Trip to Palmillas
Part l
For some time now we have been gathering clothing, both used and new, cash donations and toys for a remote community located high in the mountains of eastern Nayarit. We have many generous donors and we give thanks to them.
We were first made aware of the needs of this community by Brenda, the daughter of my friend and traveling companion, Vicky Flores, who is also a nurse of some 20 years with a local social security hospital. Brenda teaches school at this community. The name of the community is Palmillas. I don't know why because there is not a palm tree in sight. It is a community of about 15 families and a population of about 100. There is no electricity (save a couple of small solar panels. One of which powers a radio transmitter and receiver ). The water supply is limited. Only a small spring which, during the dry season, does not even allow daily bathing. The community was originally Mexicanero Indians, but through intermarriage, etc., now consists of Huicholes and Mexicans. It is also an Ejido and virtually self governing because it is so remote. There is little government influence here. Corn is the mainstay and they also raise other seasonal crops, such as beans and squash. They have cattle, pigs, chickens and of course their beasts of burden - burros and mules. Virtually all of the food they raise is home consumed.
Vicky has made two attempts to deliver things by jeep in the past, but has been frustrated by not being able to cross the river. A very rough, rocky and narrow road goes to the village, but crossing the river is a problem. The flow is controlled by a damn far up the river and is unpredictable. We are prepared to wait for a drop in the level and then try and make it across, no matter what the hour. The brief plan is to go by good road through Ixtlan del Rio, continue on to San Antonio, and leave the then take a secondary dirt road, which goes through Mezquites and then becomes a rough narrow mountain road to the river Santiago. There is a small settlement at the edge of the river called La Playa. It consists of a couple of families on either side of the river and a CFE (federal electric) station that measures the river and a few other things and consisting of one man and his family. We must cross the river when it is shallow enough to permit, then climb up the road to the settlement of Palmillas.
Finally the day has arrived when all is in order to try and make delivery. Our friend and fellow adventurer, Lee Hunt, will join us on this expedition. We decide to go in only one vehicle (normally we go in two in case of problems). This later proved to be a mistake. We decide to go in Lee's vehicle because it has more room than our jeep and it also can be locked. We load up with our food and water, and all the things for delivery to Palmillas. We are completely packed. There is hardly enough room for Vicky and I. Here is our travel log.
It is 8:30 a.m on May the 3rd and we are a few miles out of Las Varas on a mission of help with lots of food and clothing. Our vehicle is a 4 wd Ram Charger belonging to Lee Hunt, who is also our driver. Passengers are myself and Vicky. I hold the small voice recorder and tell Vicky to say something to the folks out there. She answers “Hola, I hope we come back from this trip”. I laugh now, but later it is not so much of a joke. We are hoping to be at the river at about 2:30 this afternoon.
We pass through the mountains and reach the casa de cobre (toll booth) on the by pass around Compostela, and on the road to Guadalajara at 8:44. Toll is 27 pesos. We pass through Ahuacatlan at 9:28 and arrive at Ixtlan del Rio at 9:4l. We are all thinking of having a last good meal. We remember a great place to eat, which is just a little way off of the main drag. The name is Loncheria Veracruz. It is located in a very old building and near the intersection of Ave. Hidalgo and Veracruz , has a great menu and the prices are reasonable. I choose one of my favorites – torta de pierna – pork cooked in spicy juices and served in a bolillo (bun). This with an agua fresa (like a strawberry milkshake), and we are ready for the road.
We fuel up at the local PEMEX and continue in the direction of Guadalajara. We leave the highway shortly after La Curva and pass through the settlement of San Antonio. (this little place is hard to find and not on very many maps). It is 11:06. The road is graveled and a bit bumpy with lots of arroyos (dips and stream beds). There are a lot of scrub trees and it looks a bit dry. Now the terrain is getting rugged. We seem to be following a little ridge line. It is 11:35 and we enter the little pueblo of Cacalutan.. We see a medical facility. There is a man on a burro. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned. A neat little village. It appears to be fairly large for this remote area, maybe a hundred houses or more. I just don't understand how this many people can make a living here. There is a little grocery store across from the Plaza. We stop, get out and stretch our legs and make small talk with the locals about river conditions. We get mixed stories, so we won't really know until we get there. We pick up some ice for Lee's cooler and off we go again. As we leave the village we see a lot of greenery, mango trees, bananas, live stock, pigs - there is a little creek down below. I guess the little village really has quite a bit going for it. If you wanted to get away from it all, write a book, hide from society or the IRS, this is the place.
