Boquillas Del Carmen, Mexico (12-05-14)

Our final adventure in Big Bend National Park was a day trip to Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico.  The day started in an unusual way for this area of Texas- with fog clinging to both the roads and mountains.










  Boquillas is a small town in Mexico, that until 2011, was a “soft” border crossing. Mexicans would casually cross to shop in the United States, since the nearest grocery store in Mexico is a 3.5 hr drive down a dirt road.

 Americans would cross just as casually to explore Boquillas, eat lunch and buy souvenirs. September 11th changed all that, and devastated this small town with a population of just 300.  The border was closed.  Period.  No more crossing at all. The town inhabitants waited in vain for it to re-open, and eventually, many of them moved away to find new jobs.




Finally, in April of 2013, the border re-opened, but it will never be quite the same again.  Now Mexicans need a visa to cross into the U.S. and Americans need a passport to cross into Mexico.

Well, with passports in hand, the 6 of us began the trek to Boquillas del Carmen.  After an hour and a half drive, we reached the ranger station at the crossing, where we were briefed on the do’s and don’ts of crossing into Mexico.

Our options for crossing the Rio Grande were wading/swimming (not recommended) or paying Victor $5.00 to take us across in a boat. 

So, after a short boat ride, we were in Mexico.

The next step was to get to town, a mile up the road, where we would need to check in with immigration officials. 

Our options for that segment of the journey were to walk a mile uphill, ride in a pickup truck taxi, or ride burros.  We chose the burros. 

I think we laughed all the way up the hill.

  Our handler was Paulo.  He kept the burros moving, and we assumed that once we got up the hill, his job would be done, but we were wrong.

He walked us to the immigration building, waited for us, and gave us a tour of his town.  In fact, he stuck by us all day, right up until we crossed back over.  There aren't many jobs in Boquillas, so working for tips may be one of the better ways to make money.

Paulo spoke very little English, so the little bit of Spanish that we knew came in handy.  In fact, we learned later that one of the effects of the border closing is that the children of the town don’t speak English as well as the older people.






Paulo was very proud of the new hospital and school in town, and seemed happy to report that soon the town will have electricity, generated by a new solar station.  The residents will pay for the electricity they use, but the money will go into a fund to replace the batteries when the time comes.  Very clever.




  We worked up an appetite on the short tour, and had lunch at one of the two restaurants in town. 

The food was good, and the beer was cold!

Afterwards we wandered across the street to the other restaurant, which had a nice view of the mountains and the river.  So nice that we decided we weren’t in a rush, and sat down to have a margarita. 

The owners of both restaurants were very friendly and spent quite a bit of time chatting with us, sharing stories about their lives in this small town.

After purchasing our souvenirs, we decided it was time to head back.  The border crossing closes at 5 pm.

  Once back in the U.S., we all had to take a turn at the immigration kiosk where we inserted our passport for inspection, and spoke on the phone to an immigration officer.

All in all it was an easy process and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Big Bend Adventures (12-04-14)

Since no one can hike all day, every day, we looked for other adventurous outings to fill our time.

Eating may not seem adventurous, but dinner at the Starlight Theater is always a fun time.  Some day we’ll branch out and try other restaurants, but at this point, we've always headed here. 

The food is excellent, there is usually live music, they have $2.00 Margaritas, and you can’t beat the sunset view from their front porch.

We thoroughly enjoyed the original songs by Moses Martinez, touting the benefits of living in Terlingua, Texas.  As quirky and “off the grid” as the town is, you never have to walk anywhere in Terlingua.  There is no one who won’t stop to give you a ride. 

And, of course, the town is 90 miles from the nearest traffic light.

The hot springs are always a welcome destination after spending several days on the hiking trail.  It’s on the opposite side of the park, so we combined it with another trip. 

Cooler weather would have kept us hanging out in the 103* water longer, but we still enjoyed sitting and watching the Rio Grande River flow by.

We have had two major outings, and they were both adventures that we’ve never been able to do before:

Rio Grande Rafting Trip

Rafting down the Rio Grande is something that Paul and I have always wanted to do, but there is hardly ever enough water in the river for this particular adventure. 

With all the recent rain, the river is flowing pretty strong.  Paul and I were the only takers for this trip, so we spent the day on the water with just our guide, John Parker.

The river led us through Colorado Canyon, where the “rapids” were fun but barely worthy of their name.

Our lunch was over the top, with enough food to feed a much larger crowd- and it was all set up on a table, complete with tablecloth and paper plates.

I think the best part was our conversations with John.

  It was interesting to hear about the town and the area from the perspective of someone who decided years ago to make it his home.  John came for the hot springs, and loved the town so much he bought property 16 years ago, for a mere $100 an acre.

