Day 2- Cherith writing...

The quick version:

Yesterday, we left our Air BnB in good time, grabbed a bus and headed for Cuauhtemoc. There we met Kendall and April Peachey at Tacos y Salsas for lunch. After lunch, we went to Lorena’s and visited and sang. Well, mostly we kids just listened to them visit. No hablo espanol! Mom, April, and the kids went to some tall slides and had fun with a bunch of wax paper. Dad had a dentist appointment to get a crown on his tooth and Kendall went with him. Joel, Andrew, and I walked around town, bought a charger, and stopped in different shops. On our way back through, we will have to stop and get Andrew a pair of Mexican cowboy boots. There’s not enough room in our backpacks to carry them for the next week and a half! We took Kendall’s suburban and drove to Carlos and Ofelia’s house for supper and the night. We had a huge supper. Pork stew, tortillas, frijoles, fruit, salad, and brownies for dessert.

The country.

Words seem rather small to try to describe this country. Mountains, all these sandy craggy, mountains, with shrubby sagebrush and hard pine trees dotting them. It’s a very dry time of the year, but to me, I love this beauty! Sandy cliffs that drop off mountains, gnarled pine trees and cacti clinging to the side. We’ve seen some birds, mostly mourning doves, and also some green birds that flew over the canyon today. Not sure what kind. Flowering trees, some kind of red spiky flower? And purple flowers.

We drove along in our Suburban on the way to Carlos’s house, topping a small rise, and there it was! The little ranch town of Tacuba nestled down in a valley. We drove down a bumpy dirt road, turned down another dirt lane and there was the iron gate to Carlos’s! Carlos opened the gate, we drove in, and greetings and hugs were exchanged all around. It didn’t take Nicholas five minutes to find the top of the pile of hay bales. After supper, Joel and I climbed to the top of the hill behind the house and sat and watched the sun set. There are no words. The mountains distantly surround the whole tiny town of Tacuba. The completely cloudless, deepening blue sky, the lights coming on in the little ranch houses in the town… The sun set, we walked down the hill again and there Erika and I found out where we were staying for the night. Carlos’s 13-year-old granddaughter, Evaline. That was quite the experience. She doesn’t know a lick of English, my Spanish is very very limited, and there is no internet for Google Translate or such like. So. We grinned at eachother and started up the hill to their house. I don’t know where her dad spent the night, it was just us girls for the night. I got into the shower, turned on the hot water, and only a trickle came out, but I thought, this should work. Well it got hotter and hotter, and there was not a drop of cold water. So just cup the nearly boiling water in my hands until its cold enough and then splash it on? I figured this was not going to work, so I wrapped in my towel and went to find Evaline. “Agua demasiado caliente!” She went to see what was up, and sure enough. No agua, maybe manana. The whole evening was made up of hand gestures, hopeless laughter, and a couple little booklets she had from school with basic English-Spanish phrases. Then she got some data on her phone and so her Google Translate was up and running. It was a good experience for us.

Anyway, this is it for me. I’m finishing up writing here in El Fuerte, watching the city nightlife happen outside the hotel patio gates. It’s been an amazing day, but I’ll let Mom tell you about the train. -Cherith