Welcome to Eric's Adventures and Expeditions, where the emphasis is on action and adventure!  How many times have you crossed the international border on a ferry, drawn by hand?  Six guys pulling it across the Rio Grande using ropes! Travel with us to Los Ebanos,  a few miles west of McAllen, Texas, for a ride on the Los Ebanos ferry. This is a one-of-a-kind operation that could disappear any day.  Take a trip with us; you'll be glad you did!

Left:  If you're crossing the Rio Grande, leave your guns at home!  Right:  Oscar, our friendly toll taker in his "high tech" toll booth at the Los Ebanos crossing.

The Los Ebanos ferry is located at the obscure Texas border crossing of Los Ebanos; you head west on U.S. 83, the freeway turns into a highway that passes through towns and at Mission, you turn south towards a sign that points you to "Los Ebanos, Int'l Crossing." You drive about 2 miles and then "historical marker" signs begin to appear. You wind through the sleepy town of Los Ebanos, which appears much as I perceive that the town looked like in the 1920's; time sort of bypassed this place.  If it wasn't for the historical marker signs, you'd never find the border crossing as the road bends and turns through the town in a very haphazard manner.

Left:  Cars entering the U.S. from Mexico have to pass through U.S. customs at Los Ebanos.  Right:  The ferry leaves Mexico on its 30-yard trip to the U.S. side of the river.

When you reach the border crossing, the first thing you do is laugh. This isn't Tijuana, or even Nuevo Pregreso.  As you approach the crossing, there is a run-down toll booth to the right ($5.00 per crossing, Jerry talked the proprietor down to $2.50; as the proprietor needed quarters,) the road to the river to the center, a shaded area to the right center where four U.S. customs agents were sitting in patio chairs and a small government building is located to the right.  The crossing is open from 0800 to 1600, after hours, a sign announces that it reverts to private property with no trespassing.  One of the agents explained to us that many illegals have tried to cross the river at night, using inner tubes and that it can be a "war zone" after dark. For added atmosphere, there was a guy chopping down weeds at the side of the road using a machete.  Very high-tech indeed!

Left:  The ferry is almost ready to dock on the U.S. side of the Rio Bravo.  All it takes is five guys to pull the boat across the river and one guy to observe.  Right:  Jerry's truck is to the left, as we start our voyage across the river.

We paid our toll to Oscar, the good ol' boy at the toll booth who claims that he owns the seven acres that comprise this enterprise, who Jerry struck up a conversation with, as we were waiting for the ferry.  When it was our turn, we drove down the dirt road to the river and drove onto the ferry, followed by an in-tow.  Altogether, the ferry can carry three vehicles.

The ferry is moored to a rope which is anchored to ebony trees on each side of the river.  A sign at the ferry explains that the ferry has been in operation since 1950 and the trees that it is attached to are the original trees. The ferry has six guys on it, and they literally pull the ferry across the river by hand!  Hand drawn!  I've never seen or heard of anything like this, nor could I even have imagined that this would exist!  The river is probably about 30 meters wide at this point, so the crossing takes about 2 minutes.  I asked one of the rope pullers, (in Spanish, no English spoken here,) how deep the river was at this point and he said "quince," which is 15 feet.  

Left:  We've reached the middle of the river, and have now crossed into Mexican territory.  Right:  The dirt road leads to Mexican customs atop the hill in the middle of the photo.  Once past customs, we were greeted by a checkpoint of "federales."

If you're interested in riding the ferry, you'd better hurry, as a bridge crossing is in the works. When the ferry does disappear, a colorful piece of history will have disappeared along with it.

All photos on this page were taken by Jerry Flinn.