Camino Del Rio aka Texas Mountain Trail

Javelina

The one paved road through the Big Bend Ranch State Park follows the Rio Grande since the name “River Road”.  Over half of the 57 mile drive follows the river, climbs mountains, crosses arroyos and hugs canyon walls. One ‘hill’ has a 15% grade, very steep but the views from the top were breathtaking.  This drive was voted one of Reader’s Digest most scenic drives in Texas.

We stopped several times to read about the history of the area and to hike down the hill for a view the river.  Closed Canyon was a short hike into a slot canyon where we could touch both walls while standing in the middle and look up 15 stories of canyon wall to see a sliver of blue sky.   We shopped in Presidio, a small town on the west end of the road and had a nice lunch at The Bean.  It was the closest town with a decent grocery store.

Black Jack's Crossing

We left Bend Bend National Park on Thursday morning and drove a whole 67 miles to Lajitas Golf Resort just east of Big Bend Ranch State Park.  The state park is almost as big in area as the national park but has much less access via paved roads.  The only paved road is a state highway that runs along the Rio Grande and the southern border of the park.  There are other gravel roads that enter the park from the west end only and they do require high clearance vehicles.  This park caters to mountain biking, backpacking, off road motorcycles and some day hikes.

Cemetery at the RV park entrance dating back to the late 1800’s.

The RV park we are staying in is part of the golf resort. The resort has a bakery, theatre, shops, shooting ranges (yes, multiple ranges), horseback riding, mountain biking, restaurant, saloon, a spa and much more.

Today we played golf at Black Jack’s Crossing Golf Course, carved out of the desert and mountains, it is a beautiful place to play.  We had to wait for the frost to melt off of the greens but the day warmed up nicely.  I can’t say that John and I played well, but we did enjoy the day.  The greens were really difficult, with ledges, hills and tricky hole placement, but the fairways were wide and mostly straight so my ball rolled really well!  I was enthralled by the club house, a restored trading post with four rooms, because every wall was covered with mounted steer heads and horns.  One room even had a whole steer in the middle.  I was afraid to ask why!

Daniels Ranch to the Hot Springs

Its hard to believe that anyone would want to live in this area let alone try to build a ranch or create a hot springs spa, but they did!

Daniels Ranch was located along the flood plain of the Rio Grande and is now where the campground is located. We crossed this land and then headed up the hills and across the top of Hot Springs Canyon. The wild desert country on limestone cliffs overlooked the river and Chisos and Dead Horse Mountains.  

The trail was pretty rocky and rough and went up and down several times so I had to watch where I was going most of the time.  The nice part about that is that I saw so many lovely flowering plants like purple desert primrose, desert verbena, yellow brittle brush, monkey flower, Mexican gold poppy, dog weed and desert rock nettle.

The hot springs were discovered by J.O. Langford who had malaria and was convinced that bathing and drinking the mineral water cured him.  He decided to build a bathhouse over the springs and market it as a healing hot springs.  But after three years he had to abandon his spring due to the Mexican Revolution and no customers. Fourteen years later he returned and developed the spring with a motor court, post office, and general store. In 1942 the park purchased the property.  All that is left is the foundation of the bath house where one can sit and enjoy the hot water while watching the Rio splash past.

We made the mistake of hiking to the trailhead from the RV which turned out to be more than a mile so we ended up hiking over 8 miles. It was a strenuous hike and about did us in. That’s 3 hikes in 3 days. No more hiking for us the next few days.

Looking Through the Window

Look real close you will see Pam.

One of the more popular hikes in Big Bend is The Window Walk.  While standing in the lodge parking lot one can look down the Basin between two mountains and peer west out over the desert toward the Burro Mesa and beyond.  

The hike descends from the lodge towards the campground and then drops more into the basin which then follows a wash all the way to the Window pour-off.  It was a beautiful hike with lots of trees and birds, canyon walls lined with cacti and mesquite, and a small stream winding its way around the boulders down to the pour-off.   We were afraid to get too close to the edge of the pour-off as the pour-off is a very smooth, slick rock where the water from rain storms falls over the edge into the valley below.  It was an easy hike down but coming back up was rather strenuous especially at the top but we did the almost 6 miles in about 3 hours.

