchillada red sauce, it was OK, but we both agreed we could have passed it up. The two green sauces were very good. We also had some panuchos, which were like sopes but in this case there was beans inside of the corn cake. One of the surprising showings were these little bread balls that had membrillo (an apple like jelly), they were like little apple pies, very nice on a cold day. We were not dressed well for the restaurant but the waiters were very nice and let us in anyway and treated us very well.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Agua Prieta Border Crossing<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>An abandoned cabin we found along the way.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>10 cents Ham with Dates. Didn’t really taste the ham, just the dates.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Driving up into the mountain toward Agua Prieta<\/p><\/div>\n