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Solipaso 
Bird Watching and Cultural Trips in Mexico
El Pedregal Nature Lodge and Retreat Center |
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BIRDING TRIP TO COLONIAL ALAMOS
in collaboration with TUCSON AUDUBON SOCIETY
April 6-12, 2011
$1850 ($375 single) 4 spaces left!
We are pleased to offer a special trip to Alamos in collaboration with the Tucson Audubon Society. This trip is one day longer than our classic Alamos trip...We spend the first day exploring the rural and beautiful Rio Sonora river valley and spend the first night in Sonora's capital, Hermosillo. The next several days are spent in Alamos, where we stay at El Pedregal Nature Lodge. Each day we'll spend time birding and botanizing, but we'll also take time to tour historic and colonial town of Alamos and take a home and garden tour (that benefits the local scholarship fund). While in Alamos, we'll take time in the heat of the day for a siesta and if you so choose, you can spend time on your own enjoying the birding in the shade of the palapa with a cool drink in hand! Our last full day of birding will be spent at the coast followed by a night overlooking the Sea of Cortez in Guaymas. Some of the possible birds include Black-throated Magpie Jay, Mexican Parrotlet, Blue Mockingbird, Squirrel Cuckoo, Elegant Quail, Russet-crowned Motmot and Elegant Trogon, just to to name a few. This trip has something for everyone and is a great introduction to birding where the desert meets the tropics! Part of the trip cost is a donation to benefit Tucson Audubon, where we are proud members of the Birds and Business Alliance.
For more about this trip, go to our Alamos page on our website (keep in mind that it is one day longer and has a few other variations!) or click here to read a trip report from an Alamos trip we did over Thanksgiving!
 | | Alamos Church |
 | | Streak-backed Oriole |
www.solipaso.com
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YECORA AND ALAMOS
April 30-May 8, 2011
$2200 ($450 single)
Take the best of all that the Alamos trip has to offer and add a couple days up in the pine-oak habitat around the mountain town of Yecora and you have a thorough exploration of the major habitats in Sonora. Up in the mountains we look for species such as Russet Nightingale Thrush, Rufous-capped Brush-finch, Gray-crowned Woodpecker, Black-headed Siskin, Rusty Sparrow, Gray-collared Becard, Lesser Roadrunner, Spotted Wren and Mountain Trogon. At night, we are treated to great home cooked Mexican food at our friend Octavio's restaurant. After a couple days in Yecora, we head to Alamos for all the endemics of the tropical deciduous forest and the warm hospitality of El Pedregal. As with our Alamos trip, we also spend a night on the Sea of Cortez before heading back to Tucson. We have run this trip for years and continue to fine tune it to continually improve upon an already good thing.
For more information on this trip, go to the Yecora Alamos page on our website or email us!
 | | Grey-crowned Woodpecker |
 | | Ivory-billed Woodcreeper. |
www.solipaso.com
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A FEW OTHER UPCOMING TRIPS...
 | | Pochote bloom. |
Northwest Mexico
August 11-18
$1900 ($375 single)
Madera
August 19-22
$895 ($200 single)
Copper Canyon
September 16-24
$2350 ($425 single)
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THE TRIO OF CHRISTMAS COUNTS IN SOUTHERN SONORA!
 | | Birders on the REMM Count |
Over the holidays, we were involved with three distinctly different and overwhelmingly successful Christmas Counts. Over the course of a long week, we did CBCs at the coast, in conjunction with the Navopatia Field Stat, in Alamos and in the foothills of the Sierra Madre, in conjunction with Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino (REMM). Not only did we have a high number of local people participating in the counts, including the Alas de Alamos bird guides, but we also had many visitors from out of town. We hope to build on the success of these CBCs and make this an annual event in Southern Sonora. David wrote up some great accounts of these events which you can read by clicking on the links below:
 | | Laughing Falcon |
Other participants also took the time write informative accounts.
One is a bilingual article written by two of the participants, Suzanne Winckler and Rafael Arenas Wong, for a local online newspaper:
The other is written by Matt Brooks, who works at Tucson Audubon and is a regular visitor to Alamos:
For more specific information on these CBCs, please contact us. |
NEWS FROM EL PEDREGAL IN ALAMOS
Iyengar Yoga Workshop at El Pedregal
April 4-6, 2011
We are very happy to have master Iyengar teacher, Deborah Bristow, returning to Alamos for another workshop. Join us for this 10 hour workshop that will help you advance yoga practice by working with great care and attention on the fundamentals of yoga. Deborah has studied extensively in India with the Iyengars. She has also studied therapeutic yoga so that anyone with injuries or limitations can greatly benefit from this workshop. The cost is $490 usd, which includes lodging, meals and yoga instruction. For the workshop alone, the cost is $150 usd. Contact Jennifer for more information.
Festival Internacional de Cine Alamos Magico 
April 14-16, 2010
This April, Alamos will be home to the first annual International Film Festival of Alamos Magico! Movie with a message will be shown at various venues throughout the town with special participation from the Arizona International Film Festival. There will be film workshops and short film contests in the schools, meet the film maker parties and much more. This promises to be a great event with several surprises and special guests! We invite you to come to Alamos for the event. At El Pedregal, we still have openings for this weekend!
For more information about the program or to make a reservation, email us.
Convention and Visitor's Bureau (Oficina de Convenciones y Visitantes)
Alamos now has a CVB (or OCV in Spanish)...a great new resource for visitors to Alamos. This organization is overseen by the local hotel association and is funded by the 2% bed tax. Jennifer has been very involved with this and is pleased to see some progress being made in the world of promoting tourism to Alamos. Aside from working on printed material, we recently completed work on the new website...hope you enjoy and come visit Alamos soon!
OCV de Alamos Pueblo Magico
Conservation Work in Alamos
Recently, Jennifer started a part time job working for Nature and Culture International, which is an organization that does conservation work in several countries in Latin America. Here in Mexico, they have chosen the Alamos region, which is home to some of the best extant examples of tropical deciduous forest in the Western Hemisphere. They have created Rancho Ecologico Monte Mojino by purchasing land that is of importance to the Rio Cuchujaqui watershed in the foothills of the Sierra Madre. Currently, they have 23,000 acres of protected land with plans to purchase more. Jennifer looks forward to helping promote this project by doing public outreach and fundraising. In another newsletter, we'll dedicate more time to this work, but in the meantime, if you'd like more information, please go to:
Nature and Culture International.
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NCI land in the rainy season...Cerro Redondo and the Citorijaqui drainage.
(The photo at the top of the newsletter is of Cerro Redondo in the dry season.) |
See our website for a complete listing of trips, events, classes and workshops:
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We are enjoying seeing some familiar faces on our trips this spring and are look forward to meeting some new people as well. It is our pleasure to share with people so many great places in Mexico, including our home town of Alamos, Sonora. Mexico continues to be negatively affected by the bad press, but the reality is that life is tranquil and it is a wonderful and safe country to visit. We will continue to share our stories of life and travel in Mexico as a way of giving you the 'rest of the story'! It is our hope that you'll find your way to El Pedregal for a restful vacation or join us on a birding trip in the near future!
David and Jennifer MacKay
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