For the first time, after eight months living in New York City, Allan and I had some time (unfortunately not money, but we made it anyway) to travel within the US and enjoy our one-week spring break (March 11th - 18th). We were tired of NY: the winter, the snow, the noises, the "everything is so expensive!", the typical new yorker rush and bad mood, the subway, the dirty, etc. So Allan, who planned the whole trip, chose the completely opposite of what we were living: we will go south, he said. No more Yankees. We will go to the Southest we can. So he took me to the US and Mexico border.
This was our first time in Texas. Everything was new and different. Besides having fun and feeling the sun on my skin after so many months, this trip was also a kind of an anthropological experience. I am going to list, day by day, our itinerary and the remarks of each day. This is neither a travel guide nor an analyses of my observations. This is just a small note so I can remember things in the future when I get old. Besides, I'm writing in English which is NOT my native languages. Many mistakes, but I don't care anymore like I used to.
Day 1 - Dallas
We arrived in Dallas in the morning. We barely left the airport and we saw the cowboys and cowgirls. I loved their style of boots, hats, belt. The cowgirls have a beautiful fancy-country style. The weather was not so pleasant, but it didn't mind. We just needed to eat and sleep. So we took advantage of the tex-mex cuisine (the first tex-mex meal of the whole trip) and of silence. Yes. Absolutely no sirens, no horns, no people screaming on the street. We slept like babies.
First meal was half tex-mex half southern cuisine. Quedasilla as starter and crab cake sandwich as main. Absolutely delicious.
Day 2 - Dallas and Odessa
Now the fun began. We woke up very early because we had until noon to enjoy downtown Dallas before taking the car and going to Odessa. But, first things first. As a Brazilian, hotel breakfast in the US is a little bit frustrating. Much cereal, oatmeal, suspicious scrambled eggs, waffles, watered coffee and TOO MUCH garbage. Everything was disposable: plates, silvery, cups. I was not comfortable at all and this situation was the same in every hotel we stayed in Texas.
Breakfast hotel. WHY SO MUCH UNNECESSARY PLASTIC??
The image I had of Dallas was from the movie Dallas Buyers Club. I imagined cattle, cowboys, and rodeos. However, now I'd say Dallas is half cowboy half JFK assassination. Every where you go in Dallas is about Kennedy. There is a memorial (beautiful, btw) for the president and then we took a tram tour around Dallas downtown that followed all the steps of the ex-president murder. We started riding on the same avenue in which he was parading minutes before he was murdered, than we stopped at the spot where he got shot. On the pre-recorded narration we listened while we were riding, SHOT SHOT SHOT. It was terrifying. I was really scared. I felt I was living a true crime episode of Netflix. It is surprising the attraction for murder history and gun violence in the United States. It is morbid.
Allan in front of JFK Memorial Plaza. It is supposed to be an open tomb. It is beautiful and intense.
The exactly spot where JFK got shot.
At noon we came back to the hotel to checkout and get straight to Odessa, where we would spend a night before our main destination. It was a 7-hour drive from Dallas to Odessa. We got really tired, but this was our first road trip in the US. In a comparison with Brazil, a few observations: people here are MUCH more educated in traffic, the roads are in great condition, there are not old cars and trucks. The road culture is friendly, respectable, secure and comfortable. After we left the urban area, wind farms. Only turbines. There were so many. We spent hours driving and all we could see were turbines up to the horizon. It looked like a science fiction landscape.
Many hours driving within this landscape.
The oil refinery above and pumpjacks on the horizon.
Wind farm, oil refinery, pumpjacks: in the end it is all about natural resources, energy and consumption.
Day 3 - Odessa and Alpine
In Odessa we woke up very early (again) to go to Walmart to buy some groceries for the next part of the trip. So, this is important. Living in NYC is not living in the US. This was our first time, in seven months, at Walmart, THE great symbol of American consumption. We fueled the car, bought water, snacks and food. At noon we were checking out and, before Alpine, we stopped at The Monahans Sandhills State Park that was along the way. After some pictures, we went straight to Alpine, our main destination.
A father and his son were flying kites on the top a sandhill at The Monahans Sandhills State Park.
The landscape between Odessa-Alpine was only desert. No pumpjacks, no cities, no windfarm. It's desolating. Only the road, the desert and the sun. When we arrived in Alpine, I was exhausted and feeling nauseous because of so many hours in the car and the sun. We took a while to leave the hotel to have dinner. The city is so small, around 6000 habitants, that there were no restaurants opened after 9pm. Our only option was a bar of road bikers, called The Old Gringo that serves beer and tex-mex. There is also a stage for music presentations. We are not used to see presentations "for free" in NYC and food was half of the price of NY. We were so happy.
