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Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (04/06/2010) MONTH Next (2010-08-03)› ‹ Previous (2010-10-08 - Canada) COUNTRY Next (2011-01-23 - Mexico)› US Las Vegas, NV (see on map) 08/07/2010:
We returned from the parks and we wanted to relax and unwind, and that`s what we did at the house of Justin, where we met for a few hours , his charming wife Heather. Justin treated us great again, letting us to feel at home editing photos and writing the diary of the last week in the parks. But in the afternoon of the second day, July 4th, we celebrated the popular celebration of independence commemorated in the United States Constitution in 1776. First we went to dinner, still under the sunlight, to Justin`s parents house, which welcomed us with open arms. While we ate delicious burgers and hot dogs, Justin`s father was extremely happy to be able to hear one of our travel stories, while showing us his fascination with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Marching however, the family surprised me to combine the passion for communism with the worship of Catholic icons, which adorned the garden. Then Justin took us to the heart of Vegas, where the Strip or Las Vegas Boulevard, surrounded by the most extravagant casino hotels I have ever seen: Luxor Hotel Casino with a large black pyramid and a sphinx entry , New York Hotel Casino, with a reproduction of the eastern city, including Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn bridge; Hotel Casino Paris, with a high reproduction of the Eiffel Tower, Hotel Casino Venice reproducing the canals and buildings characteristic of the Piazza San Marco, and so dozens more that I could further describe here. We were also surprised the crowd of people who were waiting on the sidewalks to undertake the famous fireworks of the night of July 4, which began with us still in the car because all the parking lots were full. Fortunately, the rocket took off just ahead of us, behind Caesars Palace Hotel Casino, where we had been detained in traffic. The show did not seem to exceed expectations, but was gradually increasing the level of spectacular lights exploding in the sky until the fireworks finally managed to start many whistles and applause from the audience. Without lowering from the car, we headed for the Fremont Street that houses the oldest casinos in the city. It was less glamorous than the south of the Strip, it was interesting to walk along this historic street full of half decadent casinos where they played mostly local people. However, the street was reluctant to fall into disgrace and in various corners of the casinos had installed some scenarios where groups played music that sounded pretty good and met quite a few spectators. Before coming to Las Vegas I had believed that the visits to natural parks do not occupy as many days and had announced to Justin that we would leave after July 4. Unfortunately, once in, we could not further lengthen our stay, because Justin had agreed in advance to accommodate other girls from Couchsurfing. Luckily, our friend Jordan in Hollywood had long proposed to stay with his parents who lived in Las Vegas and they were delighted to be staying with them. With the help of the GPS we we arrived in a wealthy suburb and then to the home of Steve and Anna, who welcomed us to marvel at their mansion in the English style: over-decorated with small objects and full of plants growing wild in the garden and the portal. That night, Steve and Anna took us to lunch at a restaurant, as we talked about their son Jordan, who had already announced he will soon begin his life of travels. They were also interested in our trip, with a little envy, as they too had always dreamed of travelling more, although they met very young when they were in the Central African Republic, where Steve`s father had come to manage a ranch and the father of Ann to make a mineral exploration. During dinner and the following days, Steve also told us about life in Las Vegas, a city free of racism or social exclusion ( Justin also had told us something similar) for to build Hoover Dam and later the city around everybody was welcome. In this way the communities are not isolated and have never existed separations between communities with a Jewish neighbourhood, a Little Italy, a `China town `,... although judging by some comments from Steve, maybe it was an exception and the African American population was not entirely welcome. In other conversations, Steve also gave us a share of the madness surrounding the world of gambling in Las Vegas, explaining such a case from a direct source, the casino owner of Treasure Island for whom he was building a house. In 1995 a bum entered the casino with $ 400 payed by the social security and began to bet on black jack, starting immediately to win despite not using any conventional strategy. Soon began to increase their bets so in a week he had a profit of $ 1.6 million. But throughout the week, Wynn kept him in the hotel, inviting him to the best rooms, travel by limousine, delicious buffets, drinks, ... with the sole intention to make him keep playing, something that ultimately proved beneficial to the casino, as the homeless man eventually lost almost all the benefits the following day, however remaining with $ 40,000 in his pocket. Explaining more stories from casinos, Steve also told me the case of Terrance Watanabe, the biggest loser in Las Vegas, who in the course of 2007 year lost $ 112 million in Las Vegas, owning $ 14.7 million to casinos . Naturally, the casinos had sued Terrance , but the man had fought back by denouncing the casinos that they have gotten him drunk and made him play under the influence of pain killers. And like this, Steve said many other stories that convinced me of the stupidity of playing the money in the casinos, like Bergstrom, who made one of the highest stakes of the story in 1980 in Las Vegas, betting on $ 777.000 in a single roll. Fortunately, that day Bergstrom won, but not the next, when he bet $ 1 million in another single shot, he lost. But his bid was even higher shortly after when his life was played in Russian roulette, which he eventually lost. Despite all the stories, Steve told me that the people that grow up in Las Vegas usually do not play in casinos, because they know that the casinos always have the upper hand, and basically those who bet are the tourists, but also many American retirees who retire to Las Vegas to live the rest of life plugged to a slot machine. We had gone to downtown of Las Vegas with Justin, but for another evening I managed to get Alexandra out of the comfortable house of Steve and Anna and we returned to the Strip to enjoy the free entertainment with which the casinos attract customers: a large aquarium in downtown Silverton Hotel Casino, the largest collection of vintage cars offered for sale in the Imperial Palace hotel casino, a volcano that explodes occasionally at the Mirage hotel-casino, pirates and mermaids fighting in Treasure Island hotel and casino the fountain with lights that is illuminating the Bellagio casino hotel. Anyway, soon we could see, because after four hours of discovering a small part of the casinos Alexandra was already exhausted and begged me to leave. We had been walking for a while inside Paris casino hotel, whose interior was decorated with houses, shops and restaurants under a Parisian beauty of blue sky painted on the ceiling. It was at this casino where we saw a man who won $ 3,000 in two bets, as he was bragging to the other players at the table that he was a person of extreme risk, but in the next two plays he lost $ 4,000, disappeared from the table in a blink of an eye and without a trace. We saw similar stories in other casinos that wevisited, in addition to observing the people in the street sometime asking for charity, many with signs like `No lie, I need money to get drunk,` as if it were the only way to win over or fellow tourists. Naturally Alexandra asked me to try her luck and lost $ 20 in one play, even less luck than the $ 10 I bet and lost that night we went out with Justin. That night, on the first pitch of roulette I won $ 5, but in the next three runs I lost everything, leaving a feeling of frustration and need to remain committed to recover the lost $ 10. Fortunately we are not fooled and it will not be us who we fatten the coffers of Las Vegas.
We left to the National Park Dead Valley (Valley of Death) at 9 am, after Anne gave us foods for our refrigerator, which was filled to bursting and, as she said, if we do not take she would feel hurt. We reached the top of a hill overlooking the valley hell (Dante`s view) close at noon and I was glad that the winds of the coast drew some clouds. Although we put gas in the air conditioning a week before, it had evaporated, and we were again driving with the windows open. He knew that the temperatures down in the valley (to 86m below the sea level) could be terrifying and hoped that at times the clouds would be blocking the sun. I do not know what temperatures we would have reached without the clouds, but as we descended into the hell the thermometer was up to 50 ° C (122 º F), with some points of 51 º C. Actually the heat was unbearable, although I knelt and I walked over some sea salt and lengthen the path leading up to the golf course the devil and to the artist`s palette. Alexandra wanted to kill me, but she died first: lost energy so fast that it almost ceased to protest, I have always claimed that if she had listened we would have gone to six in the morning and we would have found much less heat. To visit the north of the valley, we decided to climb the mountains, where the 37 º C were comforting, and after a snack and cool off with ice and fresh water we came down to visit the so-called Scottish castle, which was already closed. The north of the valley was higher and the sun was setting, but temperatures were still exhausting. But we visited the spectacular crater of a volcano of steam that exploded about 300 years ago, and then we headed south with the intention of seeking a high point where we could sleep without being hot. Surprisingly, down in the valley temperatures were rise again to 47 º C, despite driving on black night, when we pulled the hand out the window the air was burning. Actually that place was hell. To the west of the park we began to climb a small road until you reached a height of around 2000 meters where the temperature stood at 27 º C and finally we could relax and sleep. The next day, taking advantage that we had not left the park, we drove through a path leading to another interesting view of the valley (imagine people screaming in agony below), to a house and abandoned gold mine and even some large ovens located close to a coal mine. Then we went down the other side of the mountain, leaving the national park, where the valley temperatures increased again to 43 º C. This time, Alexandra did not entirely lost energy and was screaming for a long time that she did not want to be more warm but she was silent when I showed her the map and the route we had to take, after crossing some plains, until Sierra Nevada Mountains.
