Today's visit was actually a "drive through". The place: Monument Valley. Welcome to the set of the wild west! It certainly does look like in the movies... The land here is red, and the place still pristene... It is not a National Park in fact, because on the Navajo territory. So - no pavement - but good old fashioned ride on the dirt road. The car was full of sand - inside and out - at the end of the ride. We were just happy we didn't get stuck in the sand dune! But, again, another impressive place. The key word [View Full Entry]

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Lake Powell - not really a famous turistic place, but definitevely a spot popular with the locals... Seems there's no such place as this for water sports and leisure... Lake Powell is a man made lake. Several decades ago, after a lot of debates and discussions Glen Canyon Dam has been built in order to control the Colorado River flow down the line and guarantee the water in the dryer months. At the same time the dam is also a huge power supplier. On the other side, towns had to be abandoned so the lake could be made and there were [View Full Entry]

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Through the Californian Mojave desert, across the Arizona mountains we stopped in couple of places that seem have stopped in time and got to our destination: Grand Canyon. Here it's Labout Day weekend - so it is quite busy - but luckily the area is so big that it is not that bad... The place is magnificent: the gorges huge and the views spectacular. We are on the southern rim and have checked out all the views from the most west end of the park to the very east, and we are talking of about 30 miles... We saw it in [View Full Entry]

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Hot Hot Hot. It is indeed desert, so that explains the temperature. Today we visited Joshua Trees National Park. A huge park with these peculiar trees everywhere and with round rock formations in background. Nice photo opportunities. The nice thing about the park that it is really set up for a 'car visit'! So, we turned on the airco and enjoyed the ride! We spotted egghorns and even several Road Runners (you know: beep-beep - from the cartoon) but they're too quick and we didn't manage to get a picture... Better luck futher down the road, maybe in Arizona. And we [View Full Entry]

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Sooo... LA is all what it seams on TV: just too much! Too much of everything... We arrived via Malibu and entered the Venice beach where it wasn't as crowded as expected. The schools have begun and the crowds are gone... So we rented a couple of (Harley type) bikes and biked down the beach checking out the shops, bars and all kinds of 'creative places' we came along. The atmosphere is totally relaxed. People sitting around, playing guitars and singing... others pumping their muscles on the weight lifting machines. Seems the current CA governor started his career around here! He [View Full Entry]

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We took it easy last three days... just cruising our way down the Hgwy 1 from San Francisco to LA. It's a great drive and the coast is amazing. So many different views! And we enjoyed a beautiful weather. First stop was Santa Cruz - a place we'd define as a typically southern Californian - even though we're just not there yet. Long beach full of people sunbathing or playing volleyball. And a boardwalk full of restaurants, shops and even roller coasters. We lunched at the pier while watching seals and pelicans... we even spotted couple of dolphins! Our first overnight [View Full Entry]

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Yet again on the road! North America this time, and we'll keep it to the west side. First stop: San Francisco, California. It's nice to be back (for some of us) even better for the first timers. The weather is great: sunny and warm - not really a guarantee for this place. Today we started early and did all the fun stuff you can do aroud here: we took the cable car through steep streets while hanging out of it, watched the sea lions on the Pier 39, and did a boat ride under the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz... Cable [View Full Entry]

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So, El Calafate. Our last stop here in Argentina. Famous for its Los Glacieros National Park, and especially for the Perito Moreno Glacier. And indeed - there is ice everywhere! Ice is the theme around here. And I don't think we have ever seen so many people so excited about it and pushing and pulling to get a picture of it! Ha-ha. But no complaining. We were amongst them, and the views were, once again, amazing! The first day we went on a boat ride with a catamaran on the Lago Argentino. The idea was to visit Upsala glacier (the biggest [View Full Entry]

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The trekking capital of the country! So - we do what everybody does around here: hike and climb and look for Condors! Dreamland for Jan Willem actually - the climbing part! First day in the Glaciers NP we went on a hike to the Lago Torre - floating ice in the lake hint a temperature around here: icy! But the sun makes up for it. It took us around 2-3h to hike until there through really all kinds of landscapes: forest, valleys, along the river, through the bushes... really nice. On our way we did spot a Condor, though very far [View Full Entry]

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So, here we are, in Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, or what they call here fin del mundo or 'end of the world'. Two hour flight and totally different environment: mountains with icy tops and colder air give these days a winter vacation feeling. Even though the weather is holding. Yesterday was a bit colder and cloudy but today we had a perfectly sunny and warm day! Yesterday we took a boat excursion through Beagle Channel (where Atlantic and Pacific mix) to the Estancia Harberton, the first estancia in Tierra del Fuego founded by an English guy in 1800's. On our way [View Full Entry]

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