"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime"-MARK TWAIN

Saturday, January 16, 2016

A Drive through Big Bend.

 

Having made a couple of good hikes for someone from an altitude of 380 feet, it was time for a rest day.  We decided to spend the day just driving through Big Bend.  We have been here twice before, and blogged about it, so there aren’t many pictures accompanying this post.

We started by entering the park from Study Butte. (Stewdy boot, or so I’m told.)  We just drove the main road all the way down to Rio Grande Village at the Southern end of the park.  We stopped along the way at a few sites with the Hot Springs being the first place I took the camera out.  Free enterprise has always impressed me.

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This display of trinkets and walking sticks was placed here by the guy that stays here.

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Across the river in Mexico.

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They were priced from six to ten dollars each.  If you liked one you were to put your money in the plastic bag sitting in the display.  After a sale or two the guy would cross the river, retrieve his money, and restock his wares.

The kicker here is that you have just broken the law, and are now in the possession of illegal contraband. 

Another unusual thing we happened upon was this.  American ingenuity at it’s best.

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It seems to me that there was nothing that the engineers of the eary 1900’s couldn’t accomplish.  It must have been an awesome sight to see 90 of these buckets swinging away along a six mile cable.

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And one or more of the cables are still laying on the ground.  Amazing to me that it hasn’t been stolen for its scrap value, as It was only a mile or so from the river.

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As mentioned earlier, we mostly drove and looked.  Checked out all the campgrounds, and enjoyed the beautigul drive up into the Chisos Basin.

I’ll end this post with the picture of another entrepreneur.  Returning to Mexico from restocking his wares at Boquillas.

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Homeland security??….jc 

4 comments:

  1. You are about three weeks ahead of me. My plan is to use the $5 for two weeks campsites in the park. Nice to see good weather for you. Have fun.

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  2. Nice photos, I especially like the "entrepreneur". I'm always surprised how many tourists continue to break the law thus encouraging the illegal sale of goods.

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  3. Glad you are enjoying the numerous diverse things there are to see and do in Big Bend..I've said that I could go to BB one week each month until I meet my Maker and not see all that BB has to offer...take care...Horst sends

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  4. We were in Big Bend about a month ago. We went to Boquillas and had a great time. The people their are poor, and live off the sales of their crafts. Without tourism they'd be even poorer.

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