South of downtown are 5 Spanish missions, quite large facilities, and quite attractive. They immediately reminded me of the great Southern plantations: the Big House, the carefully laid-out fields, the numerous outbuildings, and of course, the large population of slave workers. I was impressed by what was accomplished with purely human labor in the South, and this is equally impressive.
The natives in South Texas were extirpated by the Spanish, but left a “race” of people called Tejanos. I wish there was a better word to describe these mixed populations, but they are slightly different than Mexicans, say, in that the original peoples were a distinct population.
Since the mission trail follows the San Antonio River, there is now a connection between the downtown Riverwalk and the missions via river tour boats. I’d visited the Riverwalk downtown, a most impressive adaptation to the environment, before but today I got on one of the cruise boats for the tour. For $6 it’s well worth it to see everything in just a short while. I spotted a nice Mexican restaurant along the way and had lunch there.
Pretty quiet on a Sunday, San Antonio is certainly in the Bible Belt, but the mall and restaurants were open for business.
Tomorrow I’m going the Choke Canyon State Park, a place I’ve wanted to see for years now. It’s a big reservoir good for birds. I’m not sure whether to expect cell-phone service there or not. Then, on to Rockport.