Introduction by John Rich:

Richard Morin is a Canadian who loves to travel to Texas every chance he gets and canoe our magnificent southwest Texas desert rivers.  He often accompanies Houston Canoe Club members on their expedition trips to the Rio Grande River in Big Bend National Park, and the Pecos River.  Here is his report on a recent trip he made to the Lower Canyons section of the Rio Grande, which is considered to be the most remote and lightly visited stretch of river in all of America.  Richard is quite a character, and that includes, as you'll see, spelling words with the letter "K" whereever possible.  And since it is illegal to set foot on Mexican soil and return to America without coming through an official port of entry, Richard has a well-trained pet lizard named Larry who he sets loose to take photos on the south side of the river.  Enjoy his tale and wonderful photos.  Larry the lizard's photos are a special treat, as most of us don't get to see those sights on the Mexican side.

Trip Report by Ricard Morin:

Lower Kanyons Trip Report
or how Larry the lizard sweet-talked the Mexican drug smugglers

Got your attention eh!

Well here it is:

I put in late March for a 10 day run on the LK's (Lower Canyons).  I always wanted to do it at a leisurely pace and see the stuff I never have time to and this was it.  I invited Larry (my lizard) along to take pictures for me in Mexico as well as help with the paddling.  For a little squirt he's a hella of a strong paddler. 

At the last minute he tried to get out of the trip saying he wanted to watch a few Dallas re-runs.  DALLAS RE-Runs, you gotta be kidding!  However instead of freaking out, I conned him by telling him he would be missing dragonfly season in TeKas.  Larry loves dragon flies, almost as much as beef (but that's another story).  So with Larry in the bow off we went.

The trip started with a 2-hr downpour of rain (1.25 inches: more than the last 6 months in the LK's).  It made for a very agreeable run with just enuff water.

Everything went fine till we turned a bend in the river just ahead of Asa Jones' pumphouse; when we came across easily 60 Mexican nationals crossing back into Mexico with lite packsacks.  It was pretty obvious what was going down.  As we approached very close to them, what seemed to be el Jeffe (THE BIGGA BOSS) came over to check out the Kanuck with a lizard in the bow. 

As soon as he got close Larry started blabbering away like a raving idiot in his lousy Spanish.  Bounas Dias amigo!!!  Georges Bush es Loco; Mexhicup fantastique.  Tequilla fantastique; Boubon crappo.  Tortillas excellento- pan shitto.  Friollas greato -hambougesa no goodo.  Finally el jeffe says to Larry: SILENCIO!  Then he looked over at me and in perfect English and says: How the heck did you teach this lizard to speak English?  I can only get mine to speak Spanish.  Needless to say el jeffe and myself are now friends for life.

So on to hotsprings for a layover day.  Hotsprings was a garbage dump from Mexican border crossers leaving can after can all over the place.  At first I was upset at them till I realized getting over the border and feeding their families is far more important to them than littering a few cans.  So instead of bitching about it I picked them all up and put them in 2 garbage bags that I carry for exactly this reason.  One thing I couldn't get rid of was a dead cow rite there in the middle of the place.  I noticed that strangely enuff the animal had fresh exposed bite like marks all over its body.  So I tied a rope around its hoof and tried to drag it into the river.  No dice too heavy.  So I go back to the boat to have Larry help me out.  And there he was puking his guts out.  Sure enuff the bite marks were his.  Lizard fool.

The next day we definitely had to do a layover as my lizard fool was in a bad state.  I needed him in good enuff shape to visit the pueblo of Aqua Verde just across from John's Marina (Dryden crossing).  Two days later Larry was up to it and he photographed AV.  He tells me there are 3 structures in AV:

- a school or community center
- an important persons residence
- and the other a possible church

Strangely enuff he didn't find a cemetery and the airport was overgrown with shrubs.  There was very little sign of people (even border crossers).  Inside the Community Center there were however some fabulous murals which Larry aptly photographed.

Please enjoy them as much as I did.

Adios,
Richard Morin
Montreal Kanada

Richard and Larry's album of 133 photos can be viewed here: Picasa slideshow

If the automatic scolling goes too fast, you can click the pause button (vertical parallel bars), and then click the arrows to scroll manually.

The author, Richard Morin