10/29/16,
“Casas Grandes”
Benito
Juarez International Airport, Federal District, Mexico
Well, here I
am, beginning my trip in the same spot where my past five trips to Mexico have
come to a close. In about 40 hours, I
will be back in this very spot, writing another entry. Two Days, two World Heritage Sites, one
cultural and one natural. That’s all
this trip is. It will be a complete
blitz. Today it is the cultural site,
Casas Grandes, not far outside of Ciudad Juarez. Roberto will be meeting me here soon, and
then we will fly together from here to Juarez.
Tonight, we will overnight in Puerto Penasco, then, the natural site
tomorrow: El Pinacate and Gran Desierto.
After we see that site, Roberto will drop me off at the airport in
Hermosillo, and I will fly back this to the airport and then to Kennedy,
getting back to work by 9 AM tomorrow morning.
As I said, a blitz.
While the
trip itself is short, it will not be as jam-packed as some of our other
adventures. There will be no late nights
or super early mornings or racing from place to place before things close. Instead, since we are only visiting one site
per day, it will be at a much more relaxed place. Our quest towards “Mexico Complete” is
drawing down, and the land next and last one will be our most epic yet. I don’t have else much to report, and Roberto
will be here soon, so I will just wrap up.
After I closed at Kennedy, I went back to the first corridor again to
get my usual overpriced ice cream bar, along with another seltzer, from the
usual Turkish place I go to at Terminal 1.
The boarding process was as dysfunctional as the rest of the departure,
and the line moved more slowly and erratically than I can ever remember. I fell asleep almost as soon as we took off,
waking up as we made our descent.
I
headed to border control, glad to be able to skip the line with my new
enrollment into the Viajero Confiable program.
It took me a bit to find out where the machines were, but, once I did,
it was a relatively painless process. I
continued to clear customs and then went to the same spot where Roberto and I
had breakfast at this airport just eight weeks ago, though it feels like much
longer. I even sat at the same table, in
the same seat. I got their house
breakfast, along with a fried egg, and some coffee. It was a traditional Mexican breakfast, and
it was quite good. After breakfast, I
went outside to my usual spot, where I lit up a Romeo y Julieta and proceeded
to write this entry, which I will now close, as Roberto will be here in a few
minutes.
Casas
Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico (Archaelogical Zone of Paquime)
Well, here
we are, this is it. It has been over 20
hours since I left my apartment, and we have at long last reached the first of
our two destiantions. This is the
cultural one, an archaeological site that resembles so much the other similar
sites I have visited in the Southwest, such as Mesa Verde, Chaco Culture, and
Taos Pueblos. I never fail to be amazed
by these sites, the subtle and quaint beauty of the enchanting ruins. Unfortunately, this is last such WHS I will
visit, though I think I am missing a few similar National Park Sites in the
Southwest, but those are for another time.
We are short on time, and I will reflect more properly on both the
culture and nature of the Southwest (and the corresponding parts of Mexico) at
the end of this trip, but I just wanted to fit in an entry here, so I will wrap
it up as quicky as possible.
After I closed
at Benito Juarez, I soon met Roberto, and we headed to our gate. I picked up some more cigars at the newsstand
and got a coffee, both of which were a process.
Before long, we were boarding the plane.
The seat next to me was empty, so Roberto was able to sit there, the
first time we have ever flown together.
Trains and cars, yes, but never a plane.
I slept most of the flight to Ciudad Juarez (not to be confused with Benito
Juarez).
When we approached our
destination from overhead, it looked like there was not a single sign of
civilization in sight, and the city of Juarez looked so out of place. There was a secondary immigration control at
the airport, and they gave me a hard time since my form was not stamped, due to
having the Viajero Confiable program.
The airport more resembled the tiny airports I have visited in the
Caribbean more than any I had seen in Mexico.
Getting the car from Hertz was another process.
We were on our way, but we were both hungry,
so we stopped at an Oxxo for food and snacks.
I got a bacon-wrapped hot dog, nachos and cheese, and a seltzer,
followed by a coffee. Then it was back
on the road, and I did what I do for the first long drive of every trip, put on
“Red” and lit up a Davidoff Yamasa Toro.
The drive was boring and unadventurous.
I followed up the Davidoff with a Graycliff, while Roberto smoked a
Gurkha, and we switched to Avril Lavigne’s “Let Go”. Then we were at our destination.
