It's the first of Oct, less than a week left of this years wanderings left now :-(
We set off quite early for Big Bend Park. The first thing on the way that caught our eye was a dozen or so vultures all on the fence, wings spread facing the sun just soaking it up. We saw more doing the same thing as we continued on.
We also spotted a few road runners, always loners and for the most part so dam fast we had no chance for pics. I can see why some refer to them as dinosaurs, the way they run is just like the raptors in Jurassic Park! More than one was only saved from becoming road kill by Pete's defensive driving skills. We also saw a few golden eagles, incl one on a power pole and another in a tree, most were flying around. That pretty much completed the bird spotting on the way to the park.
We got a fuel top up just in case at Marathon and turned south towards the park. We bought an annual pass at the gate, our last one expired at the end of August.
Once in the park the road runner spotting increased; some running the white line at the edge of the road and others testing Pete's ability to dodge them to the limit lol there were also flocks of small guinea fowl/quail like birds running across the road we also saw a jack rabbit and a couple of small rodent type critters, possibly kangaroo rats which ran in front of us at different times.
We drove to the Boquillos Crossing, went through the US customs check point and walked the quarter mile down to the crossing point. $5 each paid for return crossing over the Rio Grande via rowboat to Mexico. Once across we walked up to a check point where we were given three options; walk the mile to the village, hire a horse and guide or a burro (donkey) and guide. We opted for the burro, Pete mounted up and with a little help I got on mine lol My short legs were never going to get on without either a step or help!
We rode into the village with a pop of 140 people, 160 miles from the nearest other town. Most homes had trinkets displayed for sale, embroidered cloths, bags and copper wire ornaments.
Our first stop was a tree to tie up the burros then to the Mexican immigration point, a small demountable with one worker. He checked out our passports but said we needed a Mexican visa which we didn't have and according to him we could only get before we crossed over. He had poor English although better than our even more limited Spanish but eventually we convinced him we weren't about to escape into the wills of Mexico never to be seen again. He agreed if we were to keep it quiet he'd let us in for a couple of hours but it meant we'd not get a stamp in our our passport :-(
Our guide led us around the village telling us about life there: one phone for the whole village,two schools with three teachers from preschool to secondary, a solar power plant the govt. recently put in for the village, a small hospital with a Dr there for a month then he goes off for a few days leave. He took us to his home where we bought a couple of wire ornaments, a road runner and cactus for $10. From what we saw he, his wife and four kids all live in two rooms.
Back to the starting point of the village on our walking tour and there were two restaurants, we chose one and had lunch shouting the guide an old fashioned bottle of Coke for $1.50. The tamales were a bit bland but Pete was happy with his cheese enchiladas.
We went back to the immigration guy to let him know we were on our way back to the US, all it took was us poking our heads in saying adios and we were good to go lol
Getting back on the burro to return was much easier, I found a rock to give me height and off we went for the return to the river crossing.
When we were near the crossing the guide asked for a favour, he said he needed gas for his truck and could we please fill his Jerry cans at Rio Grand Village. We had been going to tip him so all it meant was a bit of mucking around but we get to keep the little cash we still have and can put the gas on the card.
It was a bit more formal back on the other side of the river, passport control via a machine like at an airport but the questioning was done via a phone call from someone off site cos the guy on the spot is just a park ranger.
We drove the couple of miles to the gas station, filled his jerry cans for $20 and drove back to the crossing point. Pete had to go through passport control again despite not actually going across, he just took them down to the cross point where our very grateful guide came over to collect them. Back to the border point on the US and when the off site guy rang he was, didn't you just come over? lol
Back on the main road through the park and, as usual Pete was going a few mph over the 45 limit. A ranger going the other way turned and followed us for a bit before pulling us over. By the time he'd turned and followed us we were doing the speed limit but he had a radar in his car so knew we'd been doing over 50 :-(
He asked for Pete's licence and passport which he checked out but let us go with a warning. The speed limit is set at 45mph to give the road runners a chance cos that's their top speed. Doing the 45 from then on til we left the park nearly sent Pete crazy lol On the plus side we took the opportunity to ask about a plant similar to yukka, but it's shorter with a much taller flower stem. He said its known as the century plant as its believed to flower once a century then die. He said its not strictly 100 years but it does flower and die.
It's been hot, topping 40 at one stage, very warm when out in the open on a burro but ok in the car with the ac on.
Out of the park and back on the road we were again stopped, passports shown and questions asked. Friendlier border stop than the other one but still a pain.
We got wifi back around Alpine so checked to see if there was a night viewing tonight at the observatory but they don't do it on a Thursday :-( We were due to be here on a day they hold it but the change in schedule messed that up. So, we decided to skip Fort Davis and instead go on to El Paso for the night.
We passed through a nothing town, Valentine pop 217. Not sure where those 217 live as most of the buildings are falling down, long since left to rot away. Just west of that town Pete saw a store, standing all alone identified as Prada complete with shoes and handbags. I was sceptical cos, why would such a high end store be in such a low end town? A quick Google search revealed all. It was built at a cost of $80k in 2005 as an art installation. The intent was to let it naturally degrade back into the landscape - apparently that's art lol Not long after it was built it was vandalised and the Prada gear stolen so the plan to never renovate was canned and they cleaned off the graffiti and restocked it.
We started seeing more cattle and signs of agriculture again; fields being tilled, some crops also including chillies and a big orchard of some sort, not sure what sort of trees they were, possibly some sort of nuts.
Half an hour out of El Paso Pete's phone got a message from Vodafone saying welcome to Mexico lol I know the border in the form of the Rio Grande isn't far but were very definitely still in the US. Shortly after he got a welcome to the US so no idea what that was all about lol
The sun was setting as we rolled into El Paso. We checked into our hotel for the night and set about planning the next few days.