Travel and commuting - The Durango Herald

A historic house in Serbia’s capital hangs on with intimate theatrical productions

BELGRADE, Serbia – It may be out of place on a busy downtown street and it may be a bit run down, but this small mansion in central Belgrade is thriving. Its walls crumbling and shutters clo...

DATE: Jan 30, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

Tourism in Cuba plummets as tensions with US increase and Venezuela oil shipments drop

HAVANA – It’s almost noon in Havana when a handful of tourists tumble out of a small yellow bus and rush toward a row of shiny classic cars, cameras in hand. Nearby, under the shade of a bea...

DATE: Jan 30, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

Year-end numbers show visitation to Durango-La Plata County Airport higher in 2025 than 2024

More seats, lower prices and greater convenience driving passenger decisions

DATE: Jan 25, 2026 | CATEGORY: Local News

Horses leap through flames and pets go to church in Spanish animal rituals honoring St Anthony

SAN BARTOLOME DE PINARES, Spain – Hundreds of Spaniards watched horses gallop through towering flames, hours before pet owners in Madrid on Jan. 17 took their dogs and cats to church to be b...

DATE: Jan 23, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

Olympic visitors to Milan get a rare chance to glimpse restoration of a long-hidden Leonardo gem

MILAN – In honor of the Milan Cortina Olympics, Milan cultural officials are for a brief time only allowing visitors access to a long-hidden wall and ceiling painting by Leonardo da Vinci wh...

DATE: Jan 23, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

Winter storm could bring heavy snow to San Juan Mountains

Travel expected to be hazardous Friday night into Saturday

DATE: Jan 22, 2026 | CATEGORY: Local News

FLC Outdoor Pursuits to run 16-day Antarctica ski trip for alumni and donors

2027 fundraising effort is ‘once in a lifetime opportunity,’ organizer says

DATE: Jan 22, 2026 | CATEGORY: Local News

No snow, no problem: The plastic slope surrounded by sheep that produced Britain’s top skier

PENDLE, England – Nestled in the rolling countryside of Ribble Valley in northwest England is a modest ski slope about 140 yards long, 10 yards wide and surrounded by roaming sheep. It’s a g...

DATE: Jan 17, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

Ancient Rome meets modern technology as tourists visit restored, frescoed home via livestream tours

ROME – One of the best-preserved ancient Roman homes on the Palatine Hill is opening to the public for the first time, albeit via a livestreamed tour of its hard-to-reach underground frescoe...

DATE: Jan 17, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

An ice park without ice: How is outdoor industry dealing with a warm winter?

The Ouray Ice Park should be a frozen playground by this time in January – with ice chandeliers and frozen waterfalls more than 100 feet high beckoning ice climbers from around the world. In...

DATE: Jan 9, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

New Mexico communities prepare for Route 66 centennial celebrations all year long

State grants mean new neon, restored gas stations, public art and maybe even a ‘musical road’

DATE: Jan 8, 2026 | CATEGORY: New Mexico

An annual ode to ice is carved in frozen northern China

HARBIN, China – Each January, an odd and beautiful thing happens in the frigid northeastern Chinese city of Harbin. Some would argue that the place, the capital of Heilongjiang province, has...

DATE: Jan 8, 2026 | CATEGORY: Travel

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Durango High School students trade class for anti-ICE protest‘Skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ read one sign

About 200 Durango High School students and a smattering of supportive community members marched down Main Avenue on Friday during school hours to protest recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Students intentionally missed two class periods to join the crowd, which made its way through DHS property, south to downtown Durango and back again. A handful of class absences can lead to disciplinary action – but many of the students marching on Main said they were more than willing to take an attendance strike to be at the protest.

“It’s our friends out there (being taken),” 11th grader Lila Scherer-Sickler said as she marched alongside her classmates. “It’s people we know in Durango, and we just felt like, as kids, we don’t often get an opportunity to have our voice out there, and we just took the chance. A bunch of us are missing AP classes right now, (but) I think that the opportunity to get your voice out there is more important.”