Now we are descending on a rough gravel road. There are a lot of plum trees, but they aren't like any that I have ever seen. There is not a leaf on the trees. Vicky says they are almost ready to eat! We pass a rancho with a brick wall around it. Then we enter kind of a valley. Lots of desert type trees but not a very hospitable place. We are seeing lots of big rocks and the road is more gravel than dirt. Now we pass an old adobe ruin and then the little village of Los Sauces. Just a settlement really, no central plaza or anything like that. A few mules, some burros, a couple of horses. Now we see a couple of pickups of Policia. They stop us and ask what we are doing up here and, after Vicky explains our mission, they wave us on. Who knows what they might be looking for. Now we see a village off in the distance. This has to be Los Mezquites and the end of the good road (so the map says – you mean it could get worse!). We pass a rock corral and are seeing more trees. Definitely desert type trees, but they are trees.
We are now entering the poblado of Los Mesquites. There is a school on the right, a kind of a canyon with a cobblestoned road, a house with a large antennae, so I guess they have radio communication with the outside world. There is a little tienda (store). Again, another quaint little village. Narrow cobblestone streets, adobe houses, some crumbling with age. This has to be a very old place. The streets are paved with stones, they are steep and rough; hillsides all of the way. We decide not to stop and we continue on our way. It is 12:29 as we a leave beautiful down town Los Mesquites.
The road continues much as before, a bunch of cattle nearly block the way and we pass a group of Mexicanero Indians on their ponies. This is really rugged country and the road is very poor and narrow. If we meet another vehicle here we will have a little problem. The drop off is immediate and a long way to the bottom . If we do go over I guess we could light up a last cigarette before hitting bottom. We start down and the canyon is so steep that we can't even see the river, which we know is just below. The road is so steep that I know if it was in the rainy season there is no way we could stop. We would just keep going off into the blue. Finally we see the river and reach the valley floor. There is a very small settlement on this side of the river. A few buildings and where lives one family of Huichol Indians.
Arriving at the river itself, we see a few buildings on the other side and one pickup truck. (We later learn that this truck tried to cross last February, couldn't make it and was abandoned in the water for some time before it was pulled out. The owner has never returned). This place is named La Playa. There is a rope strung across and a small boat tethered to it on the other side. The river looks deep and the current is strong. We won`t be crossing here, that;s for sure. No one is in sight. The whole river bed is covered with small boulders, which extend for a long distance away from the water. This is not going to be easy. We walk down stream and see a couple of pickups parked under palapas. Obviously the owners prefer to leave them on this side because they don't want to risk a crossing. This doesn't seem too promising and I suddenly have a feeling of insecurity. We see that the stream widens here and is somewhat more shallow, but still deep. The vehicle track ends at the waterline. Is this where we cross?
Trip to Palmillas
Part 2
Note – since my computer crash, I have not been able to locate all punctuations on my Spanish keyboard.
As we left part one, we - Lee Hunt, Vicky and myself in Lees vehicle with clothing and food for the settlement of Palmillas – had arrived at the edge of Rio Santiago, and at the settlement of La Playa.. We were all staring, dubiously, at a fast flowing river which was deeper than we had hoped. Now what?
We had not seen a soul on the other side, although there were a few houses. We walked back to our vehicle, took a few things out and sat back and relaxed under the shade of a large tree. All of us sure that something would happen. After sometime, we realized that if we didn't make it happen, it wouldn't . The wind had started to blow very hard through the canyon, and we knew sound wouldn't carry very far. It was also getting very hot. I thought that at this altitude it would be cool. Nevertheless, Lee drove the Dodge down closer to the water and started honking the horn. Finally, in between gusts of wind, the sound must have carried and a man appeared on the other side. With shouts and gestures we made it understood that we wanted to cross. He untied his boat and, using a line which was strung across the river, pulled the craft to our side.
