In this excerpt from the work "The Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila",
our tourguides Dr. John Romulus Brinkley and Judge Roy Bean talk about
PLAYA
TLALOC
Inside a strange roundish cement block building
that once commanded a view of the lakeshore when dam filled these flat expanses
with water, Brinkley takes a swig of his beer, then sets it on the white plastic
table advertising some famous soft drink. " If you want to try swimming
on the Mexican side, there's plenty of fine LIMESTONE beaches, BRING YOUR OWN
SHADE, beyond Playa Tloloc, across the Amistad Dam to the Mexican shore. The
name TLALOC comes from the old Aztec's Nahuatl language and means the God of
Rain. Some say it's a Anacronym for "The
Last Attempt to Leave Our Country"
due to the low numbers of Mexicans that successfully swim the lake over to the
United States."
"I 'member der was a Restaurant youse could
only git to by boat, halfway down from Langtry on the lake. 'Bout an hour, hour
and a half, maybe more."
"Heard about it. Never been there. Seen pictures,
a beautiful rock building with a veranda."
"Hey Doc, you ever take yer son Johnny-Boy
to that playground next to the restaurant ?'
Cleaning the fresh fish at Playa Tlaloc
"You mean that playground right there, with
teeter-totters, metal swings, tall slides and corkscrew rampslides, monkeybars
and geodesic domes, all painted with rainbow colors? So I could sit here with
a dollar-beer and watch my boy play with all the Mexican children that talked
their parents into driving twenty kilometers to enjoy lunch with fresh breezes
and sunshine, and maybe another two or three kilometer drive out across the
limestone plains to take a dip in the refreshing, clean lake water? Or maybe
swim first, and come back here to select a fish from the big cooler filled with
fresh catch on ice, catfish, trout, bass, perch, and they deep-fry it for you
in ten minutes? NO, can't say that in my times we had such luxuries. Amistad
Lake wasn't here."
"Oh yeah. I forgot. Deys put da lake here
roundabouts in 1968. I reckon they couldn't see fit to put it up nearer Langtry."
"Judge, they put the lake where it's easiest
to build a dam and impound the most water. This lake plugs up the Rio Grande,
the Pecos River, and the Devil's River. A lake in Langtry would miss all that
water, plus the waters from Good Enough Springs, which is now underwater. Or
maybe not, with the lake level sunk so, because of the drought."
Selecting Lunch
"Still think it would have been purty up at
Langtry."
"Too narrow. Any Mexican could run fast and
get up enough speed to float over to the other side."
"Yeah. Make it easy for outlaws to escape
the Law of Land."
"Just because you can't swim."
This excerpt from a real piece of work called "The
Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila",
where the ghosts of "Doctor"
Brinkley and Judge Roy
Bean lead us around the Oasis of West Texas
and Mexico for some great Coahuilan desert snorkeling,
might soon be released as a hardcover coffee table book, part of a publication
on CD-ROM and with high-resolution multi-media;
photographs, sound and music, filmclips, artwork,
and textual ruminations.
Contact System Administrator for more information.
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© 2002 Mark Plimsoll. All rights reserved.