Las Vegas to Los Angeles

 We are currently stuck in Santiago, Chile (because our flight to New Zealand last night was cancelled, thanks Qantas!) We hope to be able to fly out on Saturday night; in the meantime we are usimg the opportunity to catch up on the blog. The pic on the left shows the inflatable globe at Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level.

The temp. was 37 degrees at Death Valley, rather a change from Yellowstone! We scuttled out of the van to look at the "must see" sites, then back to the airconditioned cab.

At the lowest point is a dried up salt lake, the light reflecting off it is dazzling. Signs tell you not to walk past the end of the boardwalk, but of course everyone does. There were a surprising number of tourists there, in the back of beyond.

I (Jane) was quite glad to get out of there really, it was SO hot! The next stop was Lake Isabella. I drove from -282 feet to nearly 5,000 feet then down to nearly 2,000 feet on winding roads which were quite scary. Robin amused himself by watching the inflatable globe inflate and deflate again.

Our next overnight stop was Lake Isabella, a pretty location, however I got thoroughly bitten by mosquitos (why do they always go for me?) and did not sleep well. Next day a long drive to Yosemite. I had always wanted to see the giant sequoia trees there, after seeing a photo of a car driving through a tunnel in the base of one in National Geographic magazine when I was a child. That actual tree is no longer standing but there is one you can walk through, so I was not disappointed.

We camped at Wawona campground next to the river, and had a camp fire which Robin was very proud of! Next morning I insisted in a paddle in the river before we set off for the Valley. The view as you come out of the tunnel into the valley is stunning, and we had plenty of time to admire it as we were held up by roadworks!

Bridal Veil falls was great, it should have one of those signs up like at Thorpe Park, "You WILL get wet!", we did. Refreshing as it was a very hot day. 

The pic on the right is the view as you enter the valley.

Yosemite was beautiful, probably the prettiest of the National Parks we visited. Then we had another long drive to San Francisco. The road into the city itself was atrocious, so many potholes we were afraid the rattly old RV would finally fall apart. Coming into the city over the bay bridge there were 6 lanes either side and we were not entirely sure of our directions so it was a bit hairy to say the least. However we found the Candlestick Park RV park without too much difficulty in the end, it is right next to San Francisco's 49'ers stadium. It was expensive but the good point was a shuttle minibus into the city. We enjoyed our two days in SF,

one day we hired bikes and cycled along the seafront and over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito, then got the ferry back via Tiberon past Alcatraz and Angel Island. Once we handed the bikes in we had a Ghiradelli special, a chocolate-covered wafer bowl witha hot fudge sundae. We also got a free cable car ride up the hill (as the car was going to the garage) that made Robin's day as you can imagine!

The cable cars were fun, we had seats on the outside while some passengers hung on standing up. Our driver was doing a rap with the bell, something about "hold on tight, you have a bad driver and worse brakes!"

From San Francisco we set off to take Route 1 to Los Angeles. We drove through the 17-mile drive and saw Pebble Beach, near Monterey (very exclusive). Unfortunately at Carmel we discovered that the road had fallen into the sea at Big Sur, so we had to take a long detour, and made an unplanned stop at Avila Beach instead of Los Osos which had been recommended to us. We rejoined the coast road and stopped at Point Dume where we saw a pair of dolphins.

Then on to the Dockweiler RV park, our last night's stop in the RV. A soulless place right next to the airport, not quite what we'd expected, but it was convenient for finding the cruise America office the next morning where we handed back the van.

In LA we stayed one night at the Days' Inn on sunset strip. We weren't impressed by Hollywood, but we did find a very jolly Laundromat with an internet PC, and some chatty local residents. The next day we walked to the Farmers market, an ambitious undertaking when we realised the tourist map we had did not do justice to the distances involved, luckily we got a bus back. We also sampled a world famous Pinks hot dog (all hotdogs seem to be world famous!) That evening we successfully negotiated public transport (and saved a fortune) to the airport for our flight to Lima via San Salvador.

The next blog entry will, we hope, catch up with our travels in Peru.

A series of national parks

 Well next day and onto Bryce Canyon, which was at a much higher altitude and out of the semi-desert of Moab and Canyonlands. Bryce had some wonderful fins and hoodoos on the walls and base of the canyon. Jane drove us up a very curvy shoulder to Rainbow Point at 9115ft, terrifying both of us! We then drove down again stopping at each of the viewpoints all of which had something to offer. The next morning we decided to get up and watch the sunrise from Bryce point at 6.30am - however even though we made it the sun really struggled to join in, hidden behind clouds. The peaceful atmosphere was spoiled by a very loud american woman telling her friends very loudly everywhere she had been. Later that day we took a walk down into the canyon, through the Queens Garden and back up the Navajo trail via Wall Street - a really narrow canyon with really steep walls and a zigzag path back to the top. On leaving Bryce we drove onto Zion NP - coming from Bryce required us to drive through a very narrow tunnel where the roof was only high enough to drive the RV down the centre of the road for the whole 1.1miles - luckily they stop the traffic from the other direction as you do it.

 The next day we had a rest from driving whilst in the park as they have a wonderful shuttle bus system you can hop on and off as necessary. We took in a lovely walk past the emerald pools, spotting deer walking along the path as we did so, and walking under the waterfall shown opposite - from there it was down another mountainside path (the Yakenta trail) back to the grotto to pick up the bus again and take us up to the Riverside path, but this proved to be a  little disappointing as the Narrows at the far end were too full of water to allow us to wade up them. So it was back to pick up the RV and set off for our next destination which was Lake Powell.

Lake Powell was again surrounded by semi-desert and proved to be very disappointing - it was very hot and the Lake was a long way down. There was also absolutely nothing there! Our plan to take a boat up to the Rainbow Arch - one of the biggest in North America was thwarted by the fact that the boat couldnt get to the Arch as the water level was so low and it would need a hefty walk at each end, so as it was so hot and time was short we decided not to bother. We did have a walk along the beach though.

 Next day saw us on our drive to the Grand Canyon - the pure scale of which was difficult to comprehend - we entered from the east side and drove along the viewpoints on the desert view drive on the southern rim - the northern rim still being shut due to the weather. We parked up at the Mather campground for a couple of nights and walked a fair chunk of the perimeter trail (which does not go the full length of the canyon before you ask!) Theres a pic of the canyon on the right. We took in the sunset from Mather point (much easier to get up for than sunrise!), We went out to Hermits Rest and on the way back we actually had to put our rainjackets on due to a bit of hail, snow and rain .

 From there it was onto Las Vegas, but not without stopping at the Hoover  dam which has an equally spectacular bridge which you have to drive over to get to - the view from the bridge down to the dam was pretty amazing. We had a very tasty ice cream there, and spotted a iguana sat on the cliff face - about two foot long. (the iguana, not the cliff face!). From there it was on to Las Vegas, where we had a merry time trying to find the RV park, which due to roadworks appeared to have moved location - anyway once we had driven past it once or twice we eventually turned into it.

That evening we decided to visit the strip with all the casinos and entertainment. There is, however only a very limited public transport system in Las Vegas (thats the biggest understatement I have made in these blogs!) and it is a very long walk! We eventually made it, and managed to reach Caesars Palace. Whilst there I borrowed a dollar off Jane and managed to win 25 with my first go on a slot machine (Someone couldnt believe it, so here is the photographic evidence). Always quit when you are ahead so that was that on the gambling front! Las Vegas is like a giant adults playground, but the musical fountain was fantastic. Sadly the bus back went the wrong way and left us with another long walk but we did eventually make it back to bed! More in the next blog of what happened next.

from Seattle to Moab

On arrival at Cruise America we had to sit and watch a 20 minute video on how to operate the bus. Then we were given a plastic washing basket full of saucepans, crockery, bedding etc, and that was it. We set off for a supermarket first then got on the road. We were making for Yellowstone National Park but our first night´s stop was Ellensburg, Washington, then Missoula, Montana (where it rained a lot). The third night we entered Yellowstone and camped at Mammoth. Yellowstone was still covered in snow, and we saw elk and bison wandering through the camp. The next night it snowed, we felt sorry for the campers in tents. We saw Old Faithful, which erupted almost on schedule (apprx every 1 1/2 hours), and many other geysers and hot springs. All surrounded by snow, up to 10ft deep in places. Walking across one bridge on top of the snow we were  above the level of the handrails (see pic below).

