December 19 Houston to Chihuahua

Four of us, with backpacks and a box of kolaches, made the 700 mile drive along Highway 90 to La Junta de los Rios, where the Rio Conchos meets the Rio Grande in West Texas. Javelinas, taco stands and the mysterious Marfa Lights caused us to arrive in Presidio too late to catch the 8:00pm bus from Ojinaga to Chihuahua City. Knowing we would not get even a little sleep in a Chihuahua hotel, we crossed the international bridge determined to make the 7:30am train to Copper Canyon. We were going into the unknown and each day would be critical for us to accomplish a canyon crossing in an environment more grand than the Grand Canyon. A Mexican immigration official slowly pecked out our tourist cards on an old typewriter, making us think we might also miss the 11:00pm bus. Another officer, with his boots propped up, stamped our visas while getting a late-night shoeshine. We ran along the main street of Ojinaga about a mile with our packs to purchase the last four available seats on the 11:00pm bus. Puzzled, we looked at each other when we found our seats in the first and second rows. The bus, to our collective panic, turned back toward the border we had just crossed, apparently to allow a drug enforcement officer to board and give us all a good stare. After a few moments of intimidation, he left. The driver touched a rosary draped over a large cross in the panoramic front window of the bus and turned south on the highway into the velvet black Chihuahuan desert night. As we climbed the narrow road up the high mountains that separate La Frontera (the Border) from La Tierra Adentro (the Interior), it became clear to me why I was the unfortunate rider in the front middle seat. I had the best view of the heavy oncoming traffic at each impossible roller-coaster hairpin turn. I looked back in the silent bus to see a full audience of wide eyes and the ominous shadow of the giant cross projected on the nervous riders by oncoming headlights, swinging wildly from side to side. On the descent, loud Ranchera music lulled the passengers to sleep. NEXT PAGE