We had to go down to the plains of California to be able to rise again to the natural parks of Sierra Nevada, so we stopped at a Cowboys bar of a small town to see the World Cup final. It was a victory oworked and deserved by the Spanish and Catalan team members and in the end we celebrated in a Macdonals (the budget did not allow for much more). Then, we stopped to buy food and also a FM transmitter for the iPod of Alexandra, because we were both tired of listening to some U.S. radios, which every now and then surprise you with a religious message or a song about Jesus. Finally, after connecting to the Internet for free at a library, we headed towards the National Park of giant sequoias. Having ascended a long and winding road that afternoon we enjoyed views of the mountains and forests from Moro Rock and then a nice clearing in the forest, looking down the road to eight bears. At night, Alexandra was obsessed with bears paranoid and shit scared if she had to go out to pee at night, commenting every now and then that in Romania the bears killed or attack many people each year, or every hour. Fortunately we woke up alive the next day and after breakfast we did some interesting walks through the park and the next King Canyon, surrounded by centuries-old Sequoia and some few of thousands of years. The most impressive and enormous had been baptized, as the giant General Sherman, the tree with the most voluminous trunk in the world, with 1487 meters hight ,1.385 cubic tons, which was passed in diameter by the General Grand Tree, accessed at night, with 33 meters in circumference and 12 meters in diameter. Although the two trees should measure about 80 meters high, were overtaken by other redwoods that can reach 115 meters (resulting in the highest trees in the world), had no record of longevity, because even if they had 2200 and 1700 years respectively, there are other redwoods that have reached the 3,500 years and for sure with a lot of stories to tell.
To go to the next park, we had to go back down to the warm plains, through Fresno, from where we started to climb again to the beautiful Yosemite National Park, about 3,000 meters. Apart from enjoying the cooler temperatures we are also delighted by the views of the rocky mountains, waterfalls and snowy peaks. Unfortunately, apart from admiring the views, Alexandra also read a poster reporting that the bears could break the windows of cars and get in if they smelled food, and became paranoid, unable to sleep all night, getting up every now and then shouting that had to be the bear. On the other hand, we were also camping illegally and feared that the Rangers wake us at night to communicate that we had to leave the park to continue the dream. But none of those things happened. The next day Alexandra stayed in the car resting after a sleepless night while I made a magnificent 3 hour hike to the foot of Yosemite waterfall, the highest in North America with 739 meters of altitude, and walked three hours more to marvel at the Vernal and Nevada Falls. As I walked, I asked myself again what was the cause or ulterior motive that drove humans to make great efforts to see natural spectacles fascinating and rewarding only on an emotional level.
We were surprised that the temperature rose from 20 º C in Yosemite to 40 º C in the plains, to come down to the acceptable 30 ° C in San Leandro, a few miles from San Francisco, where Kevin was waiting for us, and who wonderfully hosted us for several days. But we were surprised that Kevin informed us we had to go with warm clothes to visit San Francisco, because just across the bay temperatures could drop to 20 or 10 º C. As he explained, the high temperatures of the plains rose the warm air above and the cold air of the sea penetrated to the interior, the currents coming from Alaska. And really, the next day afternoon, when he and his partner Francisco led us to the famous city we could not help but recall a famous line from Mark Twain ´The coldest winter I ever lived was a summer in San Francisco.´ And not just the cold was the problem, but also from the ocean the fog hid the beauty of San Francisco. As Kevin and Francisco explained, the city was a cultural landmark, both today and in the sixties when the hippie culture grew up around Haight Street, even now a more obscure neighbourhood or neo-hippie San Francisco . After hinting that they were both gay, they told us that San Francisco was a city wide open, showing at the same time the Castro district, with shops aimed at the gay clientele. At the same time, San Francisco is a city where minority cultures are kept distinct with pride as Chinatown, where you actually breathed the essence of that country, or the shopping center full of restaurants offering Japanese sushi or shops selling very curious products. But apart from culture, San Francisco also thrives economically, with a large business district dotted with skyscrapers, known as the Wall Street West. In other areas, San Francisco was able to maintain the calm of nature, with its vast Golden Gate Park, which retained the same name of the bridge that connects the cold Pacific Ocean San Francisco Bay. At that point, the bridge had been a Spanish military garrison, but it now raises into the current San Francisco icon, the famous Golden Gate Bridge, built between 1933 and 1937, with a total length of 2737meters. Invited to dinner several times by Kevin and Francisco (one night of which we celebrated my birthday), we had good chances to talk about their work: Francisco was a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, explaining the case of a patient, and Kevin was a mathematician, explaining that mathematic knowledge was advancing ahead of science, fascinated by the beauty of the numbers and unconcerned about the practical applications of their findings, although in the future they would surely. During another conversation, I thought that surely the American society was more religious than Europe, declaring I was surprised when Kevin declared he was a Christian (also Francisco believed in God) but also explain that for a long time they suffered from the immorality in which Catholicism was treating homosexuality. Fortunately, now he had discovered other Christian groups expressing their sexual nature without recrimination. We talked about many fascinating topics with Kevin and Francis, just as interesting that the answers that Kevin brought to the project taking the pulse of the world, being the first person I interviewed in America (sorry the sound quality was not very good, I have to buy a good micro). Kevin said that the main problem the world is that people do not see that they are interconnected with the rest of humanity, acting consistently with selfishness and materialism, a problem perhaps inherent to humans but on a personal level can be changed. The biggest problem in California is the Conservative Republican who does not believe in taxes or the involvement of society, causing regional and international conflicts, a problem that can be solved on a personal level acting minimally different. Kevin is a happy person, but sometimes feel unhappy because of the emotional imbalances, would be happier to be more compassionate with himself, similar to the secret of happiness: Do not take yourself too personally.
On Tuesday morning we went to San Leandro and left the San Francisco Bay back up through the rugged and beautiful north coast of California to Redwood National Park that we visited the next day. Redwood groups several huge redwood forests, among which are trees higher than 115m. Anyway, to protect its delicate ecosystem, the park rangers do not reveal their exact locations. The redwood forest is kept similar to the natural park´s forest of redwoods, previously visited, so what surprised us most were other aspects of the park, such as elks grazing, or the rugged coastline , where you could watch from a distance a couple of whales. Grants Pass (see on map) 21/07/2010: In the afternoon, after visiting the Redwood National Park, we crossed Rouge River, and arrived a small town near Grants Pass, where we hoped to meet Do Lee, a funny american woman who we had met in Athens two years ago, after the African trip. When we had met the American women Do Lee in Greece she had seemed an impulsive woman and a little peculiar, and so she still was the same in the United States, where she was taking care of a friend who was dying of cancer, a job that kept her joy suppressed. It was interesting for me to spend two afternoons with her and her friend as the two had had a life a little more rugged than our previous guests and allowed me to capture other side of the United States. Many of her friends had been hooked to drugs and marijuana, with the latter currently available in California, where it is readily prescribed to terminally ill patients and rebound to anyone interested. The friend of Do Lee also told us that she had been arrested twice for driving with .08% alcohol in the blood (about 3 beers for a person weighing 64kg), something considered a grave offense punishable with a few days in jail. She complained about the large amount of money you should invest for you to regain your driver´s license, but also considered it important to attend all mandatory lectures in which several witnesses explained how alcohol and conduct affected their lives and made it miserable. While I thought about what the girl explained about the U.S. legislation I thought that it was harsh, but then I consulted on the Internet about Spain and webegin to punish before, from 0.05% (0.5 g / liter), although it was not considered a criminal penalty till more than 0.12% (1.2 g / liter). Moreover, as we are here there is another statistic worth mentioning that we obtained by looking online, where Spain consisted as one of the countries with the highest alcohol consumption per capita, ahead of the United States, perhaps because of the religiosity of much of society but also for the taxes that keep the prices of alcoholic beverages rather high. Parque Nacional del Lago del Cráter (see on map) 23/07/2010:
Crater Lake National Park was another place that we loved for its spectacular and dramatic lanscape, with the rugged slopes of the crater partially snowed and the deep lake waters colored in blue. According to studies, depression and subsequent lake occurred when a large volcano exploded and collapsed a mountain about 7700 years ago. It was nice to go drive the 50 miles of perimeter around the crater, with a typical access most visited of United States offer. Anyway I had to go away from the car to be totally immersed in nature, and did a walk for a couple of hours going through a sustained way until one of the highest peaks along the lake. Portland, OR (see on map) 26/07/2010:
On the way to Portland we stopped next to a couple of lakes where the road passed, and then tried to visit some old wooden covered bridges in Oregon that I had marked on the GPS. Unfortunately many of the covered bridges were gone, still we found one through which we passed, making us arrive happy to Portland. In Portland we were received by Terry, a woman who was hosting at the same time Malene, a teacher from Mallorca who was making a trip of six weeks in West United States. It was funny when Terry began to explain her relationship with her unsociable neighbours, but, as in most U.S. homes, their gardens are all unfenced and communicate. Alexandra got along very well with Terry and Malene and the next day went with them, ´women day´ she said, while I stayed at home writing the blog and meditating on the possibility of starting to write my second book , describing our crazy African adventures. Although we spent a great day with Terry, the next afternoon we were greeted by another couple of CouchSurfing, Chris and Jen, who had not been able to host us on our first night in Portland. We spent three days with them, sharing three different intimate evenings playing board games (Carcassonne and Dominion) until after midnight. The games were so absorbing that during the night, and even when we wake up, our brain never stopped trying and studying new plays or strategies, urging us to continue playing. Inevitably, humans have evolved to play, an activity that allows us to learn and further develop. Alexandra wanted to convince me to buy one of the games to play at night, but I refused, because these three nights I had been too obsessed. Furthermore, it should start writing the book describing our African adventures, if I wanted to have a chance to publish before next year at Saint Jordi. On the other hand, the trip continues to be a game, which is providing me with learning and the development I´m looking for, connected to reality, unlike the games. Possibly by being so absorbed by the game and disconnecting from reality we restricted our communication with Chris and Jen on a more superficial level, although they accommodated us wonderfully. Despite the desire to continue playing the rest of the day, we went out on the first day visiting the city of Portland and relaxing the rest of the afternoon in the garden of roses, with lovely flowers that had become the emblem of the city. Without wishing to pay for parking that was too expensive in the city center, the next day we decided to go out and visit the nearby Hood mountain with extensive patches of snow through which many skiers descended. In the afternoon we returned to Portland crossing the mighty Columbia River, where dozens of fans took advantage of the constant wind to glide through the water with windsurfing or kite boards.
