bienvenidos a mexico

We're now in Mexico -- we finally crossed the border and bid a bittersweet farewell to the good ol' US of A. We'll certainly miss her smooth roads and clean agua, but we will adjust. So after a relatively easy border crossing at Ojinaga (we got the green light, baby), what was our first stop? Why the little town of Aldama, of course. Aldama is about 20 minutes outside Ciudad Chihuahua, best known for its Sunday night "vueltas", when young people who have no class on Monday cruise the strip into the plaza, make the circle, and come back down the same road, only to turn around and do it over again. We didn't know anything about las vueltas until we had already settled in for the evening along the side of the road where the actual turn around happens and the whole thing begins again. It made for an interesting evening of revved up engines, thumping ranchero music, and people-watching, to say the least. The other thing Aldama treated us with was a pack of children who loved Althea, and our van, and tolerated our broken Spanish enough to ask in about three hours more questions than Althea asks in an average year. They informed us, amidst uncontrollable giggling, that the name of our van, which we understood to mean "ladybug", is more commonly understood as the Spanish equivalent of "fag." Needless to say, that's not a great way to introduce your home, so we are now riding across the desert in a van with no name. We are soliciting suggestions, so feel free to send us your ideas.

We spent the past week with Courtney's parents at Big Bend National Park. We went on several great hikes, bathed in hot springs, enjoyed beautiful sunsets, and had a wonderful time all around. Unfortunately, I do not have the camera on me which has all the pictures we took on it. Courtney has it with her, and she just took Althea back to the van after a little bit of turista hit Althea on the street corner. I guess it's good to get it out of the way, though I am hoping not to have to do major cleaning in the van. More pics to come.

Next stop, Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon)...at least, we think.