Boquillas del Carmen is a border village of 300 souls, located in the wildly beautiful Desert mountain landscape across the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park, Texas. The economy of Boquillas is critically dependent on tourism from the Park. As a “non-essential” border crossing, the Boquillas Port of Entry closed on March 17, and the National Park closed a week later due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the crisis, Boquillas Adventures launched a Go Fund Me campaign to provide emergency assistance to the village. Two separate deliveries of food and supplies have been made. Each deliver serves over 65 family units, perhaps 225 individuals. Each supply delivery is designed to last 3-4 weeks, and cost around $4200 each. (see list of supplies).
To facilitate the deliveries, we collaborate with the Ocampo Municipal Government. We work with Boquillas colleagues for lists of families and individual needs, but at the end, Ocampo completes the purchases, provides the vehicles and muscle to distribute the packages.
Big Bend National Park announced a tentative plan to re-open in phases (Link to Sentinel article). This stipulates that the Port of Entry MAY be opened in the 4th or possibly the 5th and final phase. If the Park re-opens around June 1, that places the opening of Boquillas Port of Entry in mid-July or later.
The 2nd delivery was made May 22, and as we do not anticipate an opening until after June 22 at the earliest, we propose to raise an additional $4000 to schedule a delivery about June 22. We will publish more details shortly: 1. List of supplies delivered. 2.Families delivered to. 3. Costs and accounting history.