Grand Canyon
A guest entry by Sarah and Matt :)

Hola mis amigos!...Oh wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
After the overwhelming intensity of Las Vegas, we were very happy to reconnect with nature at the Grand Canyon. The first day, we found out that all the campsites at the bottom of the canyon were taken for that night, so we made plans to hike down the next day. We walked around the rim of the canyon, which was incredible. We'd heard that unlike many places, the Grand Canyon is even more amazing in person, and that was indeed the case. Pictures cannot accurately demonstrate how massive and Grand it really is.

                                                         Us at the top of the canyon

The next morning we loaded up our packs (a little too full, we discovered), and took the bus to the trailhead. There were a lot of very young, fit people on the bus, which was a bit intimidating. At the trailhead a group of Brazilian guys from our bus did a very long series of stretches. At first we felt self-conscious and wondered if we should be stretching, but after a while it became clear that they had no idea what they were doing!

The hike down was about 7 miles, and not too difficult. A lot of people take mules down, which costs $500 a day. The mule people had a definite attitude--they were pretty rude to us, especially the guides. There was nothing that could dampen our sprits, though. Being inside the canyon was breathtaking, and gave us a whole new perspective. As we walked down, each layer of rock left a different color dust coating our shoes, and we got a close look at all of the geologic layers.  We
also got to spread the news of Obama's victory to incredulous but very pleased hikers.

If we'd stopped at every spot with a nice view, we never would have made it down!

At the bottom by the river, we discovered that we were the first people from our bus to make it down, which made us feel pretty awesome. We also found out that there's a little village at the bottom of the canyon. Everything has to be carried down by mules, so it's very pricey to buy things at the restaurant ($47 for steak!) but we had a few Tecates there anyway. We had lots of fun playing games at Phantom Ranch (the restaurant) and at our campsite. We also enjoyed watching the Brazilian stretchers from that morning hitting on a group of French girls. Guess all that stretching was about to come in handy!

And then there was the hike back up. Oh boy, the hike back up. The trail we took, the Bright Angel, is a total of 9 miles, and in that distance you gain over 5,000 ft. in elevation. Without the packs, it might not have been so bad, but each of us was carrying at least 25 lbs. of weight on our backs. About 4.5 miles in, there's a campsite called Indian Garden where we stopped for lunch, and Ricardo informed us that we'd only gained about 1,500 ft of elevation (thanks to his amazing watch!), which meant that the next half of the trail was going to be much steeper. This was not a comforting notion.

Thankfully, the Bright Angel trail is very shaded, and the day was not too hot. Otherwise, we might still be down there! At a certain point, the elevation was high enough to make us breathless (the rim is 7,000+ ft.--almost 2,000 ft. higher than Denver!) and we were exhausted. We did not look very macho at this point. We were stopping every 5 minutes or so, cursing our heavy packs and casting envious eyes on the people doing day hikes, whizzing by carrying just a waterbottle and a camera. At some point we began to feel like the mules we encountered on the trail. They looked just as sweaty, weighed down, and miserable as we felt.

                                                      Human or mule? It's hard to say.



It was all worth it, though. We reached the top, and felt victorious! Victorious...and very sore. After eating some dinner, we camped outside the park, and made plans to head for Flagstaff in the morning. We thought we were leaving the area just in time to avoid a storm, but it turned out we were destined to be in it. More on that later!

Death Valley and Las Vegas: Enter Sarah and Matt!

The clock was ticking... we had one day left to get to Vegas to pick up our friends Sarah and Matt, who would be joining us for a portion of the trip.  The plan was to drive through Death Valley National Park and on to the Las Vegas airport by 7pm.

 

 

We got started early, and made the necessary stop at Badwater Basin, which, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in North America.  There is a small pool of water in the salt flats, that horses would refuse to drink because it was too salty, hence it was given the name "bad water". 

We took the "Artist's Palette" drive and saw the colorful mountains along the winding road.  It was a little tight in places, but Cubby did great!

