Boquillas Restaurant, Boquillas del Carmen, Coahuila, Mexico

You will arrive at Boquillas Restaurant by boat.  By rowboat, that is, from Big Bend National Park, just as did the newlyweds in Robert Earl Keen’s song, Gringo Honeymoon.  That’s how you get across the Rio Grande.  It now costs $5 per person to go to the Mexico side, and $500 per person to get back to the US.  Not really.  The alternative to the rowboat is a four-hour drive down 150 miles of dirt road from Santa Rosa de Muzquiz, the nearest town of any size.  Santa Rosa de Muzquiz is 170 miles from the nearest airport.

So take the rowboat or, if the water is low, walk across: but ask first, and look for signs of rain.

Once across the river, you walk or ride a burro about three quarters of a mile up a dusty, rutted dirt road to the town of Boquillas del Carmen.  Boquillas could be a film set for a Western set in a dusty Mexican town.  There isn’t a lot there.

But Boquillas del Carmen is home to about 200 people, and two restaurants.  The one you want after your walk or ride in the 90+ degree heat in early April (don’t go to Big Bend in the summer) is Boquillas Restaurant.  There you can get some very good food and cold beer (not necessarily in that order) in shaded comfort.

 

The lunch menu at Boquillas is limited.  They offer goat tacos, cheese enchiladas, and chicken tamales.  Nancy T. and Ellen had the cheese enchiladas — note the red chile.

Nancy B. and Jean had the goat tacos.  Those are nice looking tortillas, aren’t they?

Nancy T. avoids goat meat, although, as I have pointed out, goat is the most eaten meat in the world.  (Pork, of course, is the best meat in the world.)  But there seem not to be any bad choices at Boquillas.  All agreed that their food was delicious.  The salsa and other vegetables were fresh, and enchiladas were delightful, and the goat was savory.

The setting is pleasant and the service is friendly.  Hand-made souvenirs, many featuring javelinas, the Virgin, or the legend, No Muro, are available in the restaurant.

Nancy brought home a hand-embroidered koozie for me.

 

It’s a really nice koozie.

What a nice place.  If you go to Big Bend, and you really should, make a point to cross the river and dine at Boquillas Restaurant.  I certainly will.

 

 

 

 

 

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