The border crossing between Panama and Costa Rica was surprisingly easy. We almost managed to miss both border controls. We understood this only when there were some confused questions at the Costa Rica side if we enter or leave the country. The whole place was a mess of arriving buses and trucks and stalls and merchandise everywhere. The area was a tax free zone which attracted a lot of people for all sorts of business. The Pan American highway was running through it with no obstacles and plenty of stalls and shops lined along it. We walked back over the border [View Full Entry]

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The Talamanca coast borders Panama and it was tempting to have a look over the border. We decided on a loop trip and left Costa Rica to Panama on the Caribbean cost and re-entered on the Pacific coast. The border already gave indications on the income differences between the countries. The average income in Panama is well below the 500US$ a month in Costa Rica. Rubber boots and skirts were in high demand. We had an unpleasant surprise when crossing the border. A rather rude woman told us to buy a return bus ticket and to get a tarjeta the tourista. [View Full Entry]

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I had remembered an old middle school friend who lived in Costa Rica since 15 years. We had e-mailed and were invited to his home. We had not seen each other since my last visit more than ten years ago. He and his wife surprised us with a delicious cheese and ham plate from the German butcher. It was very pleasant to sit on the terrace in the mild evening air, to enjoy the good food and to sip on a beer while exchanging the latest news about our life and recent events. We stayed two nights at his house and [View Full Entry]

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We left Durango after three nice days and went further east to reach our final destination Denver. The distances are still pretty big in Colorado and we did not fancy a 7 hour drive. We looked at the map and found a National Park called Sand Dunes. It was only 3-4 hours and a slight detour. We passed on the way the Rio Grande and crossed the water shed from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The Sand Dunes National Park turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It has the tallest dunes of North America and nice views of sand ridges [View Full Entry]

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We had known about the low taxes on US gasoline before our arrival. The prices seem on the first glance not so low for someone used to Euros and liters, but when you do the conversion exercise the result is shocking - a shocking low price. It is average 2.10 US$ for a gallon. A gallon is 3.8 liters. This is 55 US cent for the liter or a shocking low 40 Euro cent! Controversial thoughts crossed every time my mind when I filled up the car for a mere 30 US$. Not imaginable in Europe where you are used to [View Full Entry]

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We had done a lot of hiking and wanted a change from the National Parks. The Rocky Mountains were within a one day drive reach and we checked for the snow conditions in the ski resorts. Like in Europe, the ski season runs until mid of April and there was more than 1m snow. The nice guy at the Monticello Welcome center told us about a ski resort he had visited a year ago. It was in the South part of the Rocky Mountains just 2-3 hours from Monticello. We initially wanted to ski in Aspen and Telluride, but decided to [View Full Entry]

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The national parks become really quiet after Monument Valley and far less developed. The trails are mostly marked by stone cairns and occasional trail sign show the way. It does not matter very much anyhow what is national park or not. Every dozen miles dirt roads lead into side valleys and canyons and local climbers bolder rocks. The landscape has an amazing variety of snow capped mountains, Juniper doted plains and rocks from dark brown, over red to white colors forming canyons, needles or bridges. We drove from Monument Valley north to Bridges National Monument, took base in the small to [View Full Entry]

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The Colorado plateau opened impressively up after we left the Grand Canyon in East direction. We felt a little bit like coming now into the real Wild West and double checked the gasoline level of the car. There is only every 30-50 miles some sort of town. We still remember a small road side village with a Mc Donalds and the advertisement of a Burger King next to it. Distance only 36 miles (60 km)! It took us four hours to reach our next destination of Goulding’s Trading Post at the Arizona-Utah state border. Everything in this village seems to be [View Full Entry]

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We drove with some excitement from Las Vegas to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon since we left the busy areas of the West coast and entered the vast Colorado plateau. There were only small towns, sometimes nothing less than few buildings around a gas station, as we drove along the interstate. It slowly got dark and while watching the thermometer of the car, we realized that despite being in a semi-arid desert, the 2000m altitude causes severe drops in temperature over night. We had left Las Vegas at sunny 20 C and arrived at 8pm at a temperature of [View Full Entry]

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We left the nature extremes of Death Valley and headed for the entertainment extremes of gambling to Las Vegas. The casino industry was strongly questioned with share prices only the fifth or tenth of the value from last summer and we thought the town might feel empty. Failed! Casino halls were despite our fears still filled with people and the main street (strip) busy with cars. The gambling life went on. We had a look on the Venetian casino after we visited the copy in Macau last September. It was very similar though the Macau casino was much bigger. We strolled [View Full Entry]

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