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Published: September 24th 2008
San Francisco & Sacramento We arrived at San Francisco airport and got in touch with our friend Soraya, who we were staying with in Sacramento. She told us Ever (Evito to us friends) was going to pick us up, on his way from LA. So pretty much on time, Evito arrived at the airport after about 5 hours drive from LA, and we headed off to Sacramento to Soraya´s house, not before stopping at a Taco Bell for some food (here begins our All American diet that would replace any lost fat from our Asian travels).
Soraya had our next plan resolved, we were going camping to Yosemite National Park on Monday, but we had two days to organise all our camping gear and anything else we might need... she had none of it!
Anyway, on Saturday we went with Evito on a tour of San Francisco, but we ended up sleeping too late, and catching up on old gossip with Soraya all morning, so by the time we left Sacramento it was midday, and we only had time for a very fast look around. We also went to one of those traditional american diners for breakfast, and had our fair
share of steak, pancakes, eggs and coffee... our american diet was going strong!
In San Francisco we only managed to have a look around Lombard Street, have some great tacos in the latin neighbourhood, and catch a beautiful view of San Francisco from the top of a hill. Unfortunately this was at the time when there had been a lot of fires in California, and the sky was pretty foggy and misty at the same time.
On Sunday we had another lazy morning with Soraya, and we went out to do some food shopping. We went to WinCo, a large supermarket, and I was amazed with the amount of food they keep in these places... definitely super sized alleys and shelves! I don´t blame the americans for eating the way they do.
We still had to find all our camping gear for Monday, and all we had were some comfy chairs that Soraya borrowed from a friend. But then came another friend of Sory to the rescue. Luis also lived in Sacramento, and also happens to be from Cali (like us), we arrived at his place to pick up a tent and other things, and he even had some amazing
roast beef with delicious wine waiting for us. We stayed for diner and chatted for a good while, and then left with all that we needed for our camping trip; tent, sleeping bags, coleman lamp, cooking utensils, pots, pans, stove... you name it, we had it! and even a couple of bottles of wine to take with us.
Yosemite So on Monday morning we got up at 5am to go to Yosemite for a 2-3 hour drive. We still did not have any bookings on a camp site, so were still a bit nervous of not finding a spot near the Yosemite Valley. After getting slightly lost on the way, and nearly running out of petrol on one of the neverending empty highways, we got there at about 10am and found a place at the Camp 4 site, right in the middle of the valley.
The whole place was incredible, full of rocks, rivers, waterfalls, trees and mountains all around us. We set up our tent, and met a couple of guys on the next site. They invited us to have some steak they were having for lunch on the fire, so we opened a bottle of wine and
had some nice food with them. It turned out they were not even staying at the place, they did not even have a tent, and they had been in Yosemite for about two weeks. One of them was a Spanish rockclimber, the other was an American drunk/stoner. They both stayed wherever they could under a tree or a cave, dodging the park rangers who tried to kick them out.
After lunch we went for a swim in the river with them, which was incredibly cold, and we also got wet with a quick shower that suddenly poured. The weather was not exactly cold, but it did not get extremely hot either, it was just perfect and comfortable. In the evening we stayed at the camp site and had another little bbq on our fire... the American guy was so drunk we had to ignore him until he got the message and left.
On Tuesday we went for a long walk towards Nevada Falls, although we did get up rather late for camping standards, we had a great breakfast with eggs, beans and coffee, and some sausage leftovers. We packed some lunch to take with us (peanut butter sandwiches) and started
walking along the trail next to the river. The scenery was beautiful, and although there were quite a lot of people going up and down it felt like we were out there on our own. After about three hours of walking and climbing we made it to the first waterfall (Vernal Falls). Soraya almost gave up, but some good motivation and pulling from Lorena helped her get to the top. It was pretty hard going, and it also got quite warm, so the Emerald Lake at the top made a perfect place for a cold swim, a rest and some lunch (Lorena was starting to get quite sick of the peanut butter sandwich lunches we started in Australia and Hawaii). After lunch we continued up a bit further to get to see the Navada Falls from the bottom, and then started our way back. After about six hours of walking we made it back to the camp site.
That evening we stocked up for yet another bbq on the fire by the tent, and had some nice wine and beers. The highlight of the night was the appearance of a bear in the middle of the camp. Lorena was the
first to see it, and simply whispered to us that there was a bear. It was actually just about five metres away from our tent. When we finally realised what was going on, we started yelling and shouting to get it to go away and it just dissappeared into the woods. We heard many stories about bears coming into the camps and breaking into cars, but we did not think we would get the chance to see one right in front of us in the middle of the night.
We only went camping for two nights, so the next day after breakfast, we packed all our things and went for a short walk to Mirror Lake where we had another quick jump in the freezing water. We visited some other waterfalls in the valley before driving off to Mariposa, an area of Yosemite where there are a lot of giant Sequoias. We got there a bit late, so we had a short walk around the area to see the amazing giant trees, and then started driving back to Sacramento.
The following day our plan was to go wine tasting in the Sonoma and Napa regions, but in the middle of
the day I started feeling really weak, with a strong fever, and swollen glands. It seemed like my throat infection was back, and all the walking and jumping in the cold water in Yosemite didn´t do me any good... but it was great fun. We ended up having to visit the doctor the next morning, since the fever was not going away, and I got a proper 10 day course of penicillin for a bargain $200usd (at least my travel insurance covered half of it).
After two days of rest and recovery at home in Sacramento I was feeling a lot better, and on Saturday night there was a Colombian Independence celebration in downtown Sacramento, so we just had to go! Since I was not drinking due to the illness and the antibiotics, I became the designated driver for the night in charge of Lexy (Evito´s sexy talking Lexus with its GPS). Lorena, Soraya, Gina (Soraya´s housemate) and Evito got pretty comfortable with the aguardiente, and after the Colombian party was over we went on to some of the local night clubs and went on until about 3am (we´re not that young anymore!).
The next day was recovery time for
all of us, but in the evening we went with Evito to stay with him in Santa Rosa, so that on Monday we managed to have a better day in San Francisco and got to see the rest of the city. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghirardelli Square, Pier 39 and all the more tourist spots. We also got a good view of the city from the Coit Tower, and on the way back to Santa Rosa we even managed to have a quick look at one of Frank Lloyd Wright´s buildings (Marin Civic Centre). We were then ready to continue our trip to the south of California the next morning with Evito and Lexy (the car).
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Guillermo Cifuentes
non-member comment
Que Bacaneria
hola muchachos, las fotos espectaculares, me imagino en ese parque natural haciendo ciclomontañismo (será que dejan?) y esa pared vertical es muy famosa entre los escaladores, ahora ni hablar de esos gigantes del bosque...... los felicito y gracias por mostrarnos esos sitios maravillosos. nos vemos pronto en colombia feliz viaje........ bye GuilleErikaLucas