Boquillas and Dog Canyons

Just down the road from our campground is the Boquillas Crossing where a ferry could take you across the river to Mexico.  It was closed today but there are Mexican Nationals who still cross here to place their crafts on the shore for tourists to purchase. A short hike along the river takes us to the mouth of the Boquillas Canyon where the river has cut its way through rock walls to continue its course southward.  

We then drove 45 miles north to walk the Dog Canyon Trail.  We crossed sheer desert for about 2 miles before dropping into a wash that led us into Dog Canyon and out the other side.  It is a short canyon but fairly narrow with beautiful steep, eroded sides, in some places red rock and other gray and even yellow rock.  I was so enthralled with the canyon walls that I tripped and fell!  Got a nice bruise on my leg but otherwise I’m okay.

The weather has been really nice.  Clear skies, warm daytime temperatures with just enough wind to keep us from getting hot and and cold nights with no wind.  The coyotes kept John awake last night and I chased one down the highway this afternoon on our drive home.

River Road

According to the forecast the weather today was supposed to be cooler and very windy, a good day to ride in the Jeep on the primitive River Road.  As it turned out it was a clear, warm and not windy day but that did make for a beautiful drive.

The River Road is 57 miles of sand and gravel and was quite rough in places.  We have this very nice tour book for the road that was published in 1980!  All day long we thought it was a bit out dated - you think?! By the end of the day our odometer was off by 7 miles and we only took about 4 miles off the trail. It made it rather difficult to locate some of the sites mentioned in the book.

We learned about the ranches, mines and homesteads of the area from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s; we learned about lechuguilla (a type of yucca plant), creosote bush and ocotillo bush; we looked for snakes, hawks and golden eagles (saw the hawk), and we looked at lots of mountains, dikes, arroyos, washes and, of course, the Rio Grande River.  

The Mariscal Mine processed mercury or quicksilver which is used in preparing drugs or as a detonator in explosives. Even though the River Road did not really follow the Rio Grande, it was close enough that we drove or walked to the rivers edge a few times. Some of the mountains and mountain ranges were the Sierra San Vicente,  Mariscal Mountains, Red Dike & Black Dike, Santa Elena Canyon, and the Chisos Mountains.

At the end of this 6 hour drive (with stops for lunch and nap) we still had 55 miles to drive back to the RV.  It has been a very long day.

Lost Mine Trail

This park is huge and spread out. Yesterday to get here we drove 39 miles from the highway to the north edge to the park, then 26 miles to park headquarters at Panther Junction, then 20 miles to the Rio Grande Village campground.  This morning we drove 20 miles back to Panther Junction and another 9 miles to the trail head.

We chose Lost Mine Trail for our first hike because it was only 4.8 miles long and considered a moderate hike.  It took us almost 2 hours to hike up 1200 feet of elevation and 2.4 miles up to the ridge, then over to the mountain, several steep switch backs and along the top of the mountain. Then turn around and come back down at a fast 1 hour walk. For our first time out it seemed rather strenuous to me!  But it was a pretty hike and we saw some beautiful scenery.  We watched for bears and mountain lions but only saw birds and grasshoppers.

After a picnic lunch we stopped at the Chisos Basin Mountain Lodge and visitor center and had a beer while using their free WiFi.  We don’t have any cell phone service, but the park has several WiFi centers that we can use to catch up on news and post our blogs.

Big Bend Here We Come

This morning we headed for Big Bend. We could have stopped at a couple of points of interest along the way, like Judge Roy Beans saloon, but we wanted to get into camp early enough to explore before it got dark.  Big Bend has four campgrounds.  One is on a mountain road and you can’t drive anything over 24 feet long, one has no hookups and will not allow any generators, one is a full hookup (we found out later it is basically a parking lot) and the campground we chose has no hookups but will allow folks to run generators. We were concerned about running a generator because we intend to stay as long as 7 days and know we will need to charge our batteries during our stay.  According to the campground host, there are only 15 campers here right now and it holds 100.  Very quiet and peaceful.

