Arts and Crafts

Today we drove 40 miles from Chisos Basin, where we are staying, over to the Boquillas Canyon Trail at the east end of the park.  At this point in the park, the Rio Grande river separates the U.S From Mexico and it is pretty shallow at many points here.  We climbed up the trail about one hundred feet to the top.  This is what I saw.  People from Mexico cross the river in the morning, by canoe or boat and climb the trail and put their arts and crafts items for sale to visitors in the park.  It is on the honor system.

Here is a note from one of the people who left their wares for sale.  When I was here in March of 2018, there were only a few vendors who left their things for sale.  One man was with his crafts at the end of the trail and he said that if a Park Ranger came along, which he could see from a distance with his binoculars, he would quickly gather up everything, and toss it in his boat, and row back across the river.  The items that others had left on the honor system, would be confiscated along with any money left for the purchaces.  I did buy a walking stick from him, and then he asked if I had anything to eat that I could give him.  That's how much the sales of these small items means to them.  But on this trip there were displays everywhere, so I am guessing that these displays are now allowed, which is a wonderful thing.

This photo is taken about 20 feet from the display shown in the first photo.  This is the Rio Grande river and the land in the center of the photo is Mexico.  All the land in the foreground, and that on the right of the river in the photo, is in the United States.  Just in case you were curious, since you could wade across the river here, and there are no fences, when you arrived on the U.S. side, you would be facing a walk of 90 miles across a desert with temperatures, like today, of just over 100 degrees, and directly north to the nearest town.  Certainly not much chance people would try to enter the U.S. this way.