The history of Rocky Point, Sonora, is of recent vintage, as it was only in 1926 that a group of fishermen from nearby ports came to this paradise and managed to turn it into one the state’s most important tourist destinations.

Being a relatively new town with such a vibrant tourist industry, around 80 percent of Rocky Point architecture is modern, as in the hotels that so effortlessly blend in with the local scenery.

Nevertheless, the nearby town of Caborca is a jewel of colonial religious architecture, resulting from its strategic importance for the Spanish.

The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción is a good example. Built by Franciscan friars in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this imposing edifice takes visitors on a journey back through time.

Other distinctive buildings in Caborca are the mission of San Antonio de Oquitoa, one of the region’s landmarks, and the Átil mission, founded by the Jesuit Brother Jacobo Sedelmayer in 1751.

Tubutama, some 150 miles from Puerto Peñasco, has the church of San Pedro y San Pablo, well-known for its facade decorated with vegetable motifs.