The lesser known Ruta de Rio Sonora is a tourist route along a road built in the 1970’s to connect colonial towns along the Rio Sonora.  Most of the towns were established in the 1600’s, the earliest we saw was in the late 1500’s, and before the road was built people would travel on the river bed and banks to get from one town to the other.  The area is rich in history, with old mission churches and ranch lands that have been in the works for centuries.  The Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (unfortunate name…Cabeza de Vaca means cow head) followed the Rio Sonora in the 1500’s, as did the Coronado expeditions of 1540.

After driving for several hours we followed a sand and gravel road out of Aconchi for about 8 km to find a developed hot springs recreation area.  Thermal water flowed from one cement pool to another in concrete troughs with the effect that the further away the pool was from the source, the cooler the water became.  The water is said to have healing properties, and sure enough, the next morning the red welts that I had had on my legs from some insect in Arizona were gone.

There were kiosks, BBQ grills and flush toilets.  It cost 20 pesos per person to enjoy the pools (about $1.50), and if you paid for 2 days you could camp there overnight.  We barbecued some fish we had bought in Bahia Kino, soaked in the hot pools, saw a white tail deer (the few locals that were there were over the top about seeing these deer), and slept under a sky packed with stars.

As we continued north along the route the next day the scenery switched from ranch land to mountains and deep cut river banks.  We found a road off the highway just north of the town of Arizpe that lead down to the river and decided it would be a good place to spend the night.  It was still early in the day and I had plans of getting some work done on the computer, transferring pictures, backing up data, maybe working on the blog.  The river was dotted with grazing cattle and horses and a few herons.

We had just got set up when a pickup truck came down the somewhat precarious access road, drove past us and was soon spinning his wheels in the sand.  Derek walked over to see if he could be of assistance just as the guy’s friend from further up river showed up with his truck to pull him out.  Derek spoke with them (all in Spanish), and came back to our camper with an invitation to join them 400 meters or so up river for some grilled beef ribs.

We ate ribs and drank beer with David, Hector and Nacho.  Hector had lived in Tucson, Arizona for several years before he was deported back to Mexico (we never asked why, but we suspect Hector may have had a darker side) and he spoke good english.  Nacho is a civil engineer and seemed to be an important man in the region, gave us his number and we are to call him if we ever need help.  David was busy most of the time we were there clearing trees from a small piece of land in order to plant some garlic there next year.  We gave them some of our shrimp that we had bought in Bahia Kino, and thanked them for their hospitality.

Later in the afternoon, close to sundown, Hector and Nacho reappeared with more beer.  Uh oh…we were not looking for an all night party, and Hector was looking pretty glassy eyed by this point.  We chatted for a bit, showed them our camper, and when they found out that we only had one beer with us, they were soon on their way.