After much discussion, we were given to understand that the river level usually drops sometime during the night. With this assurance, we all boarded the boat and went to the other side. Some distance from where the boat was beached there was a small settlement and a couple of families. They again assured us that the level would probably drop enough for us to cross in our vehicle.
We also learn that Vickys daughter is in a neighboring community called Aguacate for a few days and in a meeting with other teachers. They tell us that they normally have radio communication with the other communities at 6 p.m. and they will try and get a message to her that we are on the way.
Since it is early and we have a long wait, we decide to explore. We see an old ruin above the settlement, so we start climbing. A number of old rock walls, a lot of concrete and the remains of a couple of diesel engines. It is very steep and very hot. We finally reach the top and Vicky is feeling a little dizzy. We discover a road on the far side and follow it back . It leads back to the settlement. The locals tell us that this was once an old mining operation.
After further discussion it is agreed that we will recross the river and kickback until the river drops. We make arrangements for the boatman to let us know when the river reaches a safe crossing level and we move our vehicle and camp down to the waters edge, where we will cross.
Meanwhile, we learn that the radio in Palmillas is not answering, so advance communication is out. We also note that the river level is actually falling, although very slow. It is now 7.54 pm., we have moved , the sun is falling over the mountain, the wind has died down, and Vicky has turned fire bug and we have a cozy camp. We are a little more comfortable, but will be more so when we are safely on the other side. It seems as though we had just dozed off, but actually, about 10 p.m., or so, Antonio, the boatman woke us and said the river was o.k. to cross. We hurriedly pack up everything – we had put enough things on the ground so that Vicky and I could crawl in our sleeping bags in the back of our vehicle. Lee was sleeping in the back of one of the parked trucks. Someone said that there were a lot of scorpions in the area, and who knows what other crawling creatures.
After loading up, we decide to let Antonio drive. A very narrow pathway of rock and sand bags has been built up under water. If we follow exactly, we will not fall off into holes. Better to have a guide. It is pitch dark. The headlights show only dark, rapidly flowing water. We start off. The vehicle enters the water. The current is rushing against the side. It is getting deeper. Surely the water must start to enter the truck. How can Antonio know where we are. I cant see anything but the water. The truck keeps going. I just know that we will fall into a hole. What about all of those clothes and the food, floating down the river. The vehicle keeps going. Finally we see the other bank. The Dodge starts to climb out. We have made it. We are safe. Thank you god.
Antonio directs us to the right road. We thank and pay him for his services and we are on our way to PALMILLAS. I thought the excitement of the evening was over, but little did I know that it was just beginning. The road is very rocky, it is steep beyond belief. There is no shoulder and there is just barely room for our vehicle. If the driver miscalculates by just a little bit here with this dropoff, it will be all over. The curves are more than hairpin type curves, we can just barely turn and the driver must maintain speed or we will lose traction and start sliding back. I have no idea of how far we would fall if we went off of the edge. As we go upward we enter a false road on a curve. The driver must stop quickly. This goes nowhere, or worse, over the side. With great care, I get out of the vehicle. There is barely room to step. The night is dark and I cant distinguish the ground from thin air. Lee backs carefully with me guiding. We are ready to make another run on the right road. I reboard, we start off. The Dodge is begging for traction, we start to slide back downhill, finally the tires take hold and we slowly start forward and reach climbing speed. We repeat this more than once. It seems like a marathon. Lee is exhausted. He has been driving all day and this continues almost beyond endurance. It seems that we just go on and on. Lee senses a problem with the truck and we stop. The left front tire is flat. We are on a steep dangerous road. It is the middle of the night. Where are we? We are all standing outside the vehicle when all of a sudden we hear…..
End of part 2
Trip to Palmillas
Part 3
Well, as you know, as we left part 2, Vicky, myself and our friend and driver, Lee Hunt, were bound for the small settlement of Palmillas, high up in the mountains above Ixtlan del Rio. We had managed to crosss the river Santiago a couple of hours earlier and were negotiating a really wild road up the mountainside. As if this were not enough, we had a blow out.
