Where the Desert Meets the Sea: ALAMOS

This past weekend I took a trip with the other fellows to the small city of Alamos to experience part of their two week long cultural festival. This is where Elena, the lovely woman who works on the Indigenous Partnership Program, lives with her family. The city was built in the Spanish Colonial style and the architecture is stunning with arches on almost every building. Most of the mansions have beautiful courtyards in the center of their grounds with large trees and gardens (you can sneak a peek through the gates). I would love to live in such a house where you could have the culture of the city, but also the tranquility of nature right in your house. The population in Alamos is about 8,000 during the peak season, but drops off in the summer when temperatures rise (and the rich North Americans and Europeans go back to their other houses).

After a grueling 11 hour travel period of multiple busses and stops, we made it to Alamos at about 5 pm on Saturday. We had planned to stay at Elena’s house, but she also had other family visiting and we were worried it would be a lot for her. As we were walking by, one of her neighbors noticed us, and offered up his empty apartment for us to stay in. I can’t imagine anyone in the U.S. just offering up a free place to stay for seven strangers! Not only that, but he cleaned it (Mexico is very dusty) before we came over and even gave us his cell phone number to call if we needed anything during the night (he had a small aborrotes, or corner store). The generosity of some people astounds me.

Over the next day and a half we walked around the city, saw dances, listened to music, and went to artisanal fairs (Albeit there was a lot of standing around for me as someone who likes to stick to a schedule!). There were at least 4 different stages were various acts were scheduled throughout the day and evening. Almost everything was free to the public. We decided to pay 60 pesos (roughly $4.50) to see an Opera in the evening, because when else could I pay that little to see opera performed? My favorite part was really how amazing the people were. Despite there being lots of people and crowds, everyone was very tranquilo (calm) and polite. Unlike some other places that I have travelled where people push you over the smallest things, no one here was aggressive. For example, a Mexican group was performing songs in the street at night. They would stop to sing and then move onto another location. Everyone just followed them almost like a parade while singing along. Even when there were some men giving out free wine, no one pushed! It was a really pretty city, and I hope to get the chance to spend more time there in the future.