Monuments and Fences The border with Mexico and Texas was established as the Rio Grande in 1836. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico ceded huge amounts of land and in 1853 the US bought more from Mexico (the Gadsden Purchase) and a new border had to be defined – an imaginary line across the …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Terrain is the Wall We have now finished riding the Rio Grande Valley; the Texas border with Mexico from Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso through Big Bend National Park. At the southern end of the border around McAllen and Brownsville, there are various disconnected pieces of rusting ten year old …
In America: But On The Wrong Side of the Wall A large majority of Americans believe that Pres.Tump’s “beautiful wall” will do nothing to stop the illegal movement of people or drugs; the people can use Aero Mexico, the drugs come in by truck, and they can both use the tunnels if needed. The presidential …
The Wall Starts Here. There are 2,000 miles of the US border with Mexico split about equally between the desert border with California, Arizona, and New Mexico and the Rio Grande river border with Texas from El Paso to the Gulf. About 600 miles of this total distance has some kind of barrier – a …
The Border Starts at the Alamo. Not physically but historically. All the dominos fall from there. If we are going to ride the border we had better understand its history. Long before the United States or Mexico existed, everything from here to Patagonia was Spanish; swooped up by the conquistadors, claimed for Spain by the …
Three Things Unique to New Zealand – Kiwi, Maori, Kauri (PART TWO) We were only in New Zealand for a few days but I wanted to do three things you can only do here – see a Kiwi, meet a Maori, and hug a Kauri. These are not as easy as you might imagine. The …
Three Things Unique to New Zealand – Kiwi, Maori, Kauri (PART ONE) We were only in New Zealand for a few days but I wanted to do three things you can only do here – see a Kiwi, meet a Maori, and hug a Kauri. These are not as easy to do as you might …
If You Don’t Preserve It – You Don’t Deserve It. The creation myth of the aboriginal people is a charming and seductive story. In the Dreamtime, everything was already there under the surface of the earth and came into being because the ancestors broke through and made things real by describing and singing about them. …
Uluru In The Rain The parks department and the traditional owners of this land are careful to point out that there are two possible explanations for how Uluru (Ayers Rock) got here. The geologists say that Uluru is the small tip of a six kilometer thick layer of very hard sandstone made from eroded granite …
Bury My Heart at Butchers Creek In almost a month of traveling in Australia, it has been almost impossible to have a conversation with, or even a conversation about, indigenous aboriginal Australians. Those we have met are not interested in tourist chit chat and everyone else doesn’t know how to discuss the subject. When I …
Colin's Travel Journal 