DAY 122 : November 6/22 Sunday. Marathon TX into Big Bend National Park, TX

 Unfortunately, last night Jonathan and I hadn't gotten much sleep. Not sure why, but maybe too much planning on the brain? Not sure what Big Bend would hold? Anyhow, a bummer but we carry on!

The motel had a nice little mexican tiled shower block we could use and so Jonathan and I hauled the kids over and showered in the pretty little washroom/shower room (only one single bathroom for women and one for men). Meems and I hustled to get clean and out of there in case anyone would be waiting. 

We called Grandma and Papa to tell them of our plans for their visit before we ventured into the park and would be without cell/wifi service for a few days. We packed up the rig, filled the water and Jonathan gave the windows another good cleaning so we could admire the upcoming views without any hinderance. Oliver is now adept at putting the slide in. I downloaded the Just Ahead App for Big Bend and we left around 9:45am for the park. 

Within 5 minutes we passed through another Border Patrol blockade with no need to stop. Our App told us about the 31 species of venomous snakes, 450 birds and that it's an international dark sky park. 

At 10:20am we saw a border patrol set up on the opposite side of the road on our way to the Persimmon Gap Visitor Centre. We had a beautiful view of the Chisos Mountains. Stopped at the Big Bend sign for a photo op! Saw a small black bear scrambling across the hillside! The vastness of this park is mind-blowing. You can see for miles and miles... long stretches of wilderness desert with a thin ribbon of road to follow. 

At the Persimmon Gap visitor centre we got the Junior Ranger books for the kids. Amelia got started on hers right away and Oliver was NOT interested. After much grumpiness about it, it turns out he didn't want to do it because he didn't want to say the oath in front of the Rangers at the end to get his badge. We'd find a way to get around that later. 

Driving along to our campground at the south east portion of the park, I saw a road runner! exciting! My favourite plants thus far are the tall spindly green Ocotillos. They look like seaweed reaching up. 

Our app told us about the Dinosaur Exhibit coming up ahead, so we pulled into the parking lot to make some lunch around 11:15am and check it out. What an awesome exhibit!!! This whole area used to be a shallow ocean. We explored the outdoor/covered exhibit for about 45minutes. Kids were super interested in all the information and huge skeletons. 

We then carried on our way down the winding desert road to Panther Junction and hung a left for the long drive down towards the Rio Grande Village Campground where we booked three nights. 

I had read that the side trip over to Mexico from Boquillas Canyon was only available on Wed-Sun. We had heard about this fun little trip over to the Mexico from our texan friends at the KOA in Lavaca and some other people. We knew this was our only opportunity to experience this, so took the exit to the Boquillas Canyon at 12:30pm and luckily found a spot to park in the tiny dirt parking lot! More people here than we expected. I got $100 cash thinking this would be plenty for a short jaunt over to the little town of Boquillas, MX. We walked into the very small little border hut and listened to the Border Patrol officer explain about how it worked to cross the border (the rio grande)... you'd walk out the door down the dirt path to the river's edge, there would be a row boat waiting. It's $5 a person to cross the river by boat (manned by a Mexican), and then you could walk with a guide along the dirt path to the town, or take burro or mule. When you reached the town, you would go to the office building (container bldg) and pay the visitor fee of $3/adult to receive a wristband for entry. When you came back across, you'd enter this same border patrol building and do a zoom call with a US customs agent in San Antonio to show/scan your passports and declare any goods). Voila! a trip to mexico!  Just as we were leaving, the family with the little boy came in with him and his little sister! fun!

We walked down to the river's edge (the Rio Grande!!) and got into the rowboat... life jackets on the kids, and two large ones handed to us to hold. We were rowed across, fighting the strong current, and deposited on the Mexican soil.

On this side were shaded "ramadas" where loads of burros and mules were tied up. Mexican men were there to welcome us and where we paid for our $5 boat rides and received little ticket stubs as proof for our return trip. An awesome young "host" greeted us and asked if we wanted to walk or take a burro. The kids were super excited about the burro ride, so we opted to all ride burros into town (because, hey, why wouldn't you!??). We paid our $10 each round trip and he went and hauled four burrows out of the herd for us. Each with a haphazard saddle/blanket and halter assortment strapped around them. Once all mounted up, he lead us up the small hill in the sandy soil along a hot sun drenched path to the town. At first one of the burro's foals was following us for a bit. It looked about a year old or younger... super cute! wanting to follow its mum, but soon dropped off and ran back to the herd. Our guide was sweet and chatted with us along the way. (cue: loads of burro photos! sorry, not sorry)

