End of a Continent

Wednesday, October 26:

By far, Durango is the nicest city I have been in this trip. I got to do more walking around the second day. I walked pretty much every direction in the Centro until I would leave the old colonial buildings, and then walk a block or two over, and then walk back. Even then, I walked a long way on what appeared to be the main drag downtown. I need to walk when I am off the motorcycle, because riding it doesn't provide much exercise.

Just wandering around, I came across some interesting things. A cool pedestrian mall, a museum all about Pancho Villa.

I was walking by this old colonial building that took up an entire block. The front had a covered walkway the entire length where pedestrians were to walk. Then the next building would be the same. We saw blocks and blocks of these in Torino, Italy. And here, it reminded of that. Very European.

The door was open and I saw a beautiful 3D mural on the wall, and I had to get a photo of it. It was some sort of a government building.

The next building was the museum about Poncho Villa. Of course, he is presented in a much different light than in the USA. Unfortunately, it was all in Spanish, so I could only follow a small part of it.

I was walking down the main street when a young, indigenous man and his wife and baby stopped me for directions, in Spanish obviously, which I barely understand. He was wearing what appeared to be a very, bright red satin shirt, with white pants and a sombrero. I haven't seen the traditional sombreros here before. The cowboy hat has virtually replaced it. His young wife was wearing a traditionaI dress and shawl, with which she had the child partially wrapped in.

Anyway, this wide-eyed family certainly stuck out from even the many campesinos who come to town. He was more than likely in the big city for the first time, or at least with his wife. He handed me a piece of paper that had obviously been written for him with the name of a place that he needed to go. I could only understand the name of the street, but not the rest of the note. I told him lo siento, no estoy de aqui. Sorry, I'm not from here. As they walked away trying to find wherever they were going, I wondered where and how far had they come. And how had they got here? And it dawned on me that these indios were more out of their element than I was. Because really, other than the language barrier, which hasn't stopped me from obtaining everything I have needed, everything is something I am used to. Stoplights, street signs, McDonald's, even Sears. What sensory overloads were they experiencing?

While looking at the photos I have taken, all with my phone, by the way, it got me thinking that I wished I had brought a camera with a zoom lens. Not a big DSLR, but maybe a point and shoot with about an 8x zoom lens or better. Those photos from the other day on the Devil's Backbone would have been much better with a zoom lens.

So while walking, I kept an eye out for cameras. I walked past a cell phone repair store, open and busy at 8PM. In a display case, there were a couple of used cameras. I was trying to formulate enough Spanish words for them to open the case and let me examine them. Another customer, realizing my difficulty, speaks to me in perfect English, asking what I wanted and relaying the information to them.

Armando is a young man who was born in Mexico, but has lived in Chicago, London, and been all over Europe and South America. It is little surprises like this that makes this trip fun. I know he will be following along. Hey Armando, it was nice meeting you. I'm still debating on the camera. It's not so much the cost, but how much can I carry?