Day 4 - Big Bend National Park
The Big Bend National Park was our main destination in Texas. We had never been in a US national park before so I didn't know what to expect. It. Is. Amazing. Alpine was one of the closest city, however it was a one-hour driving to the park entrance and then more time driving inside the park (usually 30/45 minutes) to the places we wanted to see. It is huge and so far away. There was absolutely no internet connection. As new comers, we didn't know what to do, so we chose the first trail because it was the closest one from where we were and, according to the description, it looked nice.
Trails in Brazil are always dangerous. A guide is needed, there is no infrastructure, I always get bitten by mosquitoes, I always fall and get hurt. This time I was afraid of getting lost or being bitten by a snake. However, at the park, the trails are very well delimited. It is impossible to get lost. There are no losing rocks, so it is easier to walk and not slip and fall. It is the most democratic experience I have had in my life. There were so many families on these trails. Old people, babies, children. There were also many trails designed for people with disabilities, so everyone could be there. When I noticed how accessible the park was, I confess, I cried a little bit.
In the first trail, we walked in the desert until we reached that canyon on the horizon. The we walked a little bit inside the canyon itself. There was only the two of us, Allan and I, and we spotted an animal named Aoudad, an exotic kind of sheep. It was beautiful, very touching. The silence and the animals moving graciously.
There was a small museum telling the history of paleontological excavations within the park limits. The dinosaurs we see in Jurassic Park used to lived in this area. Before it was a desert, a long time ago in geological time, this area was the bottom of the ocean.
The second trail, we went to the top of a mountain. We could have seen bears, but there were so many people on this trail, it was noisy.
It was late in the evening when we left the park. On our way back do Alpine, we stopped in Marathon, a town of 400 habitants. We were hungry. We desperately needed to eat. The only opened restaurant was a hotel-restaurant, very fancy, named White Buffalo. People there were so fancy with their leather hats, books and wine bottles. Allan and I were smelling, dirty, but we stayed, we were very well attended and we had a wonderful meal. The women were wearing long skirts, boots, hats that had a feather as a detail, and make up. The only thing we didn't like were the cocktails. Probably we are spoiled because in Sao Paulo and NYC we have access to so many wonderful cocktails that, this time, they were awful.
In the bathroom, old pictures of cowgirls.
Day 5 - Big Bend National Park
We drove on the Scenic Drive, which is a road with many special stops where you can park and overlook beautiful landscapes. 100% accessible. That was wonderful. We also went to one of the main attractions of the park, the Santa Helena Canyon Overlook. Once again, everything incredibly beautiful. Because it's an important attraction, it was crowded. There were so many people, so many families. We could walk in the river and the water was freezing. This was the moment we saw a family in which the father was carrying a gun on his waist. Again, it is really complicated for me trying to understand this adoration for guns. I kept thinking a lot about it. We were in the park, walking on the river, only families... Would he protect his family from a fish? From a coyote? Anyway...
Overlooks 100% accessible.
The Santa Elena Canyon.
The Rio Grande, the border between Texas and Mexico.
The archeological site.
Our eagle friend.
Of course that, back to Alpine, it was late and no other restaurant was opened but The Old Gringo. Once again, The Old Gringo was saving us with tex-mex, live music and cheap beer.
Tex-mex at The Old Gringo.
Day 6 - Big Bend National Park
We wanted to go to a thermal spring in the park. However, the whole torcida do flamengo had the same idea. It was crowded, but along the way to the hot spring there were ruins of the middle of the century from a spa/hotel that they built in that area.
Then we went to see something really special for me. Since last year I have been passionately reading Lucia Berlin. She sometimes mentions the Rio Grande, the natural border between Mexico and Texas. It was very touching to see and to be so close to something that she described and talked about in her short stories. On the other side of the border, there was a pickup truck playing Mexican music - really loud.
We went back to Alpine. It was early and we could eat somewhere else then The Old Gringo. We chose another restaurant and the food was spectacular. Then we did something we hadn't had the time before: walk around and get to know the town. Years ago, the railroad used to divide the town in two: on one side the Americans lived and on the other side, the Mexicans. So, at the Mexican side we can see these adorable adobe houses - that, once again - I got to know in Lucia Berlin's short story.
