3-4-05

I got up early again from a nice quiet camp spot. It was next to a dam and I was well hidden behind some small trees. The nearest town was Contepec which is somewhere near Acambaro. I was really lost this morning and just headed on roads that looked like they might head north.

 The dogs knew I was there and came to investigate but left me alone. It was after first light but before sunrise when I had a guy come by my camp with two burros and a horse on his way to water them from the lake. You can see by this photo the lake is way down by maybe fifteen feet. There were a couple of fishermen out early with row boats which was a nice change from all  the power fishing boats I have seen.

Not far down the road I came across some irrigation water that the farmer was pumping to the road and letting it run across. he caught the water on the other side and diverted it to his field of plowed ground. I saw this in many places where they were pre irrigating the ground.

this was a little further down the road and I thought of Roger and the T&Y aqueduct system.

These things actually work but do leak here and there.

The road kept going down lower and I could see the brown thick layer of smog and smoke at the lower elevations. I figure that it was coming from Mexico City as well as all the other big towns around. I just made up my mind to blow through this mess and  get up north where it hopefully will be better air and less people.
 I got into an area  where the fences are made of rock. These fences go for miles and miles as well as surrounding small fields. They work too, as I saw many small fields with sheep, cattle and horses. When you figure that each rock had to be carried out of the field and placed in the fence, that is a lot of effort. The walls probably gained height in time. some of the walls are only one rock wide but some are at least two feet thick and surface stacked both sides as well. I saw one wall that must have been six or seven feet high, surfaced both sides and topped concrete cap with broken glass. That fence followed the road for at least a mile and then turned inland and went out of sight. They do nice rock work, they have had lots of experience.

In this bottom photo you can see a guy grazing the side of the road with three cows and a couple of horses. This became common as I came down off the high country.  There are still tethered livestock but quite a bit of shepherding going on. I didn’t see any with dogs which surprises me but often there would be an older person and a small kid. I guess the kid acts like a dog. Often there was only an old man with a stick keeping everybody in line.

This is obviously thourgh the window. There were maybe fifty people walking down the highway with cops stopping traffic and then letting you go by. At first I thought it was a demonstration but you might be able to see they were following a stature of ?? Our Lady of Guadalupe??? Later on in the day I was driving down a good highway when someone flashed his lights at me. this is a signal in Mexico that something dangerous is ahead. Sure enough going at a wald was a van with a guy walking in front dragging an elaborately carved and painted cross. This guy was a long way from anywhere and I have no idea what it was all about. Could it be something to do with Easter? I am not sure just when that is, so maybe?

there was an old church along the road at a very small town. I could pull off and walked back to look at it. In this part of Mexico things are very old. Maybe four hundred years for some of these churches. This one wasn’t big but it had some really nice rock  work on it.

I went around to the front and looked inside. There was a lady sitting near the front so I didn’t go in. I find that when I look in these churches there are usually a few old ladies sitting in there. They all seem to have a shawl wrapped around them and over their heads. I don’t think I have seen a young person in one of the churches other than a Sunday school class that a woman was teaching in one.
I was in one of the old churches a while back and happened to see the little closet thing that people go to tell the priest their sins. There is a little step outside I guess you kneel on when you tell him. The little step was worn down so smooth, I thought, “that is a lot of sin”.

This isn’t the same church, if it is a church. I saw this not too far off the road somewhere around Zacatecas.  The sign said it was La Parada and it turned out to be a very small town with this building somewhat abandoned. There was a guy that had taken it over and was using it for his house, barn, and stables. I think It might have been a prison as well as a church but I am just guessing at that. This part looked like a prison.

The upper windows were barred as were most of the doors. I looked in and someone was storing ear corn, corn stocks, wood and I don’t know what all as it was dark in there.

I could see some goats and a burro down in there.

This is an  interesting standing arch. No roof left on this one.

A door that has been rocked up as I think it was a livestock holding pen. Notice how the  lentil stone is just long enough for the doorway.

This is the front/back gate, I don’t know which. You can see the gun slits in the tower protecting the gate. The walls on some of the structure were four feet thick and must have taken a bunch of laborers a long time  to build. After I realized that it was somebodys house/farm/barn I left but the feeling of the massive buildings was very strong. Maybe I can find out more about it someday. The little town along the edge of it had some neat cactus fences.

I had no idea how big Zacatecas was going to be. It is right next to Guadalupe and I don’t think there is any space between them. I was lucky as I was in a gas station looking at the map on the wall and then walking over and looking at my map. They didn’t match up with each other. Jeez, they gotta get their maps together down here. A guy came up to me and  asked if I was lost. ‘how could you tell?” It turns out he is from Huston and tried to get me lined out on how to get around the place with out going right through it. He couldn’t believe I was down here and  couldn’t speak the language. He was a Mexican American and had been down visiting relatives. With his help I made a great end run around the town and only got near the suburbs.

It is the old track house trick over and over again. This bunch happened to be painted all the same color but some cant stand being the same  and paint their wall a different color.

This  is another tract housing project.  You can see that everyone has their own water tank on the roof. This is common everywhere in Mexico. I still haven’t figured out how it works. One person thought the water was on only a certain time and when it was you filled your tank and had gravity water the rest of the time. Maybe. They sure do sell a lot of these tanks.

The  country finally open up and is getting more like a desert which I like. there isn’t much shade around and I have to be diligent to find some for my afternoon nap. All along the highway are people standing or sitting in the shade of a tree, cactus or some shelter waiting for a bus. The bus system is fantastic down here. every road I have been on so far in Mexico has had a bus on it. Even those little shitty roads on Baja had bus service of some sort. It may have  only been a van but you could get there and back. when I left Miles City the Greyhound had just canceled service across the state. First they took the train away and now the bus system. We in the US are going to be really screwed when/if we cant afford to drive our gas hogs anymore. One thing I see a lot down here is the use of bicycles. I went by one company that had a parking lot and I found it interesting that the bicycle parking lot was bigger than the car lot. I see some motorcycles but mostly I am seeing scooters. They sell for a little over a thousand pesos in their walmart type stores.

There are lots of  babies down here. almost all the young women have a baby as well as a few little ones with them. I was passing through one town and noticed a gal that  was  selling gum at the stop light. She had a shawl  over her back with something in it. I finally figured out that it was a baby. It looked exactly like that photo of the snake that had swallowed a little kid. There are a lot of people down here and I haven’t even been near Mexico city.

Tonight I am camped at a gas station again. In the interior of Mexico it is really hard to find a camping spot. I haven’t  even seen a campground since I have been inland. I guess all the campers go to the coast. I am not too far from Fresnillo and  am on my way to Durango. It is going to be another noisy truck night but I have found a spot behind a Joshua tree that feels good. I haven’t seen many hotels either. I have no idea where regular people stay as they travel Mexico. Oh, by the way I got the information that those hide away motels that you pay by the hour, that I thought were for cheating people, are often used by young people that live at home and have no place to take their girl friend to be alone. That makes sense, I like it. Since the drive in movies are long gone, maybe we should do the same in the US.

One last photo of the old church/prison. This is the hole that the runoff from the roof comes out. A very nice down spout.