We learned so much from John that in the days following our river trip, our conversations were peppered with the phrase "John said"...

As for our other adventure- well, this post is getting to be too long, so I will give our other trip it’s own post..

Desert Hikes (12-02-14)

The main attraction at Big Bend National Park is the hiking- so that’s mostly what we've been doing while we've been here in Terlingua.

Ok, well maybe that’s not quite all we've been doing.  We did have a bourbon tasting session, courtesy of Dave….

I told them to act drunk and this is the best they could do.  At least they tried! 

Anyway, as you can see, we are having quite the fun time here.  And we have gone on quite a few hikes.





What’s nice about having the six of us here is that we can do things together, or we can go off on our own.  We did a little of each over the past week:

Nancy hiked with Paul and I to the Mule Ears Lookout.

 

It was about a 4 mile hike, and we agreed that the mule ears looked more like an eagle or Batman or something.

We all hiked to the Red Buffalo. This is a short hike, about a mile and a half, but there is no trail, so you have to find your own way through the desert.

I had the breadcrumb trail on my GPS from the last time we hiked this, but it didn’t help much because we didn’t really know where we were going last time- we meandered a lot.  This time we found it a lot faster.

So, “it” is a  pictograph of a buffalo.  The rangers don’t want hoards of people flocking to it, so there is no trail and it isn’t on any maps. Paul and I found out about it from someone who volunteered at the park, and we have hiked to it several times.



On the way back we saw two rabbits- one ran away pretty quickly, but this one decided to pretend he was a rock and just hoped we would go away.





Paul and I hiked the 5 mile long Chimney trail by ourselves.  The trail leads across the desert to some rock formations called the chimneys.

The canyon in the background is Santa Elena Canyon.

The rocks were fun to climb on, but they are also interesting because they contain Indian rock art and some ruins left by the previous Indian inhabitants.



 
We all took the scenic drive over to Santa Elena Canyon.  There is so much more water in the river right now, it looks like a different place!




Some of us had an impromptu contest to see who could throw a rock into Mexico (at least halfway across the river). Its a lot further than you think (that’s my story, anyway) and some of our rocks barely made it into the water at all- Paul is the only one who participated who actually threw a rock into Mexico.

This canyon is gorgeous and always makes for a good hike.

Julie and Mike hiked with Paul and I to the Burro Mesa Pour Off.  Basically, this is the path that water would take if it rained, so it’s not a trail you’d do in bad weather. I forgot my camera so we had to take pictures with Paul’s phone.

 


It was a fun, 4 mile trail, but had a fair amount of rock scrambling, so with Julie’s bum knee, she and Mike elected not to go all the way to the end.

Right behind Paul is the Pour Off- the drop just beyond where he is standing is about 130 feet to the desert below.

 

We have also hiked the lower Burro Mesa trail and have seen the pour off from the bottom. Here’s a picture of Paul from 2009 when we hiked the lower portion.





Random Question: Why did the tarantula cross the road?

A Big Bend Thanksgiving (11-28-14)

Spending 10 days in Terlingua, near Big Bend National Park, always requires some careful meal planning.  The nearest full fledged grocery store is 90 miles away.  When you add Thanksgiving into the mix,  lots of meal planning and shopping is required.

Along with Mike and Julie, we made several trips to Costco and grocery stores on the way to Terlingua. 

The day we arrived it was Taco Tuesday (although we think they might have this deal every day).  From 5-6 pm, the Starlight Theater Restaurant has $1 tacos and $2 Margaritas.  It’s hard to justify cooking with a deal like that so we didn’t even try- we just headed over to the restaurant to eat.

Thanksgiving Day dawned with perfect weather- we had a short time for relaxing before the preparations began.

The guys had set up a table and tent between the two trailers, making an awesome spot for socializing and outdoor meals.

Both of our rigs have two ovens and they were all in use that day!

We were checking regularly with our friends Dave and Nancy, who were driving feverishly to get here in time for dinner.  It took several long days of driving, but they made it for dinner with about an hour to spare!

Both the food and the company were awesome….

Afterwards, some of us were plumb tuckered out, and took an afternoon nap.











With our energy level back up on Friday, we all hiked the 1.5 mile trail to Cattail Falls.  Paul and I have been here before and wanted our friends to see it. It isn’t on any of the park maps, which helps keep visitation down.

The first part of the trail wanders through the desert before approaching the mountains…

and the last section of the trail involves some minor rock scrambling….

The reward is a small but pretty waterfall in the shadow of the mountain, making it a perfect spot to stop for lunch. Waterfalls are rare in this area and the ecosystem here is very fragile, which is why it is not on the maps.