The Rio Grande River is just a short walk from the campground.  It’s not a really impressive river as far as width but it appears to be deep and runs really fast.  Along the path to the river we spotted several colorful beaded craft items and intricately painted walking sticks.  Mexican Nationals will place these items there so that people will buy them by dropping money in a jar.  We were warned that  Mexican Nationals are here illegally and are subject to arrest and deportation if caught and the items purchased illegally will be considered contraband and seized (if you are caught with them). 

After supper I stepped out to take our trash to the dumpster and the dark night sky was amazing!  I felt wrapped in a blanket with the dark, starry sky pressing down on me. There is absolutely no light pollution in this park so the stars literally explode into your vision!  Big Bend has been certified by the International Dark-Sky Association as a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park. It has the darkest skies and lowest level of light pollution in the lower 48 states.

Broken Mill

We left San Antonio on Thursday morning with our fingers crossed that it would not rain.  That didn’t work!  Our destination is Big Bend National Park but we left too late to get there in one day so we stopped in Del Rio at the Broken Mill RV Park.  John had to wash the RV again.

The lady at the check-in desk told us about their weekly dinner and dance starting at 6 PM.  Since I was doing laundry, it was after 6 when we walked in.  There were only 8 people eating. I expected a whole lot more as there were 50-60 RVs in the park and most looked like they had been there a while or were there for the winter.  Cowboy grub was on the menu - roast pork, pinto beans, mashed potatoes, campfire bread and blueberry cobbler with ice cream.  The three-man band started playing while we were eating.  Three guitars including one vocalist and then the owner joined them on his fiddle.  The lady serving and cleaning said she would sing with them later and that the piano man had another gig so wouldn’t be there.  When we left, there were only 2 people left listening to the music.

Surprise Guests

John’s friend, Ray, is also a former business associate so John looked forward to meeting Ray for lunch and visiting with others at his office.  It turns out they were in the midst of their semi-annual business meeting with their annual Christmas dinner this evening.  We were the surprise guests at dinner, and very much appreciated being invited.  We had a very nice dinner and enjoyed visiting with old friends and making new ones.  

Visiting Best Friend

We got going early so we could stop in Katy, Texas to have lunch with my high school friend.  Anna Lee and I don't keep in close touch but whenever we meet its like it was just yesterday!

 

It seemed like a long drive to San Antonio because of the early evening darkness. We hit the tail end of rush hour so it wasn't too bad getting thru the city. We drove through 2 huge city freeways in the same day, John was tired.

 

Our plans are to meet some friends here tomorrow. 

Cypress Forest

The nights have been really chilly so it takes awhile for the day to warm up. That's not to say we can't get in a good hike while he cool air invigorates us and keeps us from getting too hot. We walked about 3.5 miles on a multi-use trail through open woodland and around cypress swamp land. 

Then we drove into town with our mouths watering for a good shrimp and oyster po-boy sandwiches.  But it was not to be. Darrell's had meat po-boys only. No fried seafood. They were good sandwiches just not what we were yearning for. 

 

I was inspired by some Facebook posts to bake a pecan pie for dessert. Yummy!

Time to Exercise

Since John had chores to do this morning, I took a jog/walk down one trail looking for alligators in the river. I'm afraid it's too cold for them as it only got up to 55 today.  After working on a leak in our toilet, John joined me for another hike to look for alligators. Still no sign of any. But at least I got in 5.5 miles of exercise walking and 4 miles on the bike. 

Not Far Enough

We awoke on Friday morning to pouring rain and it rained or fogged over the rest of the day and almost our entire drive. At one point the fog was so dense the visibility was only a few hundred yards.  We stopped in Shreveport about 4 and the weather was considerably nicer than back home.  It was nice to sit outside and have a cocktail while grilling a steak.  After dinner I was able to decorate the RV for Christmas

After some research we determined that there was not much we wanted to see in Shreveport so we headed on down to Lake Charles.  

I got to help John wash the RV and Jeep before doing a quick look around the Sam Houston Jones State Park situated on the Calcasieu River.  We went into town to dine at a typical cajun fish joint. We then drove around looking at holiday light displays near the civic center and the marina where we saw about a dozen boats extravagantly lit with Christmas lights.

