Day 11: Durango & Bob Dylan
The way is long but the end is near...
Founded in 1563 as the capital of Nueva Vizcaya, Durango was a frontier power. Today’s city runs about 600‑plus thousand people, skewing young and well‑educated. There’s a big university crowd, which means vibrant nightlife and cheap food. Notice I didn’t say good.
Durango is Pancho Villa country; the revolution ran through here.
“The way is long, but the end is near
Already the fiesta has begun
And in the streets, the face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian
No llores, mi querida Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango¿
Agárrame, mi vida?
I first heard “Romance in Durango” in 1976, off the album Desire, and that’s when the obsession started. The word that any gringo can roll an “r” to, the romance, the Wild West—this song is a cinematic tour de force with some fatalism thrown in. I vowed I’d someday get to Durango. Well, here we are.
The lyrics are an outlaw fever dream inspired by the filming of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid near Durango. The arrangement and instruments draw heavily on Mexican themes.
Durango’s tourist pitch is basically old Western sets and scorpions. The movies I’ll get into tomorrow.
The main local species, nicknamed the Durango scorpion, is one of the most venomous in Mexico. Scorpions fluoresce under UV light, so locals use black lights at night to hunt or avoid them. Durango has people who literally milk scorpions: they apply mild electrical stimulation, causing the animal to shoot venom droplets, which are used for medical research and antivenom production. Scorpions show up in Durango’s cuisine: you can find tacos de alacrán and other dishes using fried or roasted scorpions as a protein-rich novelty snack.
While the city of Durango did not over-charm me, the state of Durango did. There is a reason that this state has been the backdrop for countless movies. The Sierra Madre Occidental runs right through Durango, with high pine forests, deep canyons, and big rock formations. It’s a majestic country.
And then there is the notorious Espinazo del Diablo, an awe-inspiring highway which I will ride and write about tomorrow.
GRINGOMETER: Flashing red today with a count of seven. One in the wild and six in a batch sitting next to me at a restaurant, spending the entire time talking about Texan fajitas and frozen cucumber margaritas.
Note 1: I always run a grammar check on my stories, and it’s worth the time and money I spend. However, I many times let my grammar be my grammar, fuck being perfect. The funny part is it flagged a bunch of “errors” in Dylan’s lyrics. Me and Dylan.
Note 2: A young girl in the hotel lobby asked if she could take some photos of me working through the hotel window facing the lobby. I obliged and then asked if I could take photos of her. I explained my journey, and more photos were taken.
Tomorrow, El Diablo!