 

 

On our way out of the park, we saw some signs for a "Special Event" happening that day.  We stopped to ask what was going on, and found out that they were having a 20-mule team demonstration.  They used to use mules to carry wagon loads of Borax out of Death Valley to the railway.  The loads were so heavy they needed 20 mules to do it - and this made the mule train so long that the last 6 mules had to jump the chain in order to make a turn - quite a spectacle!  This is where the name 20 Mule Team Borax comes from.

 

After watching the mules, we jumped back in the car - on our way to Las Vegas!!  We made it to Sin City with not much time to spare, but we managed to scope out a parking lot behind a restaurant where we could stay the night before we picked up Sarah and Matt.  Las Vegas was crazy - an endless blur of lights and sounds.

 

Obviously, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I won't go into much detail here... but I will divulge that we all got a little sucked in to the video poker machines and lost some money.  Our other adventures in Vegas will remain a secret... things that may or may not include such scandalous activities as....laundry!!!

 

We are excited to have Sarah and Matt joining us for the next couple months (or more if we can convince them!).  For their initiation, we are putting them in charge of the next blog post - Grand Canyon!  Stay tuned...

Hiking Yosemite's Half Dome, and More Big Trees

With less than a week to get from Sacramento to Las Vegas, we had to prioritize our time in the parks in between.  Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Death Valley National Parks were all so close by, but we decided to spend most of our time in Yosemite.  This is a park that we both had heard so much about.  We wanted to do the famous "Half Dome" hike.  When we arrived, we found out that the cables that allow people to climb up the last  - very steep - 400 feet of the dome had already been taken down for the season, and that without climbing equipment we wouldn't be able to reach the summit.  Disappointed but never deterred, we set out anyway, to see how far we could get.

 

 

 

We decided to camp halfway up the first night.  The ascent was steep and rough with heavy packs!

 

But the heavy packs proved to be worth it that evening with a nice campfire!

 

The next morning we left the packs at the campground and felt light as a feather for the rest of the way up.

 

When we reached the point where the cables USED to be, we continued climbing for a while, until it got too steep for us.  We resisted the urge to keep going on to the top with a look down - it was definitely getting a little precarious.

 

We satisfied ourselves with knowing that we made it almost to the top of Half Dome, and had we not had the bad luck of getting there out of season, we would have made it the whole way.  Not a very glamorous tale to tell, but ... c'est la vie.  We got back down to where our gear was waiting, and hauled it down the long, steep path back.  Until next time, Half Dome...

 The very evening we got back from hiking Half Dome happened to be Halloween.  We learned that there was to be a special event called a "Cemetery Walk" in Yosemite's cemetery and went to check it out.  We wandered between gravestones as a guide dressed in period clothing told interesting stories about some of the people who are buried there.  It was a unique way to spend Halloween, but those poor kids all dressed up in costume just wanted some candy, I'm afraid!

 

 

We went to Kings Canyon National Park next and spent the night in a campground there.  We had an unexpected guest at dinner, a little raccoon we named "Coonie".  She was not shy about begging for food!  She even climbed up on the picnic table and tried to steal things when our backs were turned.  She was a little charmer though, and in the end I think she ate about half our food!

 

 

In Sequoia National Park, we were again amazed at beautiful, towering trees.  The Coastal Redwoods that we had seen earlier in our trip are the tallest trees in the world, but the Giant Sequoia is the largest tree by volume.  Just look at these enormous trunks!

Ricardo with General Grant, the widest tree in the park.

General Sherman, the largest known tree, by volume, in the world

 

In Sequoia National Park we had one last stop, Moro Rock.  Moro Rock is called Sequoia's "Half Dome" - but the difference is that you can drive almost the whole way there.  Yes, it's the easy way out, but we were running short on time.  We parked at the bottom and climbed the 400 stairs to get up to the top - a cool trip regardless!  The view from the top was spectacular.  And at least we really made it to the top of this one :)

 

If you notice the winding road behind me in the last picture, that was our way down and out of the park and toward Death Valley and Las Vegas.... that post soon to come!

