Saturday Nov 4, 2023 - Banamachi

Late night last night so kind of a late start, but everything is late down here. We had breakfast at our hotel, scrambled eggs with refried beans and tortillas (of course). The first scheduled event was the mayor’s tour of the town. The mayor is a super nice guy and his father was the mayor some years back so this seems to be a family tradition. He showed us the town square, newly renovated a short time ago, and the City offices which had some nice murals inside that told the history of the town. Banamachi is built inside a big curve in the river and the ancients built the town here since it was higher than the river.

You can see the flat farm fields below the town where they were growing what looked to be hay. Next stop the church, which is beautiful inside. Then back to the hotel.

The next event was going to the bacanora still in the woods on the other side of the river. Bacanora is an alcoholic beverage that's made with agave, but only in Sonora. It's a cousin of tequila and mescal. It’s a mile or two over and a small group of us decided to walk there. The river is dry so you don’t need to remove your shoes. There are horses running up and down the road and river and it was a bit warm but not too bad. We were almost there when Tom stopped with his car and said Maria couldn't wait for us, so we all piled in and he drove us the remaining half mile or so where everyone was waiting at the long table in the shade of the big trees. The still is pretty rough around the edges but it does work. We did not sample any and we passed on buying a whole bottle.

Maria and her helpers started feeding us, Deb tried her hand at making a tortilla, and the traditional Sonoran food just kept on coming (course after course) until everybody was beyond full. The mayor was there as well of course.

The next event that Tom put together was a local troupe of traditional Mexican dancers. One middle aged man was the leader and there were 6 or 8 couples, all in their late teens. They are affiliated with a local college somehow and they obviously put a lot of effort into getting all the dances perfect. A dance floor was put down in the alley next to the hotel and they must have done 6 or 8 different dance styles with costume changes in between.

That night we had a pizza and beer party (the mayor ran the outdoor pizza oven) and we talked late into the night again, mostly about motorcycles of course. We were too tired to hit the balcony at our hotel and the Spanish speaking bikers stayed up after us and their joking and laughing lulled us to sleep.