Monday, January 20, 2014

Adventure Miles

As the weather warms up here in Texas we find ourselves becoming more adventuresome.  Of course, having friends from our Care-A-Van group, Ray & Cheryl Beecraft, staying in the park for the first time is also good incentive ... we want to get out and show them around.  Consequently, we found ourselves on what Ray terms "adventure miles" a couple of times this past week!

The first excursion lead to the nearby town of Los Ebanos ... the site of the only remaining hand pulled ferry in the USA.  Actually, Los Ebanos can hardly be described as a town.  To our Canadian way of thinking, it is little more than a grouping of very run-down, uncared for dwellings sitting alongside dusty streets each  contained within a fenced yard which sprouts prickly pear cacti but otherwise very little vegetation.  The yards are strewn with litter and debris of every sort, long clotheslines strung with laundry drying in the hot sun, tethered mangy animals (dogs, horses, ponies) and seemingly ever present rusty old vehicles.  The village cemetery is the only bright spot in the community!  It is full of white headstones and raised concrete graves (also white) all overflowing with a dazzling array of artificial flowers in an amazing hue of colours.  Why then, you ask, do we go there?  Quite simply, to visit the ferry.

At the end of the road, just past the deserted once thriving general store, we come to an impressive modern customs building manned by federal employees of the state of Texas.  We park the truck on the side of the road about 100 yards before reaching the building.  Walking across the road, each of us cheerfully hands over an American dollar bill to the Mexican gate-keeper before we are allowed to pass through the turnstile and descend a fairly steep hill to reach the ferry.  Of course, if we were very brave (and had the appropriate required Mexican insurance) we could drive the truck down the hill and onto the ferry.  The little ferry can accommodate three vehicles ... if they aren't too large ... plus 8-10 foot passengers who sit on benches along one side of the boat.  On the other side, six strong Mexican men stand under the shade of a tin awning, prepared to launch the boat and pull it across the international border which runs down the middle of the Rio Grande River.  On the Texan side of the river the ferry and it's operating system is anchored to a huge Ebony tree estimated to be 250 years old.  Once everyone is aboard the rusty metal ramps are pulled up by chains, secured to the metal rails of the ferry and the Mexican fellows start pulling, hand over hand, on a rope which, by a system of overhead pulleys, slowly moves the boat an estimated 100 feet across the river.    
 
Upon reaching shore the passengers disembark onto Mexican soil.  We did so, and being very adventuresome, walked up the hill to a little shaded area where pedestrians can sit and wait for the ferry. As we sat and watched vehicles drive onto the ferry we struck up a conversation with a gentleman who was waiting for a family member to return from Texas.  Time seems to be of no essence to the laid back Mexican race.  They are very patient and masters of not becoming harried.  What better way to spend the afternoon than sitting in the warm sun in air so quiet we could hear insects chirping and the gentle lap of ripples spreading from the silently maneuvered ferry?  Having discovered through our dialogue with our new friend that it was approximately two miles from the Mexican customs, which we could see a little further up the hill, to the nearest town, we decided it was time to return to American soil.  So once again we boarded the last hand pulled ferry in the USA and enjoyed a leisurely voyage back to Los Ebanos, Texas.

Heading to Mexico
A new acquaintance
US Customs ahead



                                                                                    
        

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