Earlier we were told that this would be about a one hour trip. We had not seen any side roads and it was going on two hours and we are wondering where we were. It was pitch dark, nothing was in sight and we actually thought we were lost in very inhospitable territory. We got outside the vehicle, blocked up the wheels to prevent sliding and all of a sudden we heard…dogs barking. We must be near some civilization.
After about a half hour of tire changing, we were again on our way. Almost immediately we came to a division in the road. Both roads looked equally used, or unused I should say. Nothing but the prints of cattle and such other animals that must inhabit the area. What to do?. Do we continue on along the mountain or go right and start climbing again. Still nothing in sight and we could not hear any more dogs. I don't remember why, but we continued along the side of the mountain. Before long we noticed an adobe building on the left. Vicky and I got out and started shouting. It was hard to get close to the house because the dogs were growling at us. No one answered. Is this some abandoned outpost up in the wilds or what?.
We continue on and suddenly the road ends. We note another adobe house up on our right. We hear and see more dogs. We must be in some kind of a village or settlement. I know they don't have electricity up here, but you would think there would be some kind of an oil light. I don’t see any more houses though. We do some yelling and honk the horn – this must be great for the settlement, if any, because it is well after midnight. Finally a light goes on in the house that we see and a family comes out and says that this is Palmillas. Thank the lord.
They invite us in to chat. We sit on a small porch of their little adobe house and have a beer from our cooler.. They tell us that Vickys daughter, Brenda, will be arriving by mule in the morning. They show us the little school house where Brenda teaches, which is located nearby. Lee manages to pull the truck over by the school. It is about 15 by 15 feet and just large enough for us to stretch out our sleeping bags after moving the chairs and tables. The floor is concrete – what luxury. But wait – As I start to crawl into my sleeping bag I note that one of us is missing. It seems that Vicky has been invited to sleep in a bed in the house, leaving the men to survive on the concrete. Aah, la vida dura. – A hard life. Well, its time to call it a night. After a couple of near cardiac arrests for all of us, I think we deserve some shuteye.
It is 0700 and we wake up after our wonderful evening on the floor of the escolar.
I step out side and does it look different in the daylight. There are houses scattered over the mountainside. Fifteen families live here, so there are fifteen homes plus a couple that have been abandoned. The sun is coming up over the mountain and there is the fresh smell of the pines. I shave and brush my teeth, not bad. All that is missing is a steaming cup of coffee.
It is quite a little village here. All of the houses are made of adobe, which was made on the spot. All is hand made. There are elevated cribs behind each house that have sacks of corn that was harvested last fall. These people are really poor, but only in the physical sense, as I learned later. It's a hard scrabble life here. Every house is on the hillside. There are no natural level areas. All of the bare ground is covered by the stubble of last years corn crop. A few old bean and squash patches are here and there. What a view we have. All of the mountains. We are very high. This has to be some of the most rugged terrain I have ever seen.
I am rewarded. The lady of the house where Vicky is staying sends up a huge container of steaming coffee. Aaah. All is worth while. She invites us to take breakfast. We Breakout some of our food supplies. Hard boiled eggs and rolls. The lady has just ground corn into masa and is making it into patties. There is an adobe
stove with some kind of cooking surface on top. The tortillas are very thick and they bring them to us still steaming. They are delicious. The flavor of the tortillas that we get in the Tortilleria don’t even come close to the flavor that these have. Meanwhile, Brenda has arrived by mule from a village called Aguacate, located about an hour or so away. The branch road that we encountered close to the village, last night, led to that settlement.
We start passing the word that soon we will start giving out food and clothing in front of the school house. All of the villagers will share, thanks to our generous donors. We return to the school house and set out the bags of groceries. Each consists of 11 items such as rice, sugar, beans, cooking oil, powdered milk, flour, oatmeal, etc.
People soon start arriving. Some walking, and some on mules and burros. All are smiling. There are a lot of youngsters. We start passing out the clothing and the groceries. I forgot to mention that there is a whole box of toys. Lots of little gliders.
