Week #23: West Texas

Howdy, y'all! Greetings from West Texas! We've been back in the US about a week now and we definitely miss Mexico quite a bit. I miss speaking Spanish so much (although I still subject Ginny to Spanish nearly every morning!). We also miss Mexico's vibrant and diverse culture, incredible food and the overall adventure of traveling through Mexico in our van. I also want to note that in our more than three months of travel, we always felt welcome in Mexico and it makes me sad that we do not reciprocate that welcome to many Mexicans living or visiting our country. I know that many Mexicans who come to America are seeking better opportunities than exist in their home country which is totally understandable. During our travels, most Mexicans that we met seemed to really love their country and had no interest in moving to the US and I don't blame them!   

West Texas is big, dusty and HOT! In fact, it's hotter here than most of the places we visited in Mexico as we were often at fairly high elevations in Mexico. We had an interesting experience last night camped in our van at a highway rest area right outside of Marfa, TX. At about 2AM, we started noticing voices outside the van so peeked out our windows and saw a bunch of lights out in the desert. At first, we thought they might be the famous Marfa lights which many have seen before and attributed them to UFOs, ghosts and/or aliens! But after further examination, they looked more like people walking through the desert with flashlights looking for something. We were pretty freaked out at first and thought about moving the van to another location for the rest of the night. But being so close to the border, we finally decided that it was liking law enforcement looking for illegal aliens coming over from Mexico. In the morning, the County Sheriff came over to speak with us and confirmed that they were responding to calls of ten Mexicans traveling through the desert near our campsite. He confirmed that they had caught two of them but that eight were still on the loose. Exciting times in Texas border towns, eh?   

The main reason that we crossed the border in this area of Texas is because we wanted to visit Big Bend National and State Park - both parks are right next to each other bordering the Rio Grande River and Mexico to the south. Both parks are Dark Sky designated reserves meaning that they have very little light pollution and are great locations to view the night sky. They're also both super HOT this time of year so if you want to visit, I recommend going in the winter before it gets so hot. Despite the heat, we had a good time hiking slot canyons, visiting hot springs and camping in the desert beneath incredibly star studded skies. We saw tons of javelinas which are these wild pigs that live in the parks (see photo below). There's also no cell reception in the parks so it was a nice opportunity to unplug and disconnect from the digital world. See photos below of some of the highlights from our park visits.   











While we waited to enter Big Bend National Park (campgrounds were all booked up for Easter weekend), we spent several days in Marathon, TX which we really enjoyed. Marathon is a small town (population 386) with a surprising amount going on. There's a beautiful hotel in town, some decent restaurants, a busy railroad track and wide open vistas of mesas, mountains and desert in all directions. They even have a marathon in Marathon, TX although unfortunately it isn't until October. So far, Marathon is probably the best place we've visited in West Texas - see photos below.  




After leaving Big Bend State Park yesterday, we drove to Marfa, TX which is a nice touristy town but a bit too trendy and hipster for our tastes. It is super cute but the prices here resemble NY and LA which doesn't seem right for a hot, dusty West Texas town. So we'll be moving on this afternoon with our sights set for Guadalupe Mountains National Park as our next destination. We're planning to hike Guadalupe Peak which is the highest point in all of Texas (8,751 feet above sea level).    





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