Once at the town (TINY!!! a scattering of small huts/homes and two outdoor style restaurants to choose from), we dismounted and he tied up our burros until we needed our ride home. He led us to the container building where inside we paid the $6 for our entrance to an official looking man behind a simple desk inside. Once official, we chose the restaurant we had been recommended by the eager little boy's family the night before. We found a table in the shaded veranda and decided what we could afford to order... our $100 had shrunk substantially with the burro rides and I was quite horrified that we might not have enough to buy anything decent and still leave gratuities for our guide and the rower. We calculated we could get some chips and fresh salsa and guacomole and a Dos Equis and a mexican coke, as well as a Fanta for Ollie. We ordered a water for Amelia without thinking... it came in a bottle, of course, and we already had water with us. All a bit flustery, but we managed. 

Soon after ordering, our new friends had arrived at the same restaurant and waved hi and sat at a table further down. The little boy, Vaughn, came over to say hello and ask us if Oliver could walk over to the balcony area and look around with him. They chatted about minecraft almost the whole time. Very sweet and Oliver was a kind and avid listener.  Amelia drew a picture of her burro, Avan, on a napkin to pass the time.  One of the restaurant owners came over and must have sensed that we didn't have enough cash to order more items and she very discreetly advised us that it's no problem to also pay by applepay or venmo if we wanted to order more. She could put us on their internet to do so. So Jonathan ordered another dos equis. We had a nice time hanging out and when it came time to pay, the internet payment method wouldn't work. Turns out we had enough cash left to pay our bill and give the older guy playing guitar a $1tip before we left. Our guide led us back down the hill to the burros, past the couple of small stalls set up with colourful mexican linens and weavings and bracelets. 

The burro ride back was fun, Jonathan's burro kept walking up too close to the others and it was like it was trying to jam Jonathan's knee into the other donkey's bum. Pretty funny. 

Back at the crossing, we gave a few dollars as a tip to our guide, apologizing that it wasn't more. Then got our ride across the narrows of the river and back onto US soil. Inside the little office, we were assisted by the Border Patrol guard to connect on the ipad to the US Customs Agency and scan our passports for re-entry in the USA. With nothing to declare and having shown our faces to the friendly officer on the other end of the ether, we were accepted back into the US by 3pm and on our way to the parking lot to the rig. We had spent about 2.5 hours in Mexico this afternoon! pretty awesome. 

We continued our drive and did a stop at Boquillas Overlook. There was a cool look out over the small town and the Rio Grande from here. Also at the top was a large selection of Mexican wares... beaded wire framed sculptures, embroidered towels and linens, little bobbing turtles and various sized felt burro stuffies with woolie manes. There was a locked down metal canister in which to deposit the money for anything purchased. No one in site to look over it. The kids and I had our eye on a little felt tiny burro as a memento of our excursion but didn't have the correct change in cash so we put it back and hoped it would be there the next day. 

We carried on to our site #047 at the Rio Grande Village. It was hot and dusty. Jonathan snuck around and filled our water guns and did a surprise attack on the kids to cool down and raise spirits. Very fun. Meems did some beautiful shell art painting from her collection for a bit.

When it was getting close to sunset, we walked over to the entrance to the recommended Rio Grande Village Nature Walk. Here we met Amy and her two lovely little girls, Eloise and Aster. They were on their bikes and going to enjoy the sunset at the nature trail too. Eloise was around 6yrs old and Aster maybe 3yrs... Both girls were adorable little bleach blondes and VERY eager to become fast friends with our kiddos. Eloise immediately inquired if they could walk with us and if Amelia wanted to be friends with her. So sweet! We exclaimed that YES! we'd love to walk with them! and off we all went. 

The trail led through a tall grass marsh with a boardwalk then up a rocky hillside to a beautiful viewing area where you could see the canyons across one side and stunning mountains along the opposite. As the sun set across the canyon, it lit up the mountains in a pink glow. Absolutely breathtaking. 

We chatted with Amy and her husband, Nick, about their travels. They have a house outside Boston and were living in Seattle for awhile but needed to get out of there... too much political violence and unease. They were traveling the country in their astrovan with a tent-topper. Amazing!!! The little girls were super sweet and snuggly with Ollie and Amelia, wanting to sidle up to them and hold hands. 

We learned that their tenting sites had javelinas wandering through it in the morning and evening if we wanted to see any. Lots of signs about javelinas being quite rascally and getting into peoples food and tents. They have lockers here for food and storage at each site to keep things safe from them. 

Back at our site, we cooked veggie burgers outside, then tucked inside. Jonathan was tired from no sleep last night and fell asleep in the upper bunk. Kids tucked into bed with me at the back.