Soon the air is filled with gliders. Children and adults laughing. Fun is had by all and there will be some food on the table in addition to tortillas. These folks are really grateful and they treat us with many thanks. We meet the Comisario and talk of many things, of the village life, of the crops that they plant, of the struggle for water during the dry season. I was also surprised to learn that very few of the young people leave when they become of age. This is so different than the villages we encounter near where we live. There, there is a noticeable absence of the young and able bodied – they have left for the cities and borders because there is no work. Here, it seems that very few of the young people migrate. Why is that? Have we found a place that, in spite of being poor, people are satisfied without worldly things? I know money isn't everything, but here, even if you had it, what could you buy?
There are 3 wells in a steep ravine. The lower one is for the animals, which is dry. The second has so little water that it is not worth mentioning. The third has a reasonable amount of water, but when you figure for 15 families, about a hundred persons, there is no way to have normal usage. I mean daily baths and washing clothes and dishes, and then there is the livestock – how do they manage. Brenda says they can take two sponge baths a week. How can so many people be so happy with so little? The women at the well say that when the rains come there is enough water.
We climb down the mountain and visit a home. There is shade under the grain storage area, where some of the family are relaxing. A gentle breeze is flowing through and it is quite comfortable. There is an empty hammock and I am invited to use it. I hop in and I am right off to sleep. Everyone tells me I snored, but I don't believe it. –I sure wish I could find the punctuation on this computer. After my little nap, we wonder on over to the school house and relax a little before going to dinner at the home where Brenda is staying. We are all anxious to see that.
Trip to Palmillas
Part 4
After awhile we decide it is about time to go over to the home where we have been invited to eat. This is typical of most of the homes here. There is a hand made gate entrance and a crude fence or enclosure. Several cows and a bull are lying in front and we have to make our way through. A couple of mules and a burro are in a small corral. A mule is saddled and in readiness in front. Chickens and pigs are running about. Hens clucking over the little ones. An open elevated corn crib is located near the front gate. There are several cats around. I am told that these keep mice and rats under control so that they wont eat the corn. There are a lot of hand made things, just like we had up north a couple of hundred years ago. Saddles, tack for the mules and burros, tools, things made of wood. If it cant come in by burro or mule, it probably wont come in. There are a couple of pickups in the settlement, but both are down. Folks say that one runs sometimes but there is no money for repairs or gas. The house is adobe and the doorways are small. The floors are mostly adobe. There are no windows. The kitchen is large for the house and has a couple of a clay stoves.
The women have just soaked the corn and are grinding it into masa. One of the younger ones is making the masa into tortillas and cooking them on one of the stoves. We are shown around the home and the room where Brenda, Vickys daughter , who is also the school teacher, stays. As I mentioned previously, the government pays her salary, but the village must provide board and room. In this village, each household houses and feeds the teacher for one year at a time. Her room is very basic. No windows, adobe floors and a small electric lamp. The current for this lamp is provided by a very small solar panel located just outside her room and can be used for a short period only. After the grand tour we return to the kitchen area and we are seated at a small table for the comida, or the main meal of the day.
We are served quesadillas, toasted tortillas filled with cheese – cheese that we brought with us – and Pollo con nopales. Chicken cooked with cactus. All is delicious. After more small talk, we stroll around the village and decide amongst our selves that we will depart the next day. We lounge around reading and talking until dark and go to bed early. We started out with a coleman lantern but the back hatch of the vehicle came open just after we crossed the river and it was one of the things that fell out. Both mantels were a loss and we have no more so reading is out of the question and there are no candles. This time Vicky decides to bring in her sleeping bag and share our concrete floor.
We rise early the next morning. I must be getting used to this because I really slept good. We have breakfast in the home we encountered the first night. Hot tortillas and hardboiled eggs. I find some lettuce and a tomato in the ice chest – ice long gone of course.
After talking to the locals, both here and in the village, we reach the conclusion that the river is down most nights, so we decide that we can leave late afternoon and wait by the river until it drops in the night. This turns out to be a mistake. Meanwhile, we have a chance to explore more of the village and the surrounding area. It is Sunday and no school. Brenda comes with us and serves as our guide. There is a cross high above the village so we make the climb. An even more spectacular view from here. We wander through some cornfields, check out the rim at the lower end of the village. A huge series of canyons, many miles across.
