Chihuahua Otra Vez

Ah, back in Chihuahua. We've waited nearly six months for this. We arrived yesterday after about 17 hours on a bus from San Antonio, our first time to cross the border at Ciudad Juarez. Upon arriving at the Chihuahua bus terminal, we checked out our options for getting up north after our visit to the Cave of Crystals.

We then made our way to the Casa Chihuahua, the hostel whose wonderful owner Loly arranged our visit to the cave. Her husband Philip was outside when we arrived, and he welcomed us back. He showed us his latest project; he's fixed together two bicycles with a bench in between so that parents can take their disabled children for a bike ride. He let us be the first people to test it in the street, and I was so touched that he's doing such a thing. He and Loly are incredibly nice people.

We wound up sleeping for 12 hours that night, a welcome return to form! We had such a comfortable bed in a room with no windows (no pesky sunlight to wake us up) and a strong fan, and it's a very peaceful hostel. It was heaven. Today we revisited the town itself, walking around for ages and managing to visit two museums which were closed during our last visit. El Museo de Pancho Villa was really interesting and educational. El Museo de Mamut wowed us from the start; in the very first room we saw the reconstructed skeleton of a Columbian Mammoth. This guy is HUGE. There were some really cool fossils but also some rather random other things scattered throughout the rooms. In the same room as the mammoth skeleton, there was an old car with no explanation of its significance. Iff seemed more charmed by the random stuff than the fossils! We spent a bit more time there than intended; we had to wait out a torrential downpour.

Now we're just waiting until our cave visit tomorrow morning. Loly has very kindly offered to drive us the 1.5 hours to the cave and given us lots of information about our visit. It turns out that with the high heat and humidity, it feels like 130 degrees in the cave. Wonderful! We have to pass a quick medical check before they'll let us descend, and then it'll take us 30 minutes to get down to the cave. I'm rather anxious about getting through this without passing out. Then we'll have to high-tail it back to the Chihuahua bus terminal in hopes of getting the 2:30pm bus to Los Angeles (for a connection to Seattle). No rest for the wicked!