LIQUID BORDER

We have always said that entering a National Park gate is like coming home. It doesn’t matter which one, they are all managed in a similar fashion and all have the same feel. We know many of them well and Big Bend is no exception. It is not a pass through park. If you come to Big Bend you made an effort to get here. It is a special natural area secluded in a corner pocket of Texas. Despite the remoteness it has not escaped the geo-political catch-22 of the past decade. There is little illegal trafficking through the park because of its remote location, but the invisible cactus curtain is recognized here as much as any other border section with Mexico. Since the Parks inception in the 30’s the small Mexican villages just across the river have built a meager economy on U.S. tourist trade. On previous visits we used to give a guy a couple bucks for a row boat ride across the river and burro ride into town, have a delicious meal and buy a few trinkets. Today that would cost you five thousand dollars and a year in jail. The Park Service continued the status quo for a while until some tight-ass Bush Bureaucrat heard about all the contraband tortillas that were being eaten in Mexico and deposited in the U.S. The “no crossing” ruling destroyed a unique neighborly economy. If the results of this typical government decision were not so sad it would actually be comical. The people from the two small border towns used to cross the river each day and sell walking sticks, carved and decorated from the sotol plant, and wire sculptures of scorpions and roadrunners. They would sit quietly along the canyon trails and display their wares. Today they are not allowed to cross the river into the U.S. but the crafts are still along the trails with pricing info and money jars. Park brochure warns visitors not to buy these items. You could be charged with illegal importation of goods. I’m no lawyer, but I can’t figure out how we illegally imported a walking stick we bought on the U.S. side of the river. I would also scream entrapment since these beautiful items are everywhere along the river trails and do not seem to be confiscated by the Park Service or the Border Patrol. But the best gig going is Victor the Singing Mexican. Victor sits high on a rock outcropping on his side of the river and sings beautiful love songs that bounce off the canyon walls. He has binoculars and can watch for Border Patrol and Park Service personnel. When we met him, the coast was clear and he climbed down from his perch, crossed the river, and sang a beautiful love song to Gaila. (Click Here To Hear Victor) He truly has a wonderful voice. We do not speak Spanish so he could be singing something mocking but we didn’t care, he was great. Someone was approaching so he went back to his perch, but we could still yell back and forth in English. Victor from the small village of Boquillas, with no electricity, in remote northern Mexico, somehow has his CD’s for sale online.

A better and cheaper solution to this problem might be to man a small border crossing station in the park, where we could all conduct ourselves in a legal fashion and enjoy the experience as we once did. Instead, we spend millions trying to enforce the harmless commerce of a friendly bunch of neighbors, who live across this shallow liquid border, while every hiking visitor in Big Bend is carrying a beautiful ornate sotol walking stick.

We didn’t spend all of our time here breaking the law, paying for contraband musical notes. Big Bend has miles of incredible hiking trails and thousands of panoramic views. From the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains you can see a hundred miles into Mexico and most, if not all, of Big Bend’s 800,000+ surrounding acres.  Keep Smilin’ Dick E. Bird

“Environmental issues are not radical notions by those looking for Utopia; they are the product of an ancient natural process evolving now through the destructive bombardment of intensifying human pressure. In our travels we have met friends on all sides of environmental issues, each with individual perspectives and all without solution, because time holds the solution and only slowly distributes direction.” - Dick Mallery