Bringing down the Rain

These are my wonderful cousins and hosts during my stay in California. On your left are Bob and Linda whose house I invaded and who own Sherman (from It´s a Dog´s Life). That´s me in the middle (duh) and on my right are my wonderful cousin Sue and her other half John. Sue and I were the ones who went to Hawaii together. We had a wonderful time and you can tell by how relaxed she and I both look. We are at a final dinner the night before I left Southern California.

The next morning I headed off to the East. I was on my way to South America -yeah I know, Sth America is, well, south -via Sedona in Arizona and then onto my brother´s house in Laramie, Wyoming.

Sedona is the most amazing place. It´s located in north western Arizona and I suspect it was once Sacred ground to the Hopis and Navajos but now is loaded with tourists. Daily they crawl through the main street in town, which is loaded with Navajo jewellery shops and adventure tour companies. (and trendy restaurants-except for the Hitchin´ Post, which is pure cowboy funk) I couldn´t go past the viewing of the escarpment at sunset via a jeep ride or the helicopter ride (having become enamoured of helicopters in Hawaii).


This is a typical view from anywhere on the main street of Sedona. You can see the resemblence to Auz sandstone-namely because that´s what the cliff´s and hills are made of. The view from any position in Sedona is spectacular, but the further out you go the more spectacular it gets. My jeep ride-which was billed as "medium" (there were 3 types of "adventures" one can participate in: mild, medium and wild) was very fun and a little more than medium.
There were only 3 of us on the jeep....I am presuming the rest of the tourists were in the cowboy bars drinking. Brad, our "genuine" cowboy, replete with hat and spurs, was our driver and a honeymooning couple from Montreal and I were in the back. We went over lots of uneven ground-the jeep tipping this way and that and ended up on a huge plateau looking at the cliffs as the sun went down. The light show was fantastic, and the ride exillerating. As we watched the sun go down in the west there was a rosy glow which spread out on the cliffs turning them into a work of art. All of the galleries in Sedona feature this view in either photographs or paintings.
( Which I would show you but I am working on a computer in Cuzco Peru which is not letting me add any more images, so you will have to do with words until I can upload the images-sorry about that one)

The helicopter ride happened the next day and was pretty spectacular as well.....except that the blades on the copter sounded like they were going to fly off any minute. I loved the way the pilot kept flying straight into canyon walls only to pull up at the last minute...very exciting. I would guess that the hot blonde sitting in the front seat might have had something to do with the hot-dogging. FYI I was sitting in the back.

Leaving Sedona, I headed for the 4 corners area of the South West. This is where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. I went to a place called Canyon de Chelley. (pronounced Canyon de Shay). The whole area is dotted with canyons so this place was only one of many. Here is one of the areas where the Anasazi lived.

The Anasazi were a tribe of Native Americans who seemingly disappeared sometime in the early 12th century. Many Navajos believe that they are descendents of the Anasazi. The mythology of the Anasazi was that they could bring down the rain through prayer and ritual. They lived in cliff dwellings and which are littered throughout the canyon. Some of the buildings are houses and some are storage bins for food, which gives a new meaning to the idea of going to the fridge for a midnight snack, since the storage bins (or fridges if you will) are on a different part of the cliff pretty far away from the houses. The buildings are always nestled inside a "cave" which gives them the roof and back of the house through natural means.

I took a canyon tour on a very old 4-wheel drive, flat bed truck (with a set of seats for the tourists on the flat bed) driven by a black eyed Navajo called Benson. Benson was very laconic and when I told him I was from Australia, he said: "I have been to Alburquerque, Farmington and the Canyon" describing the territory to which he belongs and travels. It made me smile and think about all those Eastern mythology stories about finding your world in your backyard.

Every once in a while Benson would stop the truck climb out of the driver´s seat, stand on the running board, loop his arm across the driver´s side door and tell us about the rock paintings or the Anasazi dwellings, which he pronounced Nazzi. Once he stopped at a place called Fortress Rock and told us about Kit Carson and his capture of the Navajos. During some interminable battle for Native land, the Navajos climbed up Fortress Rock -about 100m high solitary rock standing in the middle of the canyon-with supplies as well as the whole tribe. Then they kicked away the ladders so Carson and gang couldn´t follow them up there. They withstood the attacks from Kit Carson and crew for 4 months before surrendering and being taken to the reservation, so that some commercial company could have the land and sell it off to the other Americans. After Benson got back into the truck and headed off, I heard a woman in the back say: "I was always told that Kit Carson was a hero." (so did we all honey).

The canyon floor was made of sand and had huge ruts in it. Every once in a while there was a "wash" with trees and a stream. It took us 4 hours to complete the trip. You will have to wait for the slide show to see what I saw. It was pretty wonderful and at times breath-taking. I cannot for the life of me imagine climbing that high into the cliff to go back home. Or else, I probably would not leave home, but I am sure they had to go and get food (now that might motivate me off the cliff).

My last US adventure was a lovely visit with my brother in Laramie Wyoming. There is not too much to do in Laramie, but I did manage to meet a man from Melbourne who ran the local bakery. Go figure eh?

On 21st October, I flew out of Denver airport, connected with a flight at Dallas to Lima Peru. Met up with my tour group, who all seem like nice folk, and we took a flight (at 6AM mind you!) up to Cuzco, which is about 4,500m in the Andes. My first 3 days were spent suffering from incredible altitude sickness -like being sea sick but a little worse. It felt like I was in a cartoon and the Road Runner was pumping up my head with a bicycle pump blowing it up little by little, every time I just walked up the street. Believe me, there is a lot more climbing to do than walking up the street.

I am getting a little better each day. Climbing is a trip though. Yesterday we went to a place called the Sacred Valley-an Incan village or two which included a significant amount of climbing straight up the mountain side. Everywhere you look, the Andes rise majestically up to form the background of whereever you are. It is nothing short of spectacular. It´s enough to make me forget that my bum muscles are in permanent spasm.

Today I toured through an ancient Incan temple site, which overlooks Cuzco and this included a lot of climbing too. Good practice for tomorrow as I take the train up to Machu Pichu and there is lots of climbing to be done there. So wait for news from the Temple of the Sun in the middle of the Andes somewhere.

Adios mia Amigas and Amigos
Hasta Luego....
Genie