More tex-mex. Yes, so much cheese was making me feel very sick.
The Old Gringo that saved us several times - with live music!
Murals are very common. Even inside the houses there were painting on the walls.
An adobe house.
Not in flood season, Rio Grande seems small and gives the false idea of a fragility natural border between countries. However, all the time we saw warnings of what we should do in case we saw something suspicious regarding illegally cross border and on our ways there were border patrol stations.
.jpg)
Border patrol station.
Day 7 - Road trip to Austin
On the seventh day, we woke up early, had breakfast and soon we took the car to a long road trip to Austin. This was the most cool road trip ever. Unlike the landscapes with pumpjacks, refineries and windfarms from Dallas to Odessa, this time the landscape was wilder. Only desert and mountains. There were few stops on the road and from one little town to another we had to drive a lot. So we had a little bit of trouble for bathroom and food.
The only thing very sad was the dead animals on the road. On the whole trip we saw many coyotes, birds and boars that were hit by cars and died. But at this time there were more of them and many deers also. It is really sad and even sadder that you get used to it while driving. I could only remember the book from the Brazilian author, Ana Paula Maia, Enterre seus mortos.
Our first stop was to have lunch and fuel the car. It was a small town and in front of the gas station there was this cute and colorful restaurant. Inside, everybody spoke Spanish and there were 3 sheriffs having lunch. It looked like a movie scene. (I miss all these colors in Texas. NYC is such a grey city).
This was our last tex-mex meal. Delicious, but my body could not stand any more cheese.
The whole trip had a country type of landscape. We saw many ranches and farms, specially pecan farms. Closer to Austin, we passed through Fredericksburg, a town founded and occupied by German settlers. There were many peach farms and wineries. It was so curious, because I didn't know that Texas produced wine. I wanted so much to spend at least one night in this area. It is curious to think about this European settlers in Texas. We see hispanos, cowboys, black people... German descendants were a surprise for me.
We arrived late in Austin. Just the time to checkin and have a quick dinner. We discovered that there was a festival happening at the same time. I looked on the internet and it is a famous and enormous festival for "creative people". I still don't know exactly what it means. Anyway, streets were closed, chaotic traffic, many strange people wearing stranger outfits. We didn't fit in. So after bath and dinner, we called it a day.
Day 8 - Austin
We walked from the hotel to the Capitol and then to The Bullock Texas State History Museum. After one week traveling through Texas, we went to see their history (ironies of life). Many surprises: we didn't know that for a short period Texas was a nation! Yes. A totally independent country. We also didn't know that during the Civil War, Texas was fighting among the Confederacy States and they are very - VERY - proud of their history.
We also learned why the symbol of the state is a star. It is related to the masons. However, curious thing: if you paint it in red, it will be exactly like the start at The Museum of Communism in Prague.
The star in front of The Bullock State Museum of Texas.
The star at The Museum of Communism in Prague. July 2019.
After lunch, Allan searched on internet one last experience we wanted to have in Texas: a rodeo. He bought the tickets and we went to the outskirts of Austin (around 40 minutes driving) where there was an arena. We had never been in a rodeo before, even in Brazil. Around the arena there was an amusement park, but we arrived late and we went straight to the arena. So many hispano hablantes. So many Mexicans. That place was not touristic, so many people there were low income and they go with families. Many children dressed up like cowboys. Really cute.
The rodeo presentations were nice. I was afraid I was gonna feel sad or bad, but it was more like a party. Besides, I was happy for being in a place more authentic. I hated the festival atmosphere that was happening in Austin. After the rodeo presentations, there was a concert - I suppose Taylor Swift and other country artists started their careers singing and playing in rodeos like this? I don't know.
We saw a little bit of the concert and then we went to the amusement park. There were so many teenagers, families speaking in Spanish and Allan and I speaking in Portuguese. hahahaha Soooooo cool! It was crowded, so we couldn't go to many attractions, but we went to the roller coaster and the ferris wheel. We ate popcorn, candy apple and pizza. Like the movies.
While we were waiting to park at the rodeo arena, this man was greeting the ones in the line.
The ferris wheel.
One presentation at the rodeo. A family of three (father, son and mother) had each one a horse and they performed a beautiful presentation. They were wearing Mexican outfits.
In how many United States have I been in this 8-day trip? How many Texas have I seen? So plural. So many new things each day. I am thankful Allan took me to take this trip. Hope there will be others in the future.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário