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‹ Previous (26/05/2010) MONTH Next (2010-07-25)› ‹ Previous (2010-10-08 - Canada) COUNTRY Next (2011-01-23 - Mexico)› US Joshua Tree National Park (see on map) 25/06/2010:
After spending two weeks in two major cities of the U.S. west coast, the next two or three weeks we wanted to spend visiting the National Parks of California, Arizona and Utah. For this reason we put the central city of Las Vegas as `base camp` of our explorations. Surely we did well, because after spending two days driving with temperatures near and above 40 º C (on the coast we never went above 30 ° C), we needed a night and morning to recharge the batteries, including those of our computers and cameras. However, the natural parks we visited on the way they deserved more than our suffocation. Departing from San Diego, we crossed the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, a mountainous area that appeared to have burned years ago, but kept quite attractive. Then we crossed the arid desert of Anza Borrego, which was occupied in parts by small towns and installed mobile homes that appeared to be there for years. We loved how there were people living in this furnace, but the conditions which seemed to live in were much better than those of the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa. Africans are living a truly desperate situation because they had to subsist on the resources provided by the desert, unlike those Americans who, cooled with air conditioning, import everything, including water, in the cities. Towards the end of the afternoon we entered the Joshua Tree National Park and camped in a parking lot in front of lush palm trees that had lived centuries ago and later indigenous prospectors. The next day, just woken up to the sunrise, we made a walk of an hour and a half behind the palm desert, following a path through the sand, rocks and desert plants to an abandoned gold mine, which was excavated in the bedrock. At the back we stopped at the park information center, where we paid $ 80 between the two for a card that would allow us to go for a year to all U.S. national parks without paying anything more. And finally, take the road of the park, find the first Joshua tree. We thought it would be the only Joshua Tree Park and Alexandra almost convinces me to stop to photograph that solitary specimen, but a few miles later we began to find more, many in some areas were virtually Joshua Tree forest. But the visual spectacle did not end here, because we had the park also reserved large tracts of cactus, interesting rocky hills, natural water reservoirs, peaks with great views, ... I would have stayed all day walking and driving different ways and small roads of the park, but we had to get to Vegas before dark and so mid-afternoon we left.
On the way to Las Vegas we were surprised to find a great salt lake and, on the historic Route 66, a tree lying dry and full of shoes hanging from its branches. We commented on this image to Justin, the great host who hosted us that night and told me that this tree was known and was called the shoes tree (The Tree of shoes), but when searching for information online, we found that there were many other tree shoes all over the world, a curious thing. Justin told us the story of Las Vegas, a city in the middle of the desert, but also a place where water had always been, where once had been inhabited by natives or Indians. Since the arrival of the colonizers, Las Vegas became an obligatory stopping point for caravans that went from East to West. But the city's importance grew after 1930, when construction of the dam near Hobbes brought many workers, who were encouraged by low taxes and legal gambling. And the last great transformation began in 1950 when the mobster Bugsy Malone built a luxury casino in the city, a bet that everyone felt a loss, but eventually triumphed. This was how the city was becoming a center of gambling, entertainment and fun in general throughout the United States. I asked Justin if his teenage years had been special because he grew up in Las Vegas and he said no, but he was too used to having anything close on the weekends or open at night in Las Vegas and you could go to lunch or shopping at any time. Then he added that it was difficult to get used to accept that in other cities, the bars close early, but you still feel thirst and money in your pocket. Talking about travel, Justin said that Americans are generally very innocent and they can easily generate cultural misunderstandings, they are used to travel the country, large but not significant cultural changes, unlike the rest of the world, which is very diverse and with multiple borders every few miles. Finally, Justin mentioned that the U.S. has no history like Europe and that the most interesting things to visit are the parks and not the cities, which do not have the attraction of Europe. Thus, as we had planned and as being advised by Justin the next week we started visiting some of the interesting natural parks of Utah and Arizona. And really the Parks that we visited fascinated us. We visited many places, sleeping in the road, showers with water bottles hidden in the woods, feeling the heat from time to time (finally we had to put gas in the air conditioning of the Chevy van), other times enjoying the cool temperatures and fast wind ... It was an intense week, but I would have prolongued it, visiting places that were pointed as side things on paper or by visiting the most remote National Parks, by car or on foot. But Alexandra is feeling bad and tired with the heat or the discomfort of sleeping in the car, eating uncooked foods or take a shower with bottles of water and was pushing me to leave faster. On the other hand, and I do not want to lose the traditional celebrations of July 4 in a major city like Las Vegas. So on Saturday night, after having enjoyed visually some of the most fantastic places on earth, we again drove to Las Vegas where we had intended to return to recharge our batteries for the next visits.
We were surprised by the cool weather of this Natural Park in the desert that raises on a rock mass, creating landscapes that we could remember from Switzerland. Bryce Canyon National Park (see on map) 29/06/2010:
One of the parks that fascinated us most, especially the walk I did below the rocky forest of needles that inhabited the canyon. Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim (see on map) 30/06/2010:
Visiting these fantastic views I wondered which part of the biological or cultural evolutionary cause was the cause in humans of such fascination for the great works and monuments of nature. Coyote Buttes, the wave (see on map) 02/07/2010:
Definitely one of the most fascinating places visited. A little gem hidden among red mountains that brings us geology psychotropic dreams. A paradise for photographers. Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim (see on map) 03/07/2010:
Tired of so many visitings, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon surprised us less that the North Rim, especially because that day was a Saturday and there was so many people that we could not take any of the public buses to the most isolated areas of the park. 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. ‹ Previous (26/05/2010) MONTH Next (2010-07-25)› ‹ Previous (2010-10-08 - Canada) COUNTRY Next (2011-01-23 - Mexico)› |
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