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Sonoran Studies Public Programs
Colonial Alamos
Sign up by January 31st and receive a $100 discount!
The Mexican colonial town of Alamos sits in southern-most Sonora, where the deciduous tropics meet the Sierra Madre. This area is considered to be the grandmother of our Sonoran Desert, as most of these plants are ancestral to our northern desert vegetation. The town dates back to the 16th century and has been visited by the Spanish explorers Coronado and Cabeza de Vaca. The discovery of rich silver deposits in the late 1600s put Alamos on the Camino Real and brought wealth, a governing class, culture and fine architecture. Alamos was once the capital of Sonora.
Our tour will include tours of the local history museum, the town and colonial homes and gardens, a visit to the old mine of La Aduana, bird and botany walks, a full day boat ride along the Rio Mayo, fabulous meals, two nights at the beach and a walk with our Senior Director for Conservation and Science, Dr. Rick Brusca, around one of the northern-most mangrove estuaries in North America.
Our trip is planned for February, which is the month of flowering trees.
Explore this jewel with us!
Itinerary for Colonial Alamos
2010
Sunday, February 21
Meet at ASDM at 7:30 in the morning. We will make an early lunch stop in the town of Magdalena, Sonora. At the central Plaza we will picnic, view the holy bones of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino and visit the church. Since Magdalena is a pilgrimage destination for many local Catholics, there are numerous shops that sell religious artifacts around the plaza. There is also a bakery, cafes, curio shops and a small local museum. We then continue on through Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, and arrive in San Carlos in the late afternoon.
Monday, February 22
Morning drive to La Aduana, where we will have a picnic lunch in front of the church. Learn about the mining history of this town and how the revenues of the silver veins funded the wealthy families of Alamos. Walk to the old assay office and smelter, passing huge fig trees and, for the first time, seeing up close the area's tropical deciduous flora. The local women's coop should be open displaying their hand-made crafts. After our exploration of this mining town we continue the short distance to Alamos, where we will check into our hotel, the Casa de Tesoros, and later gather for dinner. L D
Tuesday, February 23
Spend the morning visiting the history museum and taking a guided history walk through the center of town. After lunch at the Café del Sol, there will be a botany hike out of town at Mentidero Wash. If you prefer, the afternoon can be spent on your own wandering around town to the Mercado and la Alameda, the town's second main square, where the locals hang out. Dinner will be at the five star Hacienda de los Santos. B D
Wednesday, February 24
Today we float down the Rio Mayo, one of the major drainages of the western flank of the Sierra Madre. Our route passes through expanses of tropical deciduous forest, and parallels portions of the Camino Real, the " Royal Road" that connected the empire of New Spain. We will stop to hike in hidden canyons, see petroglyphs, soak in a hot spring and picnic under cool spreading mesquites and cottonwoods. Bird life includes coastal and tropical species and northern migrants. B L
Thursday, February 25
We will offer an optional early morning bird walk near the outskirts of town. The late morning will be spent on a home and garden tour of some of the renovated colonial properties. Midday we will drive to the Mirador, a small hill that offers a view of the entire town and surroundings where we will have lunch. The afternoon will be free time to go shopping, exploring or rest. Dinner will be either on the Plaza de Armas, our hotel, or a new restaurant. B L
Friday, February 26
Depart for San Carlos. Arrive mid-day. We will walk the Soldado estuary with Sr. Director for Conservation and Science , Rick Brusca. As Dr. Brusca's background is in marine biology, he will share his knowledge of mangrove estuary ecology, halophytes, the shrimp industry and anything else marine that comes up. You will be able to collect shells, go wading, look for invertebrates and spot late afternoon birds. Before dinner at our hotel, the Fiesta Real, there should be time for a sunset beach stroll. B D
Saturday, February 27
Our last adventure will be an early morning exploration of Nacapule Canyon, a rare palm canyon hidden in the jagged volcanic mountains just outside of San Carlos. Return to hotel late morning, check out and drive back to Tucson. B L
B L D (breakfast, lunch, dinner) denotes meals that are included in the price of the tour.
The price is based upon double occupancy of rooms. Single supplements are available.
If you would like to find out more about Alamos and the places we will be seeing and staying, www.alamosmexico.com is a very good web site to acquaint yourself with.
Sign up by January 31st and receive a $100 discount! On Feb. 1st prices will increase to the undiscounted rates of $1835 & $2019
About Your Leaders
Karen Krebbs graduated from the University of Arizona in 1986 with a B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology. She has worked at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for over 20 years. For more than three years Karen was the primary caretaker of the hummingbirds in the "Hummingbirds of the Sonoran Desert Region" exhibit at the Desert Museum. Karen is currently a Conservation Biologist in the department of Center for Sonoran Desert Studies. She studies birds and bats in Arizona and Mexico. Karen has worked in the field with both birds and bats for more than 20 years. Karen has written articles for journals, reports, and magazines on bat and bird natural history, behavior, and nesting biology. She has been a contributing author to several books on hummingbirds, general bird species, and bats. Her own book Hummingbirds: Beauty in Flight is popular with both birders and the general public. Karen is also a consultant to zoological institutions and other organizations on the care and husbandry of hummingbirds in captivity throughout the United States and around the world. She has also led trips to Costa Rica, Baja, Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico for the Desert Museum. Karen is also a long time birder.
George Montgomery, Curator of Botany, began his career at ASDM in 1979 as an animal keeper, then imoved into the position of Assistant Curator of Ornithology and Mammology. Changing direction to the plant kingdom, he has served as horticulturist, and now is the department head, overseeing the functions of the botanical collection and Botany's programs. He graduated from Northern Arizona University, B.S. Zoology (1973), with continuing work at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and U of A. George was the Avra Valley Christmas Bird Count compiler 1980 - 2007 and maintains the ASDM Checklist of Birds. As a member of the Association of Zoological Horticulture he represents the Desert Museum in this professional, international organization. He has observed plants and birds in Mexico, Canada, Panama, Tasmania, New Zealand, Botswana, Cameroon, and Zambia.
Sonya Norman has been with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for 24 years. She currently is the Public Programs Coordinator and manages all of the adult education tours and classes, and some of the public lectures. Often she is the instructor on the tours or class that fall in her particular fields of interest, which are Geology and Sustainability. Her experiences at the museum include creating and teaching desert ecology outreach programs in the public schools, conducting teacher workshops, running a high school internship program, providing instruction for the docent training courses, conducting and delivering earth history programs, organizing and cataloging various fossil and mineral collections, and archiving and cataloguing the slide and photography collection. She received her B.S. in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 1986. She is fluent in Spanish and conversational in German.
Rick Brusca is Senior Director for Conservation and Science at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where he oversees all research, conservation and education programs, as well as the ASDM Press, all living and non-living collections, and public exhibits. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona. Dr. Brusca is the author of ~150 research publications and 12 books, including the largest-selling text on invertebrate zoology (Invertebrates, Sinauer Associates; available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian) and the popular field guides Common Intertidal Invertebrates of the Gulf of California (U of A Press) and A Seashore Guide to the Northern Gulf of California (ASDM Press). His areas of research include natural history and conservation in the Sonoran Desert and Sea of Cortez, invertebrate zoology, freshwater and marine ecology, and arthropod evolution. His PhD is from the University of Arizona (1975). Rick has organized and conducted field expeditions throughout the world, on every continent, but has maintained his research programs in the Sonoran Desert and the Sea of Cortez for more than 30 years. He is a Fellow in both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Linnean Society of London.
Dates: Feb 21, 2010 - Feb 27, 2010
Times: 7:30 a.m.
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