El Paso

With its sister city Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is the metropolis of the region. I saw the border for the first time; the mountains of Mexico towered in the distance over the Rio Grande, but just this side of the river looked like a prison, with chain-link fences, barbed wire, and guards driving its length in landrovers; border patrol is a very strong presence here; it's the most martial scene I've seen in my country. Spanish is also very prevalent, and the wait staff at my lunch restaurant greeted me with a "buenos dias", and had to call the manager to take my order in English, as only he among the staff was bilingual. After lunch, my course turned eastward, and took me running before a 20 knot tailwind, a sweet feeling after days of headwind.