 

Frisco and Sacramento

So we went from the great Redwoods in the North of California down somewhere else. Let me tell you that never in my life did I even imagine I could or would ever see something like that!!! I have seen many things, but that is simply amazing. If you ever walk among these giant trees, and not only from the road taking pictures and getting back in your car! I mean really walk among those giants, a few miles at least, grasping every moment, breathing the smell of the earth, which really has a special smell there, and see the difference in the light from the morning to noon,too evening and night (because you have to walk a few miles at night!) you will see what I mean. One day I'll be back there for sure, for my eyes will never let me forget that wonder!

This is not even the giant redwood trees and still they take my breath away!

So even when you have been travelling for almost two months and you get used to see new things every day, you will have to sometimes remember to close your mouth!


I felt like I was in The Lord Of The Rings!
 

So on we go to San Francisco to meet a couple of great friends: Diego and Helen! We rush to the city for several hours, including a nice barbecue on the beach on our way there (we thought we had plenty of time)

Aren't you jealous?? This was a great view, food, and even Chilean Music!

We made it to the city way too late! they had already arrived hours before and were waiting for us at their hotel. We managed to take a couple of pictures as we crossed the  Golden Gate Bridge, or whatever it is called, in the middle of the night.

Diego and Helen are among the most awesome people you will eve meet! They flied all the way from Tampax, Florida, just to meet with us. They booked a hotel in the middle of the city and they let us stay with us for the whole time we all spend there, It was great!

Diego is from Chile and Helen is from the US. They met in Chile several years ago and now they have moved to Florida, although after this visit to Frisco they are seriously considering moving there instead.

The first night we went out we had a few beers and Helen and Jocelyn went back to the hotel, leaving Diego and I to do some city exploring! We had a great time! Most of the night we were lost because we had never been there before, but we managed to talk to several awesome people and find a place that was still open and sold us some more beer! We walked quite a bit, but with the daylight next day, it was pretty hard to really remember where we had been! We talked about many things, including life and death, our lives in a different country, human behaviour, religion, politics...too many things to count! He is one smart and very liberal being, and we had been freinds for a very long time!

The next morning we all went sight seeing in the city, which lasted pretty much the whole day. We visited the downtown area, and then we took a boat that went undet the Golden Gate Bridge, or whatever, and the famous Alcatraz Island! That was something to see! First we went to a bunch of places then we visited China Town!

 

We went to different areas and out of the blue I was asked to perfom with a local group of Chinese musicians! That was quite something, and I can now add it to my resume, hehe.

After that we visited Alcatraz (not really, we were not allowed to dock there, just to circle the island) and we went to a restaurant and went back to the hotel for some rest.

 

Next morning we left the hotel for some more sight seeing in the town. Despite being travelling for almost two months, Frisco really is a beautiful city! I'm absolutely sure I will come back there some day, and probably under different circumstances. Diego and Helen, you guys rock!

So after saying goodbye to our great friends, we headed for Sacramento to meet up with another friend I met in Chile about 10 years ago, Sonja, who's been living there for a couple of years.

She took us wine tasting in the area and even though I'm not much of a wine kind of person, I did enjoy these ones quite a bit!
Sonja is a great friend and she has actually travelled and lived in many different countries.
After the tasting we went to the actual old town of Sacramento for a walk and some history tours of the gold fiever from the 1840`s and 1850`s in the area. Sacramento has been the only town so far still has that  "Old West" kind of look. I really enjoyed that town.

Finally we went to a Mexican restaurant for some tacos or whatever and believe it or not, we were treated with a nice "Mariachi" band that actually sang several songs that we requested, including a few that I used to sing myself. That was fun!

This band was really good and gave us a short taste of what it is soon to come once we cross into Mexico.
After dinner we went to the more modern part of town for a beer and then to bed. Next morning we said goodbye to Sonja and left. We didn't make it more than 10 miles when the car started giving us trouble. We managed to stop at a car repair shop and found out that we had to replace the distributor, which had gone so bad it wasn't even turning anymore!
We got it fixed and on we went...to Yosemite!!!!
But that is a new post, so ready this one first! ;)