Parral

In Pancho Villa territory now, trying to get in touch with our Zapatista contacts here. In a very superficial way, it seems like there's something of a stronger presence here than in Ciudad Obregón. This based on the fact that around the plaza are several pieces of wood painted with EZLN images and messages -- advertising the arrival of the otra campaña. The date that the caravan was supposed to get there, however, has been blanked out (but if you look closely you can still see through the paint that June 3 was the target date).

The last couple days have been amazing. We left Creel (at 2330 meters) and descended into the Barranca del Cobre to a beautiful little colonial town called Batopilas (400 or so meters). The ride down was a little rough, considering that it was a dirt road, rocky, sandy -- not to mention the mile-long drop and lack of guard rails. But beautiful. In tropical Batopilas, mango season was in full blast, and mangos were literally falling out of the sky everywhere you looked. Took a hike to a tiny pueblo called Satevó, about 8km away, where there's a magnificent church (or mission, we couldn't tell exactly). There we met an amazingly friendly 14 year old epileptic girl who could wiggle her ears, pat her head and rub her belly, and do card tricks. We also chatted with her father, Raúl, about the drought that was affecting the region -- the river looked obviously low, and the land parched. And since Sonora people have been complaining about the lack of rain.

So now we're in Parral, trying to arrange an interview, though the people we're supposed to meet seem to be either out of town or unavailable. So if we don't get through soon, we're off to Zacatecas (via Durango perhaps?), where we (hopefully) will find more readily available contacts.

Pictures will follow at some point.