Laredo, TX

I was in Laredo / Nuevo Laredo about 40 years ago with my parents.   I was actually heading south and had made to to the general Corpus Area when the 88% humidity repelled me like a force field.  It makes me feel disgusting, sapped, slimy.

I turned west to Laredo, which is the lowest humidity spot in the general area.    About 50% right now.   I left Muffin in the ventilated van and bopped across the border for lunch,  3 chicken tamales for 15 pesos, about 75c.  Woot!

Laredo / Nuevo Laredo seems to be much poorer than El Paso / Ciudad Juarez.  More homeless people on both sides.  There were a surprising number of black folks in Nuevo Laredo;  I wonder if they are here because of old Fort McIntosh where Buffalo Soldiers were stationed.    [Update:  I did some googling and it turns out they are African immigrants who got stuck in Mexico because of the refugee poilitics in D.C.]

As I returned I had a good view of the SENTRI lanes.  They didn’t seem to be going any faster than the non-SENTRI lanes, so I’m not sure why people pay the extra money.   THey were still trunk-checked and dog-sniffed by Malinois.

I walked around the St. Peter historical area (I think that’s what it was called);  lots of beautiful old houses.  There was a ruckus of pigeon-sized birds that took flight but I couldn’t tell what they were.  They were a lovely green underneath.  Then I saw their beaks and figured out they were wild parrots.  Surprising.