New Mexican Minute

Dear Readers,

When we last wrote, Will and I had just arrived in Portal, AZ thinking, "Oh we'll just do a short day tomorrow after exploring the Chiricahua Mountains for a few hours." Ron, our warm showers host, smiled and invited us to stay another night if we wanted.

He's seen this before. From Portal, AZ to Columbus, NM, there really aren't any services to speak of. Barring a small shop in Animas, NM about 15 miles down the road, we knew what once we began our ride to the campground in Columbus about 96 miles from Ron's, it would be in our best interest to just do it in one day. That's because we are in the desert, folks. Water is hard to come by. We carry a lot, but it's hard to find the balance between too much (so heavy), and not enough (worse problems).

Sky Islands

We decided to take Ron up on his offer and explore the Coronado National Forest in the mountains near Portal. This area is (ecology) world famous for its Sky Islands, mountains that abruptly rise from the desert. The rapid change in ecology leads to a lot of plant diversity, and in turn to huge animal diversity. Will and I arrived at the right time of year too- lots of migratory birds make stops in the mountains at just this time of year, including our old friend from Costa Rica the Elegant Trogon. We didn't run into the ET, but we did see a painted redstart, four species of woodpeckers, canyon wrens, and lots of other cool birds. We saw some javelinas, or wild peccaries (hairy piggies) up close too. But not too close.

Javelina!

The next day we were off for our longest day so far on the tour. 96 miles through ghost towns that used to survive off the railroad. Route 9 took us over the continental divide and through beautiful country. For hours the only cars we would see were border patrol. Some nice folks in RVs gave us some extra water near Hachita, NM when our day was about half over and our water supplies were too. Just before nightfall we made it into Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM. No Google, it is not "permanently closed".

Eating peanut butter chicken ramen in the best restaurant in Hachita!

If you're a history buff, check out the story of Pancho Villa. This Mexican revolutionary was given guns and ammo by the Americans stationed in Columbus, but when they stopped giving him supplies, his men attacked the town, burning a hotel to the ground. Note: his men, not him. He wasn't there! 10,000 men were sent into Mexico to look for him, and the military base in Columbus became the biggest in the US at the time. All this happened only 100 years ago. Pancho Villa was never found but is rumored to have been killed by his own men.

Will and I had heard various rumors about crossing the border- you need a passport, you need a birth certificate, they'll let you in and out because you're the right color (remind me to do a post one day on all the privilege we have, being a white married, straight couple doing a tour). Finally we had heard from enough people that our driver's licenses would be plenty, and we biked the 3.5 miles to Mexico.

The Pink Store- right across the border. Chile rellenos & margaritas? Yes please.

It was amazing. Every mountain we climbed, every hard day of the trip, Will and I would joke that there were probably free margaritas on the other side of the hill. The campground we stayed at gave us free drink coupons to a place in Mexico, and our dreams became reality! Okay, so in our dreams it probably wasn't 10:15am on a day when we still had 83 miles to ride (into a headwind), but dreams are dreams and those margaritas were perfect. We crossed the border back into the US without any problems, picked up our luggage from the visitor's center at the campground, and made our way east to Texas.



After another long and tiring day, we arrived in El Paso. Today we'll rest by only riding 30 miles to get through to the east side of the city, then down into the heart of Texas we plunge.

Please comment with stuff to do in El Paso or West Texas and songs that mention Texas.

Thanks for reading!

SLL

NM State Route 9