Friday, August 4
We began our Mexico adventure with an hour and a half of paperwork at the border, but finally got on our way. We drove a winding road to Cananea - a rather harrowing drive because the road was narrow, had no shoulder, and everyone drove as fast as humanly possible, included many enormous semi's. We survived and started down Sonora route 89 - designated as a scenic route. The road has numerous "vados" or low water crossings. There has been a great deal of rain in the southwest lately, with considerable flooding in some spots. Mexico has gotten a lot of water, too. The first few vados were wet, but OK. We came to one that was really muddy, but the locals waved us through, and it was no problem. But after about 30 miles we came to one that was a roaring river, completely impassable. We turned around to go back and had gone only about five miles when we were stopped by the police. A small concrete bridge was failing and they weren't allowing any traffic across it. So we were trapped between two impasses. It was about 3 p.m. by then. The police promised it would be fixed that night, but they didn't know when. There was a small village, but it had no hotel or restaurant. So we had resigned ourselves to sleeping in the van when a bulldozer showed up. He plowed a bypass around the bridge and in a few minutes we were on our way. It took until 9 p.m. to get to our hotel in Hermosillo, but we were delighted to be there and had an excellent dinner to celebrate our escape.
 
Saturday, August 5
Our troubles were behind us as we headed out across the desert toward Yecora. The rains may have cut us off from some prime birding areas, but it also made the desert beautiful and lush. The flowers and butterflies were beautiful. There was little traffic and few people along the way. We saw many desert species, including Verdin, Black-capped and Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, Rufous-winged Sparrows. As we got into the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains we found a Sinaloan Wren. With the twisting, narrow road, it took all day to get to Yecora. We arrived around 6 p.m. and had dinner at Los Aquacitos, the restaurant owned by Octavio, who had made hotel reservations for us by email. The Hotel King was rather noisy (rowdy neighbors), but very comfortable.
 
 
Mexico
Lots of Saguaro cactus
Mexican roads have NO shoulders
Hetcho cactus
The first impasse
Part of the flood
The second impasse
Yecora
Yecora
The Motel King
Octavio, who helped us make reservations
Octavio’s restaurant
The Yecora church
The Yecora church