The Plaque was right in the parking lot, so
we took our picture there and looked around the museum. We headed to the ruins, and I lit up a Canada
Exclusivo Vega Robaina. I had the
inscription photo in hand, but I knew it would be no easy task to find the
spot. We wandered and wandered to no
avail. I tried going off the beaten path,
but I had no luck. I went back to find
Roberto, and I then I saw it, off in the distance.
I used my spatial reasoning and determined
that that had to be the right spot.
Roberto was walking right towards it, too. I met him there and quickly confirmed it was
the inscription spot. We took our
ceremonial pictures, and that was that.
I headed to a spot in the shade, in view of the inscription photo, where
I sat down and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that we
can head back to the museum and then get back on the road. It will be a long drive to Puerto Penasco,
and it is already late afternoon. A very
long drive.
Caborca,
Sonora, Mexico
No, we
didn’t make it to Puerto Penasco. In the
interest of avoiding an even later night, we called an audible. Instead, we are staying at this lovely motel
in Caborca. I’m not being
sarcastic. This is actually a very nice
hotel, and it is a shame we will be back on the road in just five hours. Why did we call the audible? Well, the long drive I promised turned out to
be even longer than expected and much more brutal. The biggest hurdle was these dirt road
detours (due to construction on the main highway) that made the Dalton seem
like an Interstate. Add to that the
plethora of trucks and buses we constantly found ourselves stuck behind, and it
all made for very slow driving.
After I
closed, we walked back to the museum, and I loaded up on the cheaply priced
souvenirs. From there, we headed back
into town and stopped at a taco shop for lunch.
Tacos in Mexico are very different from tacos in America. In Mexico, they give you a small tortilla (or
two) laid flat with toppings, along with sauces on the side, much like a
deconstructed thin-crust pizza. I have
never seen the hard shell U-shaped taco in Mexico. I got a shrimp taco and a quesadilla, every
bit as good as local Mexican food would be expected to taste. In other words, to use my favorite phrase,
quite good.
I lit up an Aroma de Cuba
after lunch, and we were back on the road.
It was about 5 PM at this point.
I figured it would be a 9-hour drive to Puerto Penasco, including stops,
and we would gain an hour since Sonora is an hour behind Chihuahua. That meant, we’d get to our hotel in Puerto
Penasco at 1 AM, and we could sleep until maybe 7 AM or a little later. Roberto then informed me that Daylight
Savings Time would be ending in Mexico tonight, so that meant we’d have another
hour of sleep. Well, we were wrong on
all accounts.
The driving was much
slower than anticipated, and Sonora does not change their clocks the same as
the rest of Mexico does. I took the
wheel once we turned on to the main road to Sonora, and we were running out of
daylight. That’s when the fun
began. We encountered one of our many “detours”,
which were carved-out dirt paths to work around the highway construction, very
slow going. We stopped to take some
pictures of the desert at sunset, and I ditched my cigar at that point,
switching to an Aging Room shortly thereafter.
We were now going through mountain passes, weaving in and out of trucks
and buses. It was not an easy
drive. If I had to do this solo, it
would have been a contended for one of my five most difficult drives of all
time. I shudder to recall those
disastrous nights in Yugoslavia three years ago. Our plan was to get dinner in Agua Prieta,
which is right by the border with Arizona, then continue straight to Puerto
Penasco.
We gassed up in Agua Prieta,
and there was a restaurant right there, but we weren’t hungry. Besides, we just wanted to get on the
road. We got snacks and drinks at the
Oxxo, along with each getting a small hot item, the price of everything
shockingly cheap. Roberto took the
wheel, and I lit up an Oliva after I was done eating. I passed out after my cigar. When I woke up a few hours later, everything
was wrong. We had made far too little progress. I looked at the maps and time, and I knew
that going to Puerto Penasco was no longer advisable.
We called an audible. I might have slept a little more, but not
much. In the end, we decided we would
stop at Caborca, which was en route, so I lit up an Alec Bradley for the rest
of the ride, which I’m still smoking now.
We could get there around 1 AM.
We’d have to be back on the road by 7 AM, though. It meant Roberto could get his five hours of
sleep, and I would get less, due to writing my entry, but I made up for it by
sleeping in the car. We called around
and found a motel that could accommodate us and looked nice.
Soon enough, we arrived at this motel meant
to look like a desert oasis, Hotel Posada del Desierto, which was much better
than I expected. We settled into our
room, and then I came out to the pool, where I sat down and proceeded to write
this entry, which I will now close so that I can publish and get some
sleep. We are in the desert now, and
tomorrow we will visit the protected area of the desert that has been inscribed
as a WHS.
No comments:
Post a Comment