And We're Off to the Races...

About two months before we were to depart, we received an e-mail from Gate 1 advising us that our tour itinerary had been reversed.  A key part of the trip involves a six/seven-hour train trip aboard the Copper Canyon railroad.  Evidently, its schedule had changed, forcing them to rejigger our trip.  In hindsight, we are very pleased that this happened, as we think the ultimate order of places visited on our trip was far more enjoyable than had we adhered to the original schedule.  The only downside is that the return into the U.S. was originally supposed to take place at the very small border crossing at Columbus, New Mexico, where waits have traditionally been shorter than at the other crossing used on this trip -- Nogales, Arizona.  With us now crossing into Mexico at Columbus, there was zero wait at all.  There was, however, a very long single-lane row of cars waiting to cross into the U.S., which ran through the length of the town of Puerto Palomas, on the  Mexican side.



Another slight downside to the reverse itinerary was that the pre-Columbian city of Paquime is closed on Mondays, which meant that we had to be sure to arrive there on this our first full tour day, Sunday, before they closed.  This meant that our departure from Tucson was the earliest of our trip, with bags picked up from our rooms at 6:00am, and a post-breakfast departure on the bus at 7:00am.  With the three-hour time difference, it was no problem for us to be up and ready, especially since we'd turned in at 8:00pm the night before.



Crossing Into New Mexico

Katherine and our driver, Arturo

The drive eastward into New Mexico, and then south toward Mexico, was through two different deserts, with very different topographies.  We also passed through a high boulder pass near the New Mexico border, which was quite taking.  The longish ride allowed our guide ample time to begin telling us the history of where we were going and what we would see, as well as an opportunity to meet our fellow travelers.

On the way, I learned that the only land invasion on the southern border took place at the town of Columbus, New Mexico, where the famed Mexican freedom fighter Pancho Villa staged a nightime raid in 1916.  Common belief is that he ordered the raid in retaliation for having been repeatedly swindled by a local merchant, from whom his army of revolutionaries had been purchasing weapons.  Whatever the cause, 17 Americans were killed and it resulted in the ultimate decision by President Wilson to order General Pershing (of ultimate WW1 fame) to lead the so-called "punitive expedition" to send thousands of U.S. troops into Mexico in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to capture Villa.

At Columbus, they were completing massive renovations to the border facilities in both the U.S. and Mexico, so it looked more like a construction zone than proper border.  That said, the existing wall was clearly visible as we crossed over.  As we crossed and saw the wall up closed, it seemed every member of our tour group boo'd loudly.  This was our first indication that every member of the tour was anti-Trump through-and-through.  The odds were certainly against that, but in multiple conversations over the course of the trip, the common consensus was that "people who travel" tend to have a "more rationale view of the world."  I'm not saying I necessary prescribe to that, but many people in our group made passionate statements to that effect.

The Wall Separating U.S. and Mexico

Once over and in the small town of Puerto Palomas, we stopped for -- what else -- our first Mexican lunch, and our first round of margaritas.  This was our first tour on which three meals a day were provided.  I theorize that this was the case to ensure that quality of the food and water people were having, as Montezuma's Revenge is synonymous with travel to Mexico.  Whatever the reason, it was very nice.  It helped, too, that every meal we had was good; in fact, many of them were great.  We were also offered drinks at all of the dinners and many of the lunches, which was another unexpected perk.

Our First Meal in Mexico

Line of Cars Waiting To Cross Into U.S.

After lunch, I crossed over the street in hopes of converting some dollars to Mexican pesos.  I went into a seven-11 equivalent called Del Rio to use their ATM.  I looked at items in the store and was shocked at how high the prices seemed.  It was only later that I learned that Mexico uses the "$" sign to denote Pesos, so the chocolate bar with a $10 price tag really only cost 10 pesos, or 50 cents.  Whew!



The drive south from here was what I would call "stereotypical Mexico."  It was a mostly barren landscape, dotted by often delapidated shacks and depressing small settlements interrupting the arrow-straight two-land road.  By the following day, we learned that this was the exception rather than the norm, which was a pleasant surprise.



We drove through the small city of Neuvo Casa Grandes around 3:30pm, where we would be staying the night.  It is a majority Mormon town, settled by Mormons in the late 1800's, who were essentially fled the U.S. after Utah and the main Mormon church outlawed polygamy.  They were allowed to practice in Mexico for almost half a century.  While it is now officially banned in Mexico, judging from the sizes of many of the homes, it would seem that polygamy still goes on, but rather under the table.

Certainly Large Enough for a Few Wives.  ;-)

The ruins of the pre-Columbian city of Paquime are on the south side of town, and we arrived with enough time for a full tour in the impressive UNESCO-built and funded museum, as well as an extensive walk through the ruins themselves.  I am embarrassed to admit that I had never even heard of Paquime, but I would soon learn that it is inextricably linked to the Mata Ortiz pottery.  Paquime was a capital city for the Mogollon people (never heard of them), and flourished between the 1100 to 1400's.  They were sun worshipers and managed to build very elaborate water aqueducts for both cold and hot water (from nearby hot springs), and they built earthen buildings up to three stories tall.  They eventually were conquered and died out, and the city was lost to the desert until excavations began under an American in the 1970's.  While excavating the ruins, they came across an amazing array of delicate pottery.  The discovery of that pottery would ultimately inspire the modern-day Mata Ortiz school.  The entire Paquime site is managed and maintained by UNESCO, as a world-heritage site.  They built a beautiful and comprehensive museum on the site, and continue excavation work to this day.  You can still see obvious artificial mounds surrounding the area, which surely contain additional ruins.

The UNESCO-built Museum

Some Original Mogollon Pottery -- on which Mata Ortiz Pottery Is Based

Our Guide, Raul

Paquime

We literally shut down the museum and site before making the short drive back into Nuevo Casa Grandes, where we were to spend the night.  When our tour group assembled the previous night, Raul had "warned" us that the hotel in Tucson -- a Sheraton -- would be the nicest of our trip.  In hindsight, I'm sure he told us this to set our expectations relatively low, but on this first night on the road, checking into the motel at Nuevo Casa Grandes, I had no reason to doubt his earlier assertion.  The hotel was clean and comfortable, but definitely a motel.  This was to be our "cheapest" hotel of the trip, with each subsequent hotel raising the bar, night after night.

Our Motel in Nuevo Casas Grandes

Dinner this evening was at a restaurant called Malmedy, which is actually Belgian, run by a Frenchman, and located inside a 19th century Mormon homestead.  The house was not well lit on the outside when we arrived, and was certainly showing it's age, inside and out.  We were all ushered through the beautiful home, into what had probably been the parlor.  A local musician serenaded us while we enjoyed an outstanding meal.  The steak I had was just wonderful.  We ate dinner with a couple from Denver; a retired attorney and his about-to-retire wife, who is a nurse in a prenatal emergency care hospital.  We hit it off with them very well and spent considerable time with them during the trip.

Belgian Restaurant Where We Had Dinner

Everyone was exhausted when we returned to the hotel and we quickly fell asleep, even though it was in the 50's, and we had to turn on the heat in the room, which neither of us expected.