Last night we could just see lights far away. Another village, but a couple of days travel. We visit with a few more residents and before we know it we have to leave.
We pack up and straighten out the school house. Vicky bids a tearful farewell to Brenda and we are off.
Starting down the narrow and rough road, we see the rugged terrain below us. I cant believe we tried this at night. The options are hugging the mountainside and the jagged rocks that nag at our tires or off the deep end on the other side. We had not gone a couple of kilometers when we hear a loud swish and – you guessed it, another blowout and on the same wheel. I didn’t mention before that the first tire was totally destroyed. When we got out and checked, it was obvious that this one would never see service again either.
Here we are with only three good tires, in the middle of a very poor and very steep road and in a very remote part of the mountains. If a vehicle did come from behind it couldn't pass. If one came up from below, it couldn't turn around. Vicky has already missed one day of work in the hospital and if we don't get her back by Tuesday, this will cause problems for her.
On the positive side, we have some water and a little food. We do have shelter and we are not far from a village. We decide that we must move the vehicle to a place that will permit another to pass. I walk down around a bend and we locate a place to do just that. With some difficulty Lee drives the Dodge down, first on the flat tire and, after that pulled almost free, on the rim. Vicky and Lee return to the village, hoping that a wheel on one of the downed pickups would fit. No such luck as it turns out. They returned and with several of the townsfolk, including the Comasario. After much discussion, Antonio, the Comasario, said that he was intending to go to Ixtlan del Rio in one of the pickups in a day or two and he would get the pickup going by the next morning, pickup Lee and the two wheels, go down and try and cross the river, then on to Ixtlan del Rio. Lee could repair the tires, catch a bus to Los Mesquitoes and one of the villagers would meet him there with mules and return. Meanwhile, however, an elderly lady – about my age I guess – and some of her grandkids – came by on mules and said that a huge boulder was blocking the road a few kilometers down and vehicles cant pass. Just what we need.
The sun is fading over the mountain and Vicky returns with the villagers to spend the night with Brenda. Lee and I stay with the Dodge. We ransack our meager food supplies and come up with enough to eat. The stars are out and unblemished by any city lights. All is quiet and before long we crawl into our sleeping bags.
Bright and early the next morning Antonio and Vicky show up in his four wheeler, which seems to be running fine. The wheels are loaded and he and Lee are off. Vicky and I are on our own. After waiting a couple or three hours, we hear a vehicle coming down the road. Unbelievable. It is a Dodge and with the same size wheel. He is coming down from a village that has recently been connected by a new road. And yes, we can use his spare down to the river. He is going down to get chemical fertilizer for his village. So , we mount the tire and I drive and follow him down some of the toughest roads I have ever been on. I am very careful to keep away from the mountainside. This is our last chit. We see no sign of the large boulder that the woman said was blocking the road, and later Lee tells me that it had been moved out of the way. By whom? Another mystery. Over an hour later we meet up with Lee and Antonio coming up the hill and not too far from the river. It seems that there was a Dodge truck at the Power Company station and they loaned him their spare, with the understanding that he would have it returned from Ixtlan del Rio – this is really nice of him to do this, and for a perfect stranger. Would we find this generosity up North? Antonio finds a spot in the road to turn around and we continue on to the river. We play all kinds of switches with tires and move on to the edge of the river – low and behold – the river is down enough to cross.
After giving many thanks and some token of our appreciation to the man with the Dodge pickup, we are off. Lee is driving and we can see the faint outline of the underwater bridge of rock and sandbags. We enter the water and start across. It is difficult for the driver to see the bridge with the splashing water. The vehicle wanders slightly to the left and near the drop off from the bridge. I notice it and tell Lee. He corrects and we are soon safely across. We bid a fond farewell to La Playa and are on our way home, with a pit stop in Ixtlan del Rio, where Lee has to buy two new tires and arrange to have the borrowed wheel returned to the Power Station.
Our 2 day , one overnight trip has turned into 4 days and three nights. I have tried to be accurate but at two points during the trip my recorder failed for sometime due to either human or mechanical failure.
Nevertheless, the mission was fulfilled. The food and clothing delivered and we all returned safely. What else can I say.
