Zapata
Campground
Beacon Lodge RV Resort
Seriously, we had no idea what we were getting into. The decades-long low water level of the Rio Grande has taken its toll on the Zapata area - fishing was HUGE. This particular resort is long past its heyday. There were a few other inhabitants and a couple of the cabins were being rented. The on-site bar & grill "Patno's" was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. It continues to be a daily hang-out for locals and really winds up on Friday and Saturday nights! We enjoyed a really great Thanksgiving feast put on by locals. Mark played music and hosted karaoke here. You have to check out the picture of the lady nailing "I'm Too Sexy". So much fun.
Things to see
San Ygnacio History Home Tour
Every winter, right around Christmas time, this town opens up its old homes and puts on a music-and-dancing festival in the town square. Some of the homes date back to 1865! There is a self-guided tour of the city that was very interesting. The city and founding inhabitants have quite a sad history to tell.
The City of Zapata
There's not much to the city itself. There are plenty of has-been shops, little markets, restaurants, etc. One highlight we saw as were were getting some running in at a city park - someone had a "pet" cow in their yard.
Zapata County Museum of History
Being a border town between Texas and Mexico, there is a long history to this area. This museum was a highlight. The stories and artifacts were very interesting.
Hiking
Food and Drink
Danny's in Laredo
We went on a little shopping trip to Laredo TX and, being Tuesday, we found a very nice Mexican restaurant.
El Rincon de Los Angeles
Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants abound in Zapata but this one earned it's high rating.
To make a long story short ...
Making friends
Whether it is at a campground's hot-tub or at a local haunt like Patno's, we make friends. There was a large group of people from a neighboring campground that came to Patno's pretty much every day. These were the ones that originally invited us to join them for their Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO good. We would hang out with them quite often and went to visit their campground a couple times. They all came over for karaoke night too.
They invited us to a "fish fry" they were having at their campground. One of the guys fishes quite a lot on the Rio Grande and they were very generous with the catch. Everyone brought something. One of the guys there, I was told, plays guitar and was looking forward to having me come over with mine. Dan has a beautiful deep baritone voice and he and I had a great time bantering about music and finding songs we could play together.
Stray dogs and a new puppy
One of the disappointing aspects of this area is the number of stray dogs roaming around. They are not necessarily menacing, but you just don't know if they are nice or not. Plus, they often disrupt garbage cans during the night.
One of the local resort inhabitants we befriended was a young man working at the Border Patrol base. He attempted to adopt one of the strays in the resort but that dog had lots of health issues and "disappeared" one day. This is the dog you'll see in our "campground" photo album (above). At one point, he was laying INSIDE my speaker case.
A few days later, this same guy showed up with a puppy! Such a cute little guy. We wanted to help, and the guy seemed interested in getting help, so we bought some toys and offered to take the little guy out walking when the guy was at work. Polly loved him. However, the guy just didn't have it in him to take care of a puppy. He told us that he took the little guy back to where he got it. That's the story we want to believe. Had he told us ahead of time that he was "foster failing", we might have taken the little cutie.
While out running one day, another stray started following us. Another cute little guy about Polly's size. He seemed quite friendly and really did just follow us wherever we went that day. No collar. Not even sure where he belonged. We had made up our minds that if "fate" wanted us to have him, he'd be there the next time we went out running. He wasn't.
Border patrol
The RV resort is on a bit of a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande. It didn't used to be that way. You can clearly see where the water was up so far that boats could launch right from the resort. The view of the river gives the Border Patrol a great way to watch for crossings. For quite a few of the days we were here, a Border Patrol "humvee" was parked on the edge of the resort with a couple of agents set up to watch. Periodically, a tethered blimp was visible above the Border Patrol base which was only a couple miles away.