After saying goodbye to Chris and Jen we drove to the northern Oregon coast, as many people said it is one of the most fascinating sections of the American coast. After parking the car we made a short walk to the beautiful beach that our hosts recommended. Then we went to another beach , Cannon, with large rocks, quite charming, despite the place being so crowded with tourists. Then we just arrived to Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River, where we could admire some of its Victorian houses and then crossed the river to enter the new state of Washington. At night, rereading the beginning of the day, when a jovial girl introduced us on the plane, I realized that Americans are much more open than Europeans and network or communication more easily. For example, if cooking in a rest area or at the table in a park and someone walks by the side is not unusual to stop and ask Alexandra ´mmm, what a good smell, what are you cooking?´. Alexandra has also been approached in more than one occasion to be asked about her mini-computer ´does it work like an ordinary computer?´. Or contact me when the camera focused in a natural park, ´If you climb this mountain, you take a picture even better.´
The Washington State coast charmed us more than the northern Oregon, but continues being covered by this mysterious low clouds that keep hiding the sun, which otherwise could not stop shining a dozen miles inland. Without any reference we visited Rugby beach, with several large rocks to receive the onslaught of waves and worn many tons of logs resting on the beach. A similar landscape waiting for us at Rialto Beach, where still many more logs were piled up, probably washed out to sea by the floods and returned to earth by ocean currents. Having stayed north of Olympic National Park the next day we climbed around an hour and a half(round trip) to the Hurricane hill, where we enjoyed a wonderful view over the mountain ridge of Mount Olympic. Then we took the car and headed east to take a ferry to Seattle, where we were expect by yet another great couple of CouchSurfing. Seattle, WA (see on map) 02/08/2010:
To be able to leave from the Olympic Peninsula to Seattle we lost two ferries, but fortunately we got enough early to have dinner with Jeff and Carol, a delicious red salmon on the barbecue. Then we went to his car and headed to a cultural centre in the city where Jeff and Carol were practising already for a couple of years English dances. Despite the experience of the attendees who were all very friendly and teaching us to dance the steps or necessary movements. Finally, after nearly three hours dancing, no one was hurt; just we were very tired and almost turned into some experts. It was interesting to recall the group dances that so often appear in the historical films of England and understand the social role they had at the time. The next day, Saturday, we spent the day between charming people, when Jeff and Carol took us to a party of friends and family to a bay, where we collected shells at low tide, we made a short trip in a kayak and we got full with a good lunch-dinner. After spending the Sunday resting and editing photos and writing the diary, on Monday we went early morning to Downtown, where it was found the Canadian embassy. We were there all morning waiting in different queues until finally we got a single-entry visa to Canada for Alexandra. I would have liked to go up to Vancouver and possibly Calgary, but finally decided to pay only $ 75 for a single entry instead of $ 150 for multiple entry. In any case, surely we would enjoy a lot the road that we had to take from Bellingham to the National Park North Cascades and Glacier National Park. Leaving the embassy we took the opportunity to visit a little the downtown and the busy market next to the sea. Later, returning to the car we were in a central square where an organization or the council had placed a large chessboard with giant pieces under the shade of some trees and several guys who lined up to play. When it came my turn I had to play with one who knew a lot and ended up losing both games. In any case it was fun to play facing the board with a totally different perspective and running the plays walking on black and white squares and take the pieces killed on the opponent field as if they were real trophies. At night, after deciding that the next two days were going to visit Mount Rainier National Park and would make a break for our visit to Seattle, I spoke a while with one of the sons of Jeff, who had been studying and working in China for two years and had planned to march again in the future to Southeast Asia to settle and live there the rest of his life. Talking about our fascinating journey through all the diverse cultures of the world, again Both asked me the same question that Jordan did in Hollywood: ´Why you travel so long for America? After traveling for so many different cultures it must be a bit boring for you. Looking for a different response I said, ´You´re right, but is also very well touring the United States because the cultural proximity allows us to interact and learn more about the people. And on the other hand, discovering the landscapes is also fascinating, as in the rest of the world, but here it is much more care and easier access.´ |
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