Bom Chici Chihuahua!

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It´s been a bit of a whirlwind so far and it´s only been over a week! Man I´ve packed it in like I´ve never packed anything in and I´m feeling kinda exhausted hence the stayover in Chihuahua. To back track a little (lot) first stop Honolulu. Balmy, warm and not all what I expected. I´ve never been to the Gold Coast but I have a sneaking suspicion that Waikiki is very similar - all beautiful bodies, high rise hotels and, this may be where there the similarity ends, lots of homeless people who make of beach life as the tourists do. Apparently Haiwaii has the largest population of homeless people in the States. Quite a sobering thought really.

Well, not wanting to stick out like a sore thumb on the beaches of Waikiki I headed to downtown. Downtown is not the place that you really want to hang out by yourself in the evening but during the day it is pretty tame. Chinatown is situated in downtown and on a Saturday morning it was positively heaving with people but just around the corner, on the way to the Foster Botanical Gardens was the enclave of the down and outs. Honestly by the time I got to the Gardens it was like a little slice of heaven. It´s been a long time since I´ve run through wonderfully lush green lawn and I was lovin´every minute of it. Plus there were fabulously looking specimens collected from all over the world and birds that I´d never seen before. Went a little camera crazy...

For species indigenous to Hawaii though I would have to go to another Botanical Garden which I was told was not too far away. True, it wasn´t far but man, it was hot, I had no water and by the time I got there it seemed that more of Hawaii´s homeless were settling into another day under the trees. Time to move on.

When I got back to Chinatown I popped into a couple galleries (artists are starting to take over some of the tenancies and making it into an arts hub which is great to see). There was even a raku firing exhibition which was interesting. Anyway, by this time my head was thumping, tummy was rumbling and I thought it was time for a lie down. From memory I did return to the hostel and had a mini nap but there was still plenty to do and no time to waste. Down to Waikiki beach it was to check out the waves, which were impressive. I also wanted to go up to Diamond Head from which you could get a really good view of Waikiki Beach and beyond. I was leaving it a tad too late though and by the time I got there it was about quarter to seven and the park shut at 6. At least now I knew how long it would take for me to get there in the morning. I was desperate to go there before my pick-up at 11 to the airport. Not too sure where this need to pack it in comes from but I wanted to feel like I did more in Hawaii than run around trying to find a hostel and going to the botanic gardens.

Anyways, so that night, it was early to bed and up at some ridiculous hour like 5 in the morning. When I started walking there were already people up and about. No point in sleeping if there is some serious surfing to do I guess. And they do take it seriously here - attachments to bicycles to hold a surfboard, pick-up trucks (read huge pick-ups)with boards in them, people on motobikes. Any ol´ way just get your board down to the beach. So here I am heading in the opposite direction. But I´m not the only one. There were people up there already training (possibly for the Haiwaiin marathon) and it was a pretty steep climb. The view was impressive though and it was a great spot to have a bit of brekkie before heading down again.

I kind of didn´t factor in the time all that well because I got back on about 8:30 with hours to kill. Another shower and then some trashy TV. It´s true what they say about American television - all those stations and still nothing to watch. And then it was time for the airport.

It was kind of weird catching up with Charlie at the airport but fun too. There was much to catch up on. Well, we got our flight to Vegas and arrived there at around 11:30. We stayed at the fabulously kitsch hotel of New York New York on the strip complete with its own to scale replica of the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. It was a fabulous sleep.

Next morning we went to its sister hotel, Paris Paris to have breakfast. There they have a replica of the Eiffel Tower. It was another crazy day running around and my tummy deciding that it was simply not going to cooperate with me. We spent the morning going from toilet to toilet. I can now say I was really impressed with the restroom of the Paris Paris with the MGM ones running a close second.

The rest of the day was looking at whatever freebies in the form of shows we could get. We went from casino to casino, checking out their carpets, checking out their shows and not entering one cent into the slots. What kind of trip to Vegas is that?

The next day we went to pick up our hire car which involved taking numerous shuttle buses from one destination only to be picked up and dropped off at another. And then it was another wait in the queue for almost an hour. By the time we got in the car, and more to the point out of the car park (their signage was not too great - really), it was close on 12:30.

Our destination was the West Rim of the Canyon to do the skywalk. Lucky Jeann at the car hire place gave us a map because we would have missed the turn-off if we hadn´t have one. The road was one long, dusty drive through a forest of Joshua trees on what became quite a windy, narrow road. We were so relieved to finally get to the Skywalk even if it was just to relieve our bladders. A $25 ¨parking fee¨ followed by a $30 each bus trip to do the Skywalk kind of soured our relief a little. The sign at the front of the park gave no indication as to how much things would cost it only said something along the lines of ¨fees apply¨. The prices came at a bit of a surprise because it wasn´t like you had any choice it was either get on the bus or go home. So we got on the bus.

We were not allowed to take any personal effects on the walk with us ie no cameras, bags, water but that didn´t stop us from taking our sock puppet mascots, Lalarge (pronounced la-la-gay) and Valentina, stuffed into our pockets. We are now proud owners of a very silly photo to add to the growing collection with our sock puppets jumping up in the air on the skywalk. Strangely enough I didn´t feel queasy at all. In fact, I was loving every minute of it lying on my stomach, walking faster, walking slower, jumping etc. It all felt like a bit of a walk in the park and quite surreal. Charlie on the other hand felt a little uncomfortable. Who would have thought? I get a little nauseous looking out Level 10 window but not on the Skywalk. Maybe it´s coz there´s more interesting stuff to look out on on they Skywalk. There is no doubt, the canyon is overwhelmingly beautiful and I would have been very happy to have stayed there longer but the shadows were getting longer and we still had some drive to go before getting to the South Rim.

Our map indicated a road through Peach Springs which then turned into Route 66. Oh boy, what our map didn´t indicate was that this was another drive over dusty, windy, narrow, corrugated dirt road for some 49 miles. It was freaky. There was nothing out there. No sign of life except for jackrabbits, scrub and a pick-up that passed us at about mile 20. By the time we got to Peach Springs were a little dazed and confused but still went on. The sun had gone down, we were hungry and there seemed no place stop. We eventually got to Seligman by 10pm. Let me tell you of the choices we had for a sit-down eating opportunity at the services - none. We ended up getting some pepper beef jerky (I loved it!), an almond pastry and a large coffee to take away. Oh man, that was just the best meal ever and got us to the South Rim of the canyon by 12:30am - just. On the way we saw a ridiculously large elk which we were very happy stayed on its side of the road and just looked at us.

Another early start to ride on the helicopter which was part of my birthday present from Charlie. Not the best thing that my tummy wasn´t feeling 100% start with (must have been that beef jerky) but, not to take away from the experience, it was AMAZING. I´m no wordsmith and honestly I would not do the canyon any justice if I was to describe it suffice to say it is humbling and brought me to tears. Maybe that had something to do with the soundtrack they were playing as well? I´m just a big softie when it comes to the nature and this must go down as THE most memorable experience of my life. Sadly my tummy decided to be unbelievably uncooperative the entire day although it did get better when we were leaving. Think it was all that motion.... and oh, that beef jerky...

It was another silly long drive back to Vegas, another late check-in and another early start to drop of the car and catch our flight to El Paso. Oh man I´m tired!

By the time we got to El Paso we were exhausted and decided that the best place to rest would be the Camino Real. Bit of a fancy looking place but we were in no mood for slumming it just yet. In fact, we were in no mood for slumming it just yet that we stayed two nights! The first night was kind interesting. Having relieved ourselves of our packs and bags we headed out straight away for a meal. Nothing is small in Texas me thinks. The cars, the food, the drinks. We had two huge meal and two margaritas for $18. At this rate I´m going to come home heavier than I left...

Anyway, back to the hotel to shower and get ready for bed. Did notice that Charlies bed was a little lopsided and, on closer inspection it looked a tad broken. We tried to fix it but it needed a bit more power than we could muster. Whilst I was in the shower Charlie was calling reception. All of a sudden there were people in the room and next thing you know Charlie´s telling me we´re moving next door. By the time I got out of the bathroom it looked like someone had trashed the joint. Go Charlie!

Another silly morning deciding what to do. In the end it was stay and visit the Mexican Consulate to get our tourist card. Wise choice but a tad confusing. I think the people there didn´t quite know what to make of the two Australians at the information counter. We ended up having to tell them that we did not need a visa but that we needed a tourist card. And, we got a sit down and talking to about all the fabulous places to visit in Mexico complete with accompanying brochures. Oh well, at least we were a little clearer now as to which bridge we needed to cross (there are 5) and kind of what to expect when we crossed into Mexico.

By this time the day had gotten ridiculously hot, as all the days seem to be. We had not had breakfast, no water and we were still walking around like chooks without heads trying to find the best place for a sitdown in downtown El Paso. We weren´t exactly spoilt for choice and by the time we ended back at our hotel for a bite to eat poor Charlie was feeling decidedly under the weather. We still had the bank to go to so we could pay for another night at the hotel... It was about 1 o´clock when we could go back to our room. What a morning!

I was feeling OK so I went to the El Paso Museum of Art which has a pretty impressive selection of works. And it was lovely and cool inside. That evening, as with all Friday evenings, the museum hosts some outdoor entertainment. It was a nice way to spend the time listening to a coverband belting out some good old fashioned American rock.

The next morning we had hoped to catch the Greyhound bus to Juarez. Unfortunately they did not take the bridge that we needed to use to fill out the tourist cards so we ended up in a taxi instead. We payed a heap but at that stage I was happy to just get out of the States and finally be in Mexico.

I´ll end of here and update on Chihuahua hopefully in the next couple of days. Tomorrow we´ll be taking the bus to Creel and then the train through the Copper Canyon. I´m really looking forward to this part of the journey. Hope all is well with everyone back home and I would love to hear some of your news.

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