The crowd of high schoolers touted handmade signs and called out chants like, “We want justice, we want peace, we want ICE up off our streets.” Many passing cars and passersby honked, smiled and waved at the crowd. Some put up their middle fingers or shook their heads. One student said a classmate intentionally blew exhaust at protesters from his car as the crowd was leaving the school. Durango School District spokeswoman Karla Sluis told The Durango Herald in a written statement that the school was aware of the protest and “coordinated communication with local law enforcement and nearby facilities” before the march.

“We acknowledge students’ First Amendment right to express their views,” she wrote. “At the same time, we are responsible for students’ safety and education. Usual attendance policies apply, and we encourage respectful dialogue through planned, supervised events.” The protest comes after several months of rising tensions between ICE and U.S. citizens, in Durango and nationwide. A father and his two children were detained by ICE in October in Durango, despite having an open asylum case, and a man who had lived in Durango for 22 years was arrested in the city on New Year’s Eve. According to reporting by The Guardian, at least eight people have died in dealings with ICE less than a month into the new year – including Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed by ICE agents weeks apart.

Other people killed in interactions with ICE this year include Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Keith Porter Jr, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La and Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, according to The Guardian. Eleventh grader Finn Hughes said he participated in the walkout because using his privilege as a white U.S. citizen is important. “These are abhorrent kidnappings, and they’re happening not just in Durango, but around the nation,” he said.

Durango resident Barb Day was one of the community members who joined the protest in support of the students. She brought along a repurposed sign she used in 1968 to protest against the Vietnam War. “We have this brutal masked secret police that are just breaking all of our constitutional rights, and people are dying,” she said. “My parents were in World War II – my dad was in the Navy, and my mom was a combat nurse – and I know what my parents fought for. And this is just so wrong. We’re losing decency.” Liza Tregillus of the Apoyo Immigrant Partner Team also joined the protest in support of the students who marched. “I’m very proud of them, and I think (they’re out here) because they’re losing their own friends, and their own friends are terrified,” she said. “I feel we’ve lost our democracy after 250 years, (and) we need young voters.”

Tregillus has worked closely with many immigrants in her line of work, including the father and two children – Fernando Jaramillo-Solano and his 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son – who were detained by ICE in Durango late last year. The family opted to self-deport back to Colombia after a month in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, but told the Herald in January through Tregillus that they feared for their safety back in Colombia. One student, ninth grader Owen Holland, said he had a connection to the Jaramillo-Solano family. “I have a friend who lived here, from Mexico, and he was friends with them,” he said. “And it was like, really bad for my friend. It was really bad. It’s so much different than people make it seem.”

Tregillus said the tone of a protest is important, and that leading with curiosity and solution-based efforts – rather than confrontation – can make a difference. She said chants and signs that put the focus on immigrants being neighbors and friends, versus those that are meant to demean ICE or its agents, is one way she feels protesters can use their voices with intention. Many of the immigrants she works with are fearful that protests with tones that attack ICE agents may make conditions worse for them, she said. “From the immigrants, they would appreciate that our protests not be negative,” she said. “Many of them come from cultures of respect toward authority, and they’re frightened. ... They would rather we stick to a different tone. I talked to an immigrant (who had been detained by ICE), and he said every time there were protests outside when they were in lockdown, they were punished.” ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Students returned to their classes after the protest, and the demonstration remained peaceful, with no pepper spray or rubber bullets deployed, nor any heavy police or ICE presence in sight – unlike some other recent protests in Durango. epond@durangoherald.com

‘Skipping our lessons to teach you one,’ read one sign

150-200 demonstrators made their way from DHS to Buckley Park

Colorado history gets weird, wild, wacky at Fashion Do’s and Don’tsAnnual Snowdown event has become so popular, auditions are now required