South Bound

Well, its cold and has been for a couple of weeks so it is definitely time to head south for the winter.  The problem is that things keep happening to make us think that maybe we should stay home for a bit longer.

This week started badly for me as I came down with strep throat!  I haven’t been this sick since the kids were small!  But by today I have been on enough penicillin that we felt we could go.  So as we pull out of the drive and onto our street we notice that the Jeep is not tracking correctly behind the RV because one of the arms did not lock in place.  John stops in the middle of the road and we both jump out to check it out.  Brrrr, its cold, every thing looks okay again so we try to get back in the RV.  The door has locked behind us and we can’t get it open!  Thank goodness for the hidden spare key.  

We got as far as Joplin where we stopped for dinner.  When we came back into the RV, the tire monitor was beeping that we had a low front tire!  John circled the Flying J three times before finding an air hose that worked.  He tightened the stem, filled the tire and we are off again hoping that it will hold for awhile.  Just as we settle down in a Walmart parking lot in Fayetteville, AR, the rain starts.  Anything else going to happen?  I hope not!

Day 8, Coming Home

We had to be on the bus for the airport before the restaurant opened for breakfast so we got some really bad breakfast food in a box.  Oh well, we can’t always have gourmet meals.  The airport was a mad house so we had to stick close to each other to get tickets, pay the exit tax and go through customs.  We said sad fair wells to our guides and went through to our gate.

Our flight was to leave at 9:30 so we had a long wait.  As the room was emptying out we realized our group of Americans were the only people in the terminal and that we were about to be left behind!!  We never heard them call our flight.

Its a short flight to Miami, long wait, flight to Atlanta, run to next gate, and flight home.

We have traveled with Mickey & David and John & Susanna several times now and we have always found them to be wonderful traveling companions.  I may have an overly optimistic view of the future for Cuba, but I do think they can make the transition out from under Castro’s power.  It may take awhile and it won’t be easy but these are strong, resilient and resourceful people, they will make it work.

Day 7, Havana

The largest cemetery in Havana is the Christopher Columbus Cemetery at over 100 acres.  Columbus is not buried there but it is thought his bones were in the Cathedral on Old Square and they were going to move them to the cemetery when it was completed but the bones were moved somewhere else before the cemetery was completed.  They named it for him anyway.

The docent was fun and had lots of great information about the crypts and the symbolism on them. An owl was a guide in the darkness and a bat meant than you had died by deception. The remains are buried in the crypt for 2 years and then they are moved to an asharium on the same site so that there is room for more of your family.

Ernest Hemingway lived in Havana for about 20 years.  He had a home near the bay but his wife of that time wanted a place that was cooler and lest crowded.  She found this home on the south side of Havana up in the hills and Ernest balked at moving until he actually saw the house.  He fell in love with it.  They added a swimming pool and a three story tower so Ernest would have a quiet place to go to write but then it was too quiet!  He had his cats and dogs at this house, he loved to fish and help poor people by giving them money or by buying their wares. He was a passionate man and loved to drink but he did not get drunk. He died in 1961 from a gun shot wound but they are unsure if it was suicide or murder.  The house has over 900 books and lots of big game trophy heads.

This is not Hemingway.

Another way Cuban are trying to make their lives better is by growing their own food.  We visited and organic farm on 24 acres in the middle of the city.  There are many more spread out over the area.  They hire locals to work the farms so they benefit with a paycheck but the people in the community benefits by having fresh fruits and vegetables.

Another large lunch with lobster before going to Mureleando, a community that is trying to change the people by changing the community.  They have painted many walls, cleaned out a field and put in a ball park, and cleaned out a water tower and made it into a community center. The artists share their talents with the children and with others. They have found ways to make music, received equipment to make movies, record music and they hold workshops for women and children to make dolls and other art.  One bronze sculpture of a man has dentures in his mouth because an elderly lady wanted to be a part of the project and donated her teeth.

