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July 2000

Chihuahua and Sonora

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 19:13:53

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half an hour and at one time there may have been three or four at once. The upper picture was supposed to be one of them, though taken through a car window at 110 KPH it ended up just being a picture of a storm and some desert. The lower one is a contrast-enhanced close-up which still takes a little imagination. Shortly after this picture was taken we were stopped for a 'random' drug search which involved standing on the side of the road while a Mexican soldier with an automatic weapon opens all the doors on your car, closes all the doors on the car, and then lets you go. We don't know what sort of drug they expect to find that way but they're more than welcome to do it as long as they have automatic weapons.

We were in Mexico to visit the Paquime indian ruins at Casas Grandes which look like this (3). Really they are quite stunning, but first, to our ultimate dismay we stopped for lunch. The clock in the car read 2:30 in the afternoon. We stopped in the new town nearby appropriately named Nuevo Casas Grandes. Here we found an absolutely excellent taco stand where for practically no real money you can eat your fill of carne asada tacos and a variety of toppings. Really that has to be the essence of Mexico right there. This was the highlight of our day in Mexico in fact.

Another picture of the Paquime site (4). Really quite awesome looking isn't it? The indians who lived here had clever T-shaped doors which prevented attackers from entering with a weapon. How? We don't know, this is as close as we got (with zoom lens) because the site was closed when we arrived. We chalked this up the whimsical nature of the caretakers and headed back disgruntled and disappointed. But on closer inspection, somewhere in the middle of the desert we realized the error of our ways -- it was actually our fault. Yes, Arizona is in Mountain Standard Time - all year long. Which means that in July, when most of the country is in Daylight Time, Arizona effectively shifts into Pacific Time. Crossing into Mexico put us back into true Mountain Daylight Time. But then in a freak of cartography we crossed into Central Daylight time in Chihuahua thus losing two hours (and the chance to visit the ruins). Alas. Well, tune in to some future trip story where we visit Casas Grandes while it is open.

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