A jaunt to Mexico and scorching sun!

I'll start with the heat. I was expecting heat, but it is April, not August. I don't cope with heat very well. I'm writing this at 9 PM, and it's cooled off, so I'm fully functional again. I spent a good part of the afternoon doing nothing except wishing it weren't so hot, and periodically getting in the car and blasting the air conditioning.

But the day started and ended with things other than heat, so I'll go on.

We met at 10 AM at the Boquillas border crossing. There were 5 of us, as Rhonda had had some friends arrive. On the US side, there's a small building with a single border agent working. We got the talk. First, he made us all check our passports. Did we have them and when did they expire? Then we got told what we could not bring back, which was basically anything natural. No fossils or rocks or wood. The only exception was that you could bring back walking sticks, but they had to be fully lacquered—no unfinished wood. Then he showed us a map of the town and explained how everything works.

You walk to the river bank, maybe 500 feet from the building. There you pay $5 for a round trip across on a rowboat, or you can walk across. The Rio Grande is pretty shallow here, probably less than 2 feet. Once you're on the other side, you can get to the town by horse, burro, car, or foot. If you choose any of the first three, you get transport and a guide for your visit, for about $10. We decided take the rowboat, then walk to the town.

Once you get to the town, you have to go to a government office (in a trailer) to pay $3.50 for a wristband. The Mexican side is also a park or sanctuary, and the money is your entry fee. From there, you can explore the town. There are old adobe buildings, a museum, two restaurants, a bar, several small groceries, and many many souvenir sellers. There were some nice animals and plants made with beads and wire, and I bought myself a small roadrunner and an ocotillo (one of my favorite desert plants). We walked to the other end of the village. On the way back, a villager pointed out another trail that goes to some sand dunes. It was only a half mile walk, but I was already fading in the heat. The other 4 headed for the sand dunes, and I headed to one of the restaurants to wait for them. It was really good to get into the shade and drink my Topo Chico mineral water. The waiter was very gracious and told me to just relax till my friends got there, which I did.

Lunch was delicious! There were three choices: tamales, tacos, or ...I can't remember the third. I got the tacos, which were made with goat meat. They were so good! I ate every bite, except for the bite I shared with one of the others who had gone for the tamales but wanted to try the goat.

There were a lot of dogs in the town. Most looked like your normal street dogs, of nondescript breed, mostly sleeping in the sun. The rest of them were chihuahua types! I was so surprised to see so many small dogs. Needless to say, I talked to a lot of them.

We walked into the other restaurant and discovered that it had a nice patio overlooking the river. The view was wonderful. I did wonder if we'd chosen the wrong restaurant, but then I remembered the yummy tacos.

As we were leaving town to walk back to the river, a Jeep with armed military guys was coming up the hill. One of Rhonda's friends, the only man in our group, looked at them and then made a comment that we'd better hide all our guns and ammunition. He said this loudly, in Mexico, with armed soldiers possibly within hearing. I told him that was not a really smart thing to say. I don't know what the hell he was thinking. The survival skills are poor in this one.

We got rowed back across the river and walked back to the border building. It's funny—even though the agent knew us, as we'd just been there a couple of hours ago, we had to go through normal entry procedures. Passports, info entered into a computer, then a remote interview with a border agent. It took about 15 minutes. Oh, one good thing is that I discovered that there was free wifi here! Free and much faster than the internet at the camp store! So after we were officially back in the US, I got my iPad and sat down outside to add photos to my blog and to upload some other stuff. I was even able to call Jake, using voice over internet. The good thing is that the station is only about 10 minutes further than the store, so I'll just be heading there to upload things in the future.

On the way back, I stopped at the store for an ice cream sandwich, but that didn't really cool me off. I was just lethargic, and spent most of the afternoon, sitting in the shade, and occasionally cooling off in the car. My afternoon was enlivened by the javalinas, a dozen of which decided to come out of the brush near my campsite and meander around. They are the funniest creatures. Their legs are feet are tiny compared to their body size. I think it looks like they're wearing high heels.

Later in the afternooon, I started talking to my new neighbor, Allison, another birder. We decided to walk down to the river on the nature trail. The highlight was when we were almost back, and a Virginia rail, normally a very secretive bird, decided to ignore us and hang out mere feet away.

So now it was almost dark and I hadn't put my tent up or eaten anything. I got the tent up pretty quickly. I wanted quick food too, so I ate a can of Beanie-Weanies. Since the car had been so warm, they were actually pretty warm right out of the can. Now I'm in my tent and it's nice and cool. And there is a horse neighing outside my tent. Horses and cows both cross over from Mexico to graze. The grass is literally greener on the US side, since they irrigate in the campground. The horse definitely sounds displeased about something.