There's always room for desert

West Texas was the start of the desert part of our trip. It is strange how this boring landscape can be so beautiful.

We needed to go to a travel agent to arrange some stuff, and we found one in El Paso, just by the Mexican border. In the office was Doris, an elderly American lady, who used to walk over to the Mexican sister town Juarez every Sunday to get her hair cut by her favourite barber and stroll around in what she describes as a colourful and culturally exciting environment. A couple of years ago, she stopped. Mexico had become too dangerous. Maybe it has gotten more dangerous. But it feels like the main reason is that Americans are getting increasingly afraid. And it feels like a shame. In Doris’ defence, it should be said that a relative of hers was kidnapped in Juarez some years back, and was released for the facile ransom of $30000. And that there was a shoot-out in her favourite restaurant there. Things that would scare most people, even iron-lady Doris.

Iron-man Robert and iron-man Anton were not intimidated. (Though we didn’t actually dare take our car over the border.) Our two days in Juarez offered an underground rock concert and a fun Mexican karaoke birthday party that ended in a fight between two of the attending girls. Fortunately, our Spanish was not good enough for us to understand what those girls were shouting to each other. Together with our hosts Sofia and Jover, we discretely left the party. Altogether, Juarez was lots of fun.

Outside Truth or Consequences (yes – that is the name of a town), New Mexico, we needed to stop for gas. Filling the tank, we realized that we also needed food. We had the best piece of meat I’ve ever had. Not many Swedes come to this charming desert town. Jeremy, a local, offered us some drinks, and a soak in natural hot springs. Unable to refuse the proposal, we stayed the night in T or C. They say the town has magical powers that make some people who just happen to pass through stay for good. Which is easy to believe.

There are maybe 5 roads in New Mexico. I’m not kidding. Not having many options, we ended up in Gallup, a dirty hole on the historic Route 66. We felt like staying at one place for a couple of days, but clearly Gallup was not the place. We continued straight through the Navajo Indian land of north-western New Mexico to the slightly larger town of Farmington, where we now look forward to having some peace for a day or two.