Boquillas del Carmen

When I was a kid, I found myself on a family vacation in Big Bend National Park, which is in southwest Texas and runs right up to the Mexico border. This was back in the days when border crossing was more common and less restrictive. My dad decided that since we were so close to Mexico that we should visit Boquillas del Carmen, a little village just across the Rio Grande River. We hired a guy to drag us across the river in his boat…yes, he simply walked across the river. The Rio Grande River was not the deterrent and safety wall that some people thought it was.

After a twelve-second burro ride up the hill (which we also paid for), we found ourselves in the village of Boquillas del Carmen. Needless to say, it left a lot to be desired. The entire village consisted of three buildings: two saloons and a restaurant. We paid a guy to “show us the town,” and we were led on a tour of the aforementioned three buildings, the village Coke machine, the village water well, and the pig sty located right next to the village water well. (This was the main reason we opted for a Coke out of the machine rather than the offered glass of water.)

At the time, Boquillas del Carmen had one pig living in the village pig sty, and that pig only had three legs. When we asked the guide about this, he smiled his crooked, yellow smile and said, “We’re eating ‘im one leg at a time.”