Our going away dinner was at Paladar Atelier within walking distance of our hotel.  We have really enjoyed our program manager and our tour guide and this evening we toasted them many times.  It has been a great trip.

Josette the program manager and Lynette our Cuban guide, photo bombed by our friend David.

Day 6, Sancti Spiritus, Santa Clara and Havana

As we head back toward Havana, Lynette talks about the geography of the island.  There are three mountain ranges in Cuba with the central range that surrounds Trinidad having a peak of 1,000 meters.  The Eastern range has the highest peak at 1,900 meters.  Nickel is mined in these mountains and is an important export.  We stopped for a break and coffee in Sancti Spiritus before continuing on.  This region is known for growing garlic and onions which we saw in abundance at the open air market.  We saw fresh pork laid out on the planks, head, feet, tail and all!  Many fruits and vegetable were also being sold.

Our next stop was in Santa Claraa where we visited the School of the Arts, a high school for music, dance and theater. They have about 200 students. A small group sang for us and two girls did interpretive theatre.

The Cayenes Resort served us a very nice buffet lunch and then we stopped at the Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara memorial.  Che is a national hero of the Cuban Revolution that overthrew Batista.

Che was born in Buenas Aires and graduated from college as a doctor.  While traveling in mexico he met Fidel Castro who was exiled there at that time. They became friends so when Fidel came back to Cuba in 1956 Che came with him and was made commander of the rebel army.

In 1958, Batista sent an army train through central Cuba where the rebels led by Castro and Che fought and won, sending Bastista out of the country.  In 1964, Che felt his work was done in Cuba, so he left his wife and kids and went to Bolivia to help with their revolution.  He was eventually killed in 1967 in Bolivia.  He body was hidden there until 1997 when we was brought back to Santa Clara, his home, and interred in the memorial.

Tonight is Party night!  Half of our tour group went to the Buena Vista Club for a Cuban show and the other half of us went to the Tropicana Club.  it was 2 1/2 hours of high energy dance and song presented as a Vegas style show with elaborate costumes, outrageous headdresses and vibrant colors. 

Day 5, Trinidad

The hotel is very nice.  It has a central water fountain surrounded by a lounge area and overlooked by the upper balconies where our rooms are located.

After breakfast we walked in the rain to various places in the colonial part of town, which is a UNESCO site and very nicely preserved

Our first stop was a typical Bodega or market.  Very small but has most of what one may need to prepare meals.  The meat and bread markets are separate stores.

We then went to a Ration store where the poor can get beans and rice, maybe some flour or sugar, milk in a box or powdered milk.  But not enough to feed a family for a month.

We stopped at a Casas Particulares or what we might call a Bed and Breakfast and visited with the owners son.  Private enterprise is allowed but inspections and taxes are increasing all the time, making it harder to earn a living.

The Temple de Yemaya is a two room center where people gather to worship as Santeria (pronounced santa ree ah).The Baba Losh or priest explained that this religion is a blending of Nigeria and Cuba and is based on the natural elements of water, air, fire and earth.  This temple used water and had an alter set up with various sizes and shapes of glasses filled with water.  He explained that there is only one God but they find links between saints and natural elements. ( It is not voodoo.)  In this temple the water is the most important element and is the link to the Virgin Mary.  In one corner they had a black Mary holding a white baby Jesus.  Santeria are baptized by the Catholic Church. Music and dance are important ways of expressing their faith.  

 

We visited the Museo de Architecture.  The docent pointed ou the various ceilings, walls, doors and windows seen in the homes from 1700-1900’s. In the courtyard of the museum was a row of bathrooms with the last being a room to house the shower.  All fixtures were from the US before the embargo.

After shopping on the square we had lunch in a lovely home at tables that were set for a formal banquet. Music and dance accompanied our meal of lobster.

After lunch we watched a master potter mold bowls and vases on a clay wheel at Casa del Alfarero.  Then we drove to a small village outside of town where slaves used to work the sugar plantations and the the sugar mills. The tower we climbed had steep and narrow stairs and was used to keep an eye on the slaves.

After our dinner at the Palador Sol Ananda, a private restaurant where we again had lobster tails, the men visited with the owner about running a business in Cuba.