The Borderlands: The Experience - Day 2 - Gran Desierto

10/30/16, “Gran Desierto”

Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico (El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biospher Reserve)

A great expanse of desert spans the southwestern United States and norther Mexico, and it contains some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, both cultural, as we visited yesterday, and natural, as we are now visiting.  Throughout that entire desert, though, there are only two areas inscribed as World Heritage Sites for their natural features.  The Grand Canyon is one.  This is the other.  Framed by the Pinacate volcano shield, the Gran Desierto is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world.  It is the stuff that makes Westerns great.  I feel like I could be in a scene out of a Sergio Leone movie.  I supposer I should be smoking a Toscano, then, instead of this Montecristo, but the Cuban will do for now.  I will soon be flying home, and I have a tight schedule to make my flight, so, once more, I just wanted to fit in a brief entry at the WHS.  I will have plenty of time at the airports and en route to go on about the magic of this region.

After I closed last night, I soon went to bed.  We both woke up ahead of schedule, and we were out the door before the alarm went off.  I slept for most of the rid, and, after about two hours, we arrived at the entrance station.  The Plaque was right there.  We paid the entrance fee and took our pictures with the Plaque.  We were tight on time, so we would have to race through to do the loop.  That we did.  It was such a beautiful drive, and, as Taylor Swift might say, this is what I came for.

We first stopped at the main crater, where I lit up my Montecristo, and we took our ceremonial pictures.  Then it was back on the road.  I didn’t think I could find the exact inscription spot, but, eventually, we found a nice pull-out with a good landscape view.  I decided that would suffice, so we took our ceremonial pictures there.  After we took our pictures, I sat down and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that we can begin The Return Journey.

Hermosillo International Airport, Sonora, Mexico (HMO)

Ah, here it is, just 36 hours after I wrote from Benito Juarez, it is time for the triumphant airport entry.  We did it.  We saw the two World Heritage Sites we meant to see, and that was all that mattered.  In four months, we will meet again to finish our adventures in Mexico and at last say, “Mexico Complete.”  For now, though, I am pleased to be able to add this airport to the long list of places around the world where I have smoked my Ardor, as I have been doing for the past eight months.  Soon, though, I will be switching to my Christmas Pipes for these entries, each of which of have their storied past of the places they’ve been smoked around the world.  I will take this time to reflect on the natural elements of this region and save the cultural elements for Benito Juarez.  As I have said, it is region unlike any other in the world.

From Texas to California, the American version has some of our most beautiful National Parks, all of which I have now visited, though some National Monuments do remain.  However, this World Heritage Site we visited today gives them a run for their money.  It was a great place to finish off my time in this region, for now at least.  I am sure I will return soon enough.  I know that I owe Taos another visit, but that is a cultural site.  I remember that morning four years ago when I went to Joshua Tree National Park.  I loved that desert landscape.  I suppose that was the beginning of my love affair with this desert region.  The trip I took with my parents a dozen years before that was more of a Western trip than a Southwest trip, but I guess that was what set it all in motion.  While the Grand Canyon is surely in the Southwest, as is Mesa Verde, I would hesitate to consider the National Parks in Utah to be part of this region.

I have trying to make this trip for so long, planning and cancelling it more than once.  Finally, at last, I have done it.  I was glad to have Roberto along, both for his companionship and because I know how hard it would have been to have done solo.  I slept more this trip in the car than I did in a bed.  I loved the stunning landscapes I saw, just as I have loved them in California and Arizona and New Mexico and Texas.  The fauna of the desert has its own beauty, but it is the mountain backdrops that I so love.

I always love the mountains, and it is why I so loved my trips to the Canadian Rockies and the Pacific Northwest.  While glaciated mountains have their own beauty, I love the desert mountains just as much.  (Cue Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice”.)  I think it is the sense of being in pristine wilderness that makes it so magical, that these landscapes seem to have been untouched since the dawn of time, that perhaps even the dinosaurs once saw these exact landscapes.  I suppose that’s all I have to say on this matter.  While it is my tradition to treat the entirety of the Return Journey as one, I will break tradition in the interest of expediency.

After I closed at the Gran Desierto, we made our way to the VC, which was an eco-friendly building, powered by its own solar panels and wind turbine.  We lit up Gurkhas, which would last quite a while, and the VC had a proper gift shop, so I got my souvenirs.  After we finished at the VC, we retrieved our Gurkhas and hit the road again.  I passed out after I finished my Gurkha, and we stopped back in Caborca for lunch, at a Chinese food buffet.

