‘No wall’ pleas near remote crossing
BOQUILLAS DEL CARMEN, Mexico — At this remote border crossing in Big Bend National Park, the loudest sound is the babbling Rio Grande. Amid lush green stands of cane a ferryman waits to row tourists across the river in a battered metal dinghy.
The U.S. government closed Las Boquillas — “little mouths” in Spanish — border station after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It reopened in 2013 with two automated kiosks and a lone U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. No wall was ever built.
The crossing has become popular with U.S. tourists who want to visit the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen. From the border station, a dirt path leads through a patch of cottonwood trees to the sandy riverbank.
In the shadow of the Sierra del Carmen mountains, Melissa Epperson picked her way toward the rowboat last week with her husband, Hal, a county judge back in Kissimmee, Fla. It was their first trip to the park for the couple, both in their early 50s.
She was nervous crossing.
“It’s the said. about unknown,” she
But
“I’ve never been to Mexico, so this was my chance,” he said as they prepared to board.
A younger couple followed them to the boat, toting cameras.
The ferryman, Carmelo Sandoval, who wore cowboy boots and a silver cross, ushered the group aboard. It took him just a few minutes to row across the green, swirling river.
Sandoval, 40, has been working the crossing for five he was grinning, excited. years, and said business has been good: 300 people crossed daily during Thanksgiving, and he expected at least 200 a day during the winter holidays.
Although some visitors worried about security — border agents have caught drug smugglers in the vicinity, and a Border Patrol agent was killed last month about 200 miles north off Interstate 10 in an attack the FBI is still investigating — Sandoval said things have been peaceful lately.
He pointed at the thick brush on the U.S. side and described the limits of the security measures: “Nothing more than cameras.”
On the Mexican side, Sandoval helped the couples off of his boat and up a dusty hill where a dozen men huddled around the remains of a mesquite fire. Some had migrated from as far south as the Guatemalan border to work the crossing, hoping for tips. They hawked $5 rides into town by truck or burro.
Most tourists prefer to walk — it’s only a mile — to sample enchiladas at Falcons, and tequila and Carta Blanca beer at the Park Bar. None of that is legal to bring back to the U.S.
Instead, they haul home handmade souvenirs, wireand-bead sculptures of roadrunners and creosote bushes.
These days, locals are also selling T-shirts and handkerchiefs embroidered with a message in English protesting President Donald Trump’s vows to improve security with a massive construction project: “No wall.”
Some visitors said there was already too much security.
Paul Dryer, a financial planner who lives near Dallas, first traveled south to the “cowboy town” of Boquillas del Carmen in 1974. Back then, there was no Border Patrol checkpoint. He and his friends used to hike or swim across the river to strum guitars at the Park Bar.
On this visit, Dryer and his family checked in with the agent at the gate, then took turns scanning their passports at one of the kiosks, an agent working remotely from El Paso — 275 miles west — giving them final clearance.
“The vibe is not the same,” Dryer said ruefully. “The town’s not the same: Not as laid back, a lot more souvenirs for sale. You see all those guys with the burros? They’re just waiting. When you see that many guys waiting for $5, they’re hurting.”
Dryer, 62, was at the crossing a couple of days after the Sept. 11 attacks when it closed and the region fell quiet.
He remembered how the town was cut off afterward, when churches sent food and other relief. Tourism plummeted. Even regulars like Dryer stopped going. This was his first visit in 16 years. His group bought an orange “No wall” T-shirt and one of the embroidered handkerchiefs.
“If there was a wall between it and the U.S., that town would die,” he said.