Our escort turned out to be a veritable fountain of information on the area. "Don't go down in the Gorge," he said, "It's rough down there. Walk along the tracks for the first four miles." "Isn't that illegal? And aren't the tracks patrolled like our guide book says?" "No," he says, "The only patrolling is done by the INS to catch the 'Wets' and drug smugglers. There was a shooting down in the Gorge yesterday, I think." "Great, we now know exactly what we're going to do... head into the Gorge as planned. Did anyone remember to pack a gun?"
...BTW, we DID pass one confirmed sun worshiper on our drive in, though he looked more like an escapee from Mengela's laboratory than the picture of human pulchritude we were hoping for. This was actually a boon to the hike since there was no longer any reason to dally further. Ah, the hopes of men... squashed by reality. What a painful thing to observe.