It was very cheap and surprisingly good.  While I am no stranger to eating Chinese food in Canada, this was the first time I have so indulged in Mexico.  I lit up a Graycliff after our meal, and we headed straight to the airport.  I passed out again after the Graycliff and woke up much sooner than expected, as Roberto had made great time, and we were arriving at Hermosillo.

We stopped at a gas station to fill up and clean out the car.  We also got some caffeine and sparkling water.  After that, we were soon at the airport, and we said our goodbyes, reminding each other we’d be seeing each other in four months.  That was that.  I checked in and then headed back outside, where I sat down, lit up my Ardor, and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, as I need to soon head to security.

Benito Juarez International Airport, Federal District, Mexico (MEX)

Well, here I am, writing once more from my familiar spot at Benito Juarez, where I have now ended six trips to Mexico, about to board once more AM 400 back to Kennedy.  It is a very familiar process.  I think it is safe to say that I have now flown in and out of this airport more than I have flown in and out of any airport outside of New York.  I suppose Atlanta would be the closest contender.  Internationally, it would have to be Heathrow, which is ironic since those will be the next two places I fly after this trip.

Okay, so this would be the usual time where I reflect on my trip, but, well, I don’t really have anything on which to reflect.  I was still at Kennedy 48 hours ago, and I only spent about 30 hours on the ground in the Borderlands.  Roberto and I enjoyed our time together, and I enjoyed the food and tobacco I consumed.  That’s really all there is to say about it.  The time sites we saw, spending only an hour or so at each site, were both marvelous, and I will shortly reflect on the culture aspects of the region, but that was the heart of the trip.

To me, this trip was basically an errand run, and how do you reflect on a trip to the grocery store?  I went to the Borderlands with the intention of visiting two World Heritage Sites, and we saw both of them.  That’s all there is to say.  I have already applied the appropriate superlatives to the two sites, so I suppose the broader reflection is now in order.

I need a better name for the region instead of just calling it “the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.”  I’m going to call it the North American Desert, much the same as I call the combined region of Central America and the Caribbean, “The North American Tropics”.  Okay, so the region is laden with culture.  The most prominent, of course, being the Native American culture.  Yes, other regions of the United States have Native American cultural sites and ruins, but the ones in the North American Desert our best preserved.  I suppose that there is a simple reason for this.  Clay preserves better than wood and cloth, and lumber is not as readily available in the North American Desert as it is on the Eastern Seaboard and the Pacific Northwest.

There are also a multitude of sites various other Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Mayans and Aztecs, spread throughout Mexico and Central America.  Those ruins, and I have visited each and every one of them with a World Heritage Site inscription, are wondrous in their own right, but it is not the same as these sites in the North American Desert.  The ones inscribed as World Heritage Sites are, again, Mesa Verde, Chaco Culture (including Aztec Ruins), Taos Pueblo, and Casas Grandes (Paquime).  They all have a very similar look, and it has been wonderful to visit those sites over the past 15 or so years.  I will visit some other NPS-designated sites in this region in the years to come, but the main ones are the ones I have visited thus far.

The food here, is, of course, beyond iconic.  It has inspired two of the country’s most popular food chains (Taco Bell and Chipotle).  I love eating this food.  Meat and cheese wrapped in fried bread.  What’s not to love about that?  Fried chips with various sauces, perfect.  There is still some remnant of cowboy culture here, but it is drowned out by the imprint that Native American and Mexican culture left on the region.  I should not that I keep calling it “here”, though I am technically not “there” anymore, this airport being in Central Mexico and no longer in the desert region.

My trips in the near future will take me to islands all around the world.  Actually, the only non-island trip I will take in the next year to a place outside of the North American mainland is the second half of my Thanksgiving trip.  England, Jamaica, Australia, Hispaniola, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Iceland, Greenland, and the South Pacific are all islands.  Even my two remaining Canada trips will almost be entirely spent on islands.

The non-island trips will mostly be to coastal regions of North America, though I do have a trip to northern Texas and Oklahoma planned, along with a return to Taos.  It promises to be an exciting 10 more months before I leave for Hawaii, and I’m ready for it.  I can feel the home stretch winding down.  I will return to tradition at this point and treat the Return Journey from HMO to JFK in its entirety once I get home, so I can publish this now.