Gone around the Bend

After saying goodbye to Linda and Roger and Rascal we decided to stay at Rio Grande Village campground another three nights. It’s hard to leave a place that is beautiful and warm, with good services and relatively cheap fees — so we stayed.

It gave us a chance to do a hike together that I had planned from the first day, and then Ann did it by herself, and this broke my poor whittle heart b/c I was saving it for just us, and I shed a tear trying to be strong telling her it was OK, but secretly I was all broken up inside… and then she smacked me and said stop being such an annoying brat for trying to make her feel bad, which is what I was really trying to do 😉 …

Ummm, what was I saying …? Oh yah, we went on a nice hike together 😉

 

The walk took us up to a grand lookout of the area, as well as down  to the Rio Grande River. Mexico is an easy stone’s toss from here. Border protections are around, but not in your face. We were warned about purchasing any Mexican trinkets while on our hikes, and we did indeed come across a cache of stuff.

There were prices on the walking sticks and metal twisty doodads, along with a jar to put our money in. We even followed a non-identified trail to the water that came to an easy river crossing point. It was clear (from the poop) that burros and people come across here, presumably to service the cache points. While it’s technically illegal to buy stuff this way, it’s clear the US authorities turn a blind eye to the activity. Nice, since it’s also clear tourist dollars are the primary income for the people of Boquillas.

On our last night at Rio Grande we were invited by camping neighbours Dan & Lindsay to a wonderful dinner of steak, potatoes and Mexican corn at their fancy trailer. Turns out they are both motorcycle and scooter people AND sailors who have lived aboard for seven years. They saw us driving our little bikes, noticed the Ontario license plates, and had to find out more. We heard about their adventures travelling the country with trailer and off-road motorcycles. And we told them about our little bike travel, and our pending sailing life. It was grand fun with great people!

After final morning showers we did finally move down the road, and up the mountains, into Chisos campground. And what a spectacular site it is!

We arrived on Thursday just ahead of another American long weekend (I thought these people had no holidays!). We lucked out and found a stunning campsite at the end of the grounds, overlooking the caldera valley that Chisos is located in. We’re literally surrounded by mountains which are the  remains of massive volcanic activity some many millions of years ago.

 

It’s also home to the very tame and very cute road runners.

 

 

 

In addition to the campground Chisos  valley also houses a store, a  motel and a rather nice restaurant/bar, complete with free wifi. We used our recently-past 28th anniversary as a good excuse to treat ourselves to a fine meal. It was grand. We used the same excuse on Valentines Day to have yet another yummy meal. Ann was presented with a red rose as we walked in, and which she kept for a few days. Of course I was presented with the bill at the end of the meal … Sexism sure cuts both ways.

                      

Although we originally booked in for three nights at Chisos, we easily extended it to six. The days have been summery, and the nights are warmer than in the other two Big Bend campgrounds despite being up nearly 5,000 feet. The scenery is stunning, and the living is easy here, so staying seemed like the right choice.

As usual, we also met some great people. Sally and Jim were camped at the site beside us. We got to chatting over a couple of nights, and a couple (or three, or four) glasses of wine. They have converted a large van into a travel van, and are planning to explore the US and Canada over the coming months. It’s great to learn how other people are doing things, and to get to know fun and interesting new people.

While at Chisos I did what I do best, which was basically sitting around all day reading. Ann, being far more active and adventurous, went on a great 3.6 mile hike out to the “window”, which is an opening through the caldera that overlooks the flatter lands below.

 

   

We settled in for the nights, meeting new people, and generally just relaxing with good food, warm weather and good books.

 

 

 

   

  

Tomorrow we plan to move on. We’re still aiming for the Gulf, but that will take at least two to three days of travel for us, and the camping looks sparse along the way. We’ll likely be moteling it for a few days, but I guess we’ve earned a bit of luxury after nearly two weeks sleeping on the ground.