Boquillas Canyon

The days are becoming quite hot with late afternoons hitting 103° yesterday and 100° today.

We got out early on Thursday to beat the heat and forgoed breakfast to hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail where the Rio Grande cuts through the Sierra del Carmen mountains.

It was a pretty easy walk through the sandy bottom, and the morning sun cut deep shadows on the canyon walls.

The first section was through a bamboo grove, but there were no pandas anywhere.

The canyon walls rise 1,500 ft above the cool water.

Adele spotted some goats high up on the opposite wall and we watched their spectacular climbing ability through binoculars.

We beat the heat and the people as we only saw others as we were coming out.

Just as we were about to climb out of the canyon, a Mexican gentleman on horseback with 2 dogs, who obviously just crossed the river stopped us. He asked if we wanted to buy souvenirs we were looking at.

We declined. He then asked if we wanted to buy tamales, sopapillas, or empanadas that his wife had made that morning. He had them in bags draped over his saddlehorn. Not only were the tamales still hot, but I said to Adele, “I’ll bet the chicken was still walking around the night before.”

We got the tamales (chicken) and empanadas, which were sweet, with sugar and caramel inside. A fantastic happenstance since we had skipped breakfast.