The road through the Tetons was still closed by snow, so we had to take a long detour. We found our way to the campsite at Snake River by 8:30pm, very tired. When we woke up next morning it was so cold that the water pipe had frozen and we couldn´t get clean water in or dirty waterout. The next campsite was at Provo, south of Salt Lake City. We really, really wanted a beer but although the local garage had some we couldn´t buy it because it was Sunday.

The pics are a little ouf sequence, this is the snow-covered bridge at Yellowstone.

The next day we arrived at Moab where we stayed three nights and visted the Arches National Park, and Canyonlands. We got up early and got into the Archges by 8:30 am to miss the crowds. The pics below are of the Arches. There are several walking trails, we walked about 10 miles altogether that day and it was worth it. 

We saw some crazy antics by some visitors after dramatic photos, including a German  girsl doing ballet poses on top of Mesa Arch, 8ft wide with a sheet 1500 ft drop on the other side. (This theme was repeated later at the Grand Canyon...)

This is us with the Delicate Arch in the background.

The next day we visited Canyonlands; the highlight was Upheaval Dome which was either caused by a meteorite or salt pushing up from the rocks below, scientists are not sure, a very big hole in the ground anyway. The short hike over the rocks to see it was well worth it.

Campared to Snake River, the climate was much warmer at Moab, we even lay on the campsite´s picnic table that night to look up at the stars, which, so far away from big towns, so liuttle light pòllution, were clearly visible, including the Milky Way.

 

Cusco, Peru

Jane is writing this blog as Robin is currently on the Inca trail. I, being lazy and unfit have opted to spend three extra days in Cusco, a beautiful city with lots to do (and this internet cafe!)

We´ve been here in Peru since 20th May, we arrived in Lima then travelled by bus, stopping en route to visit Inca sites, to Arequipa, then flew from there to Cusco last Sunday 29th. Many of the group, including Robin, suffered 'Inca belly' en route, but all OK now. The flight from Arequipa was uneventful (and amazing views of the Andes) but just after we landed flames shot out of the right engine. The fire engine, which looked like Thunderbird 2, turned up and we had to sit on the tarmac for several minutes while lots of men in orange vests looked worried. Eventually we were towed to the gate and allowed to get off. The funny thing was that there was then an announcement 'all those who are going on to Juliaca please stay in your seats'!

The more northern part of Peru is desert, but this southern part is very beautiful, full of green valleys and small villages and towns surrounded by the snow-capped Andes. We have already visted lots of Inca sites, I will meet up with the trekkers at Macchu Picchu on Sunday afternoon. I will get there by train (with our tour guide) which I am looking forward to very much. The trekkers have gone with 2 local guides/porters per trekker, plus cook/assistant cooks etc! They will be camping so have all taken their thermal undies to sleep in! I am sure the photos will be amazing.

Sorry for the absence of photos in this post, I´ve not been able to connect my camera to this PC. And for the big gap - our RV trip through the USA. I hope we will be able to catch up with that at some time. We have hundreds of photos. My favourite of the National Parks I think was Bryce Canyon (google it for amazing photos of the 'hoodoos' if you have time), but Yellowstone, Yosemite, Arches National Park, etc were all very enjoyable, as was, in particular San Francisco - we cycled over the Golden Gate bridge. What wasn´t was the amount of distance we had to travel, we seriously underestimated it and did more than 4,000 miles in the end! The RV we had did only about 10 miles to the gallon too, and rattled and bumped the whole way! The wildlife was a highlight of the trip, we say buffalo, elk and deer in Yellowstone (easy to spot in the snow and when they are standing in the middle of the road!), but sadly (or maybe not) no bears. In San Francisco and then all down the pacific coast we saw pelicans, and near Malibu we saw sealions. Also lots of other birds, but I can´t remember their names - Robin has some good pics. My favourite so far is a tiny hummingbird - and the pelicans because they look so elegant and graceful when they fly. Oh and we saw condors here in Peru, in the Colca Canyon. Condors are very important to the Peruvians because they represent the realm of the sky. Time up here, so I'll sign off.