Big Bend National Park

On January 6th, we left Big Bend Ranch State Park, and headed for Rio Grande Village, in Big Bend National Park.   The campground in Rio Grande Village was somewhat confusing, being divided into four zones, with and without generators, and with and without reservations.   After consulting with the campground host, we picked a site where generators were allowed, and it was first come first served.   It was bitterly cold, with a strong wind, so once we got set up we went into the camper and stayed there!  

That night,  Cynthia woke me up to say that the camper was cold;  I had forgotten to open the valve on the spare propane tank.   However, even after the valve was opened, the heater was not producing full output.   In the morning, after some head-scratching, I reset the propane system, by closing and reopening the valve slowly, and got things working normally.   I read somewhere that RVs have everything that a house has, plus everything that a car has, plus things that neither has.   All in all, campers are complex systems, and involve care, feeding, and repairs.

On the 7th, the weather was nicer, and we decided to take a short hike to the Hot Springs.   This was a commercial hot springs in the 1930s, and there were several buildings left from that time.  One can still soak in the 105F water.   The birding was interesting, including a Northern Cardinal, a Black Vulture, a Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, and the spectacular  Vermillion Flycatcher.   I chatted with some of the neighbors in the campground, including some traveling musicians, who had put on an impromptu concert.  We had to run the generator to keep up the battery, due to the cold weather.

Adobe bricks drying in the sun, Boquillas

On the 8th, we headed for Boquillas, Coahuila, Mexico.   Until 9/11, this was a popular day trip, no paperwork needed.  The border was closed until April 2013, when it was reopened, using a remote passport check station.  We hired someone to row us across the river, and also a guide, Martinez.   The town had depended on tourism from the park, so when the border closed, many residents left to find work elsewhere.    Now that the border had reopened, many buildings had fresh paint and new solar systems.   There was also a new health center and kindergarten.   Curiously, there were power lines in Boquillas that led nowhere; we were told that there were at one time plans to provide power to the town from the USA.   We chatted at some length with the friendly owner of the restaurant, who was fixing up the restaurant that his wife's father had built many years before.  

After we got back to the US, we washed our clothes and caught up with email.   There is no cell service here, but there is WIFI at the store.

On the 9th, we took a modest hike to a Rio Grande overlook.  We lounged around the rest of the day.   One amusing thing was the scene outside the store, where people at picnic tables made phone calls using WIFI, in a kind of open-air phone bank.  Cell service was not available in that area.  You learned everyone's business.  We struggled some to find a phone number for Cynthia's cousing Chris, but we finally reached Gill at his work.   We will head for Las Cruces to visit Chris and Gill on Friday the 10th.