Cowboys. Fancy ladies. Gold miners. Even-toed ungulates that some in Durango might consider more like rats.Where can you find a runway show that takes you on a whirlwind tour through the weird, wacky and wildly exaggerated 150 years of Colorado history? Only at Durango’s annual Fashion Do’s and Don’ts, held Wednesday, where models and audience members wore costumes celebrating Colorado’s sesquicentennial – the theme of this year’s two-week Snowdown celebration.Standout acts included the Ghosts of Durango, which featured four of Durango’s most famous ghosts: a Rochester hotel ghost in a Victorian get-up of a more “modern” variation; the Strater Hotel’s head of housekeeping, also head of more discreet services; a young girl haunting El Rancho’s bathroom; and Sheriff Bob Thompson, killed in a 1906 gunfight. according to emcee Suzan Lane. A Another act was the Secret Circus Society, featuring Rubi Starr, Jeni Gross, Tabatha Joy Bettin, Adrienne Young and Ethan Deffenbaugh dressed as a car and the roadside pests better known as deer. Group members said the inspiration for the costume came from lived experiences driving Durango roads. The two-person Cantine Couture act starred Leslie Ponce and Tyler Frakes in an homage to the plentiful variety of Mexican restaurants found in any Colorado town. Ponce, dressed in comically large Mexican pointy cowboy boots, ambled down the runway as if taking a stroll under the hot, dusty, high-altitude sun, while Frakes flitted about the stage in a bright yellow salsa dress. Ponce said this year’s costume had been tough to decide, but the final decision was inspired by TikTok videos of Mexican cowboys in pointy boots. This was the duo’s third year strutting down the runway. Why they keep coming back for more, Frakes said laughing, was, “for the fame, the glory and the attention.”

Fashion Do’s and Don’ts has been one of the most highly anticipated Snowdown events since its inception in the 1990s. It has more than doubled in size over the past several decades. Last year, there were a record number of models, and in order to keep the event at a manageable size, this year’s fashion show was the first one to require the acts to audition. But many of the models were unfazed by the change. “It was actually easy,” said Jodi Zuber, one part of the two-person duo that made up the 1950s Texas Invader Ski Couple. Her partner-in-costume, Danny Jaques, said they had been doing this for several years, and it’s good with everything going on in the world to “get some levity and let your hair down.” The performers were not the only ones in costume. Audience members also dressed in a wide variety of unique takes on what makes Colorado, Colorado. JonBenet Ramsey made a miraculous appearance, being played by an 82-year-old woman, as did Casa Bonita, an ensemble that included a taco, sopaipilla and gorilla in chains – to name some of the characters. By the end of the show, people were in high spirits, as usual. “It was just delightful,” said a first-time audience member. If blessed with the chance to get the much coveted tickets – he said he would jump on it. jbowman@durangoherald.com

Annual Snowdown event has become so popular, auditions are now required

Photos: Snowdown 2026 Fashion Do’s and Don’ts

Photos: Durango High School basketball teams lose to Montrose High School

Photos: Local girls high school wrestling at La Plata TriDurango girls wrestling went 2-0 to win Tri on Thursday night at Bayfield

Durango girls wrestling went 2-0 to win Tri on Thursday night at Bayfield

Photos: Fort Lewis College women’s and men’s basketball take on Westminster UniversityBoth Skyhawks teams were victorious on Saturday afternoon

Both Skyhawks teams were victorious on Saturday afternoon

Photos: An afternoon in 2004 with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell as he works on Capitol HillDurango Herald Photo Editor Jerry McBride had the chance to spend an afternoon with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 2004, photographing him during meetings and around the Capitol.

Durango Herald Photo Editor Jerry McBride had the chance to spend an afternoon with the late Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 2004, photographing him during meetings and around the Capitol.

Photos and video: ICE protests return to DurangoAbout a dozen protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving with a detainee on Thursday

About a dozen protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving with a detainee on Thursday

A historic house in Serbia’s capital hangs on with intimate theatrical productions

Tourism in Cuba plummets as tensions with US increase and Venezuela oil shipments drop

Year-end numbers show visitation to Durango-La Plata County Airport higher in 2025 than 2024

Horses leap through flames and pets go to church in Spanish animal rituals honoring St Anthony

Olympic visitors to Milan get a rare chance to glimpse restoration of a long-hidden Leonardo gem

Winter storm could bring heavy snow to San Juan Mountains

FLC Outdoor Pursuits to run 16-day Antarctica ski trip for alumni and donors

No snow, no problem: The plastic slope surrounded by sheep that produced Britain’s top skier

Ancient Rome meets modern technology as tourists visit restored, frescoed home via livestream tours

An ice park without ice: How is outdoor industry dealing with a warm winter?

New Mexico communities prepare for Route 66 centennial celebrations all year long

An annual ode to ice is carved in frozen northern China

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