Dec 12,13,14&15 Big Bend National Park
Day 1 we met the camp host who proceeded to tell us the park rules and then cautioned us that someone in another site had a 5’ rattle snake in her site after dark and another guest has a coyote sitting outside her door at night but that coyotes are mostly out during the daytime, hmm well ok We think the snake’s length was a bit exaggerated and we heard coyotes one night they sounded like little puppies, we never did see a snake luckily. Temps were 87 daytime and 40s at night. We did get to see a coyote one day they are pretty small and don’t seem too bothered by humans.
Day 2 we went exploring and found more “ trinkets” to buy on the side of a path in the Park that are made by by the locals in Baquillas Del Carmen Mexico across the Rio Grande river where will visit tomorrow. The only source of income for the people in this village is from the tourists at Big Bend and they tell you that buying them in the park is a Nono but hey that makes it all the more fun. Here are some of our finds.
Christmas Cactus
ocotillo
Roadrunner
Road runner and wooden shapes painted by Miss Willow so we are reminded of her everyday.
Butterfly
Day 3 Trip to Baquillas Del Carmen Mexico
Our trip started in the morning driving to the river to the crossing on the US side where you have to show passports to the park Ranger then walk down to the river that was running pretty high compared to normal and waiting are very friendly locals who charge a small fee to give you a rowboat ride across the river- it takes about 2 minutes to cross then once in Mexico you have a choice of donkeys, horses or the oldest beat up pickup truck you can imagine we opted for the truck the driver was a friend of Alan’s so that was all good he drops you off about a mile up the dusty road in the village and a time is agreed upon for him to return to pick you up and he was exactly on time. All day long this is this is what he does to earn some cash there are many horses and donkeys and several trucks just waiting, these folks live a very modest life and as we soon learn walking down the dirt streets we are greeted by very young children of preschool age holding cards of bracelets for sale- hard to resist but resist we did. The parents are lined up along the street with their trinkets for sale, figurines like we bought,jewelry,hats,clothing,scarves,walking sticks etc that all say Baquillas Mexico on them. We did some Christmas shopping there and had lunch and we’re somehow comforted by a truckload of Mexican Military- they looked like our Army. Our friends Al and Lorraine from MA were our guides and it was nice that they had experience and knew a couple of people. after all the walking around and shopping we went to lunch of Chicken Tamales, refried beans and rice with coke cola. Very tasty and priced well. It was a perfect weather day sunny and in the 70s. We had. Great time! Here are some pictures.
Church
School
Lorraine,John,Alan
streets of Baquillas Del Carmen
Alan and Lorraine
Day 4 and 5 Daytime temps 70, s nighttime 28 so not much today except for relaxing, cooking goulash and cornbread, learning to use the Omnia Oven it goes over and propane stove and the cornbread came out ok.
John discovered our trip to Rockhound State Park in Deming NM instead of the 398 like we thought it was 440 miles! Too long of a day so we will head for Van Horn Tx about half way to Deming. Last night Friday Dec 16 we stayed at the Van Horn RV Park, a large park at the jct of 90 and 10 a busy cross road that is not anywhere you would go for a destination just a 1 night passing thru location. Tomorrow we head to Deming.
Day 5 The drive to Deming was uneventful yay we got thru El Paso without and problem and arrived at Rockhound State Park in Deming, a secluded dark sky park with no highway noise and here are some sunset pictures. We will be in Arizona tomorrow for the next 2 weeks we will be meeting our newest great grand son William Or Will who is 3 months old and visiting with Jack who is 18 months along with their parents Megan and Nick and Danielle and Joe and our oldest daughter Liz…more to come Merry Christmas everyone.
