Cambodian Rocks

:: June 26, 2006 ::

Trippin in the Southwest Part 5

This is ben writing again, just so you know:
So I paid all that extra insurance for mexico, but I
get a flat tire on our way to Vegas. We drove on a
dirt road through this Joshua Tree forest to try to
get to Grand Canyon West. Turns out there is mainly
helicoptor tours there and no lookout or hiking area.
So, On my way back I was going pretty fast and I
narrowly passed a tow truck out to pick up another
stranded car. I stopped twice thinking something was
wrong with the tire, but I couldn't find anything. As
soon as I hit paved road again, I noticed the bumping
in my front tire. I stopped and found a 2 inch screw
puncturing my tire. The air was releasing really
slowly, but I pulled it out and the tire went flat. My
friend John had suggested I carry Fix-a-flat with my
in Mexico, and I still had it.... Worthless product. I
followed the directions and the entire can didn't even
fill up the tire, and the top broke off.
So, time to put the spare on. Just as I'm unloading
all the junk in our trunk in order to get to the
spare, the tow truck that I passed stops to help. We
got everything fixed, but I had to drive at 40mph
until I got the tire plugged.
We drove over the Hoover Dam, which might be the last
time we ever do. They are building a huge bridge to
bypass the old road that goes directly over the dam,
to fight terrorism I assume. We stopped at Boulder
Beach on Lake Mead, a familiar spot we hit up 2 years
on the other road trip. And a familiar course of
events followed: too much beer, tequila and sun
ensued. We then drove to a nearby casino for $2
BJ's.......$2 black jack games, not what you're
thinking. Vegas was not kind to me, I was up $80 to
start but left $150 in the hole and I think Mike came
out even.
While driving into Vegas we stopped to get our tire
plugged at Discount Tire Co. I'd reccomend them, as
they fixed my tire for free. I'm not sure why, but I
didn't argue.
Our entire trip, we did not pay for a single night of
accomodation except for one night of camping at
Boulder Beach and two nights at the HoJo in Vegas.
Mike's manager from Breckenridge was supposed to hook
us up at the Hard Rock Casino, but he flaked out on
us. However, 42 out of 45 nights being free ain't too
bad.
We went to see Ciraue du Soleil again. This show was
Ka, and we assumed it was the fire show. There are
water, beatles, risque, and puppet type shows. Well,
it didn't have much fire, but it impressed us just as
well. Back to Freemont Street, but they weren't
showing the light show on the television ceiling.
Vegas is Vegas, if you've been here, then you know
what I mean. I'm glad we did it at the end of our
trip.
Valley of Fire State Park is just outside of Vegas and
was the only state park I remember paying for besides
Goblin Valley. It was well worth it as it has an
abundance of arches and wierd rock formations.
However, we decided to visit the park in the middle of
the day when temperatures reached 110 degrees F. Lake
Mead was in sight, but by the time we got out of the
park, we just wanted to make it up to Great Basin NP.
We made it about halfway when the sun set and se
stopped by this bridge and train tunnel. There was
just enough room to drive through the tunnel besides
the tracks, so I drove through thinking there might be
a campsite on the other side. There wasn't and I had
to drive back. We found another spot and 30 minutes
later the train finally did come through.
Great Basin is nothing like Vegas and the desert
climate. We climbed up to 10,000 ft and hiked to a
bristlecone pine forest through the snow. 110 degress
one day, and snow the next... a little bit shocking to
the system. Mike still didn't have any shoes and had
to hike through the snow in sandals. Bristlecone Pine
Trees are the longest living know plants, some living
for 5,000 years. The park is known for it's
bristlecone groves and we saw some nicley mangled
looking trees. We managed to come back down the
mountain just in time for a cave tour, Lehman Caves.
Not quite as spectacular as Carlesbad, but the caverns
are know for their shield formations.
Our last day was spent on the long haul driving back
to Breckenridge. We stopped in Moab again to drop what
we borrowed from Derek and Cindy. Didn't eat the 50
wings each at the brewery, but got down a respectable
20-25. We stopped in Arches to do the Delicate Arch
hike. It's quite nice when no on is around. On our way
out of the park, a dust storm hit and we had to drive
through sand and pebbles being pelted against my car.
Tumbleweeds were flying past and I was glad we were in
the car instead of being caught outside.
Again, no trouble from police, no speeding tickets...
that is until I get back to Breckenridge. There is a
part of Highway 9 we call 'the gauntlet'. Police stake
out this area trying to nab drunk drivers. They will
pull you over for any reason in order to assess your
sobriety. I had a short in my headlights so that
everytime I hit a pothole, my right light goes on or
off. Well, it was off when I passed Officer Dunworth.
I held my tounge, and got off with a warning. I feel
safer already.
So, we're both back in Breckenridge for a while. We
wanted to ski when we got back in June, but the last
ski resort had just closed. Plenty to do around here,
just now we don't have to sleep outside all the time.
Stats:
6500 miles roundtrip
482 dollars in gas, roughly 30mpg
45 days on the road
Places visited:
Cochise national forest
Saguaro national park
Mt Lemmon national forest
Coronado national forest
Organ Pipe cactus national monument
Prescott national forest
Tonto national forest
Tonto national monument
Sunset Crater Volcano national monument
Meteor Crator
Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument
Grand Canyon national park
Valley of Fires state park
Lake Mead national rec area
Tuzigoot national monument
Slide Rock state park
Montezuma Castle national monument
Montezuma Well national monument
Arches national park
Canyonlands national park
Capitol Reef national park
Goblin Valley state park
Fishlake national forest
Navajo reservation
Walnut Canyon national monument
Oak Creek Canyon national forest
arcosanti hippie commune
mexico-
Parque del Barranca del Cobre
Parque Basasaechi
Cumbres de Majalca national park

______________________________________________
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Llamadas a fijos y móviles desde 1 céntimo por minuto.
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.: Ben Hansen :: 9:14 AM [+] 0 comments

:: June 18, 2006 ::

Trippin in the Southwest Part 4

Back into the USofA
So across the Mexico / US border and we've finally
made it back to the land of accurate road signs and
fattening - sized portions of food. YEah! We miss
the Mexican food already.
First stop - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - a
20 minute drive from the border. There's a loop dirt
road - closed. Okay then, we'll try the visitor
center. The nice ranger ladies advise us that the
eastern portion of the park is well open but that loop
road near the border is not - due to the current
"situation" w/ everything that is going on w/ illegals
in the US. President Bush - 1 / Mexicans - 0./
American tourists - negative 1. Even the paved roads
we hit up in the park had border patrol on them. We
head north after a nice hike and trip thru the park
and head to Why, Arizona. WHY? a simple name for a
town. But bound to get some jokes. Well there's the
Why Not Gift Shop - hahaha so clever! East of Why we
head back towards Tuscon, stopping for some $3+ a
gallon gas on the way of course. At the gas station
were 2 border patrol SUV's and a huge greyhound type
bus - but instead of Greyhound on the side it reads
"Department of Homeland Security". I was talking to
my friend Jon on the phone at the time and was telling
him about all this and he said we should go up to the
bus and ask for a T-shirt! We definitely should've.
$3.20 a gallon? That's the cost of a gallon of gas
these days!? No son - that's the cost....of freedom!
Oh - i never thought of it that way before. $3.20 a
gallon - that IS the cost of freedom!
On the way to Tuscon we came across a search
helicopter hovering over us and the highway, making
circles wherever it spotted illegals. We saw a border
patrol van w/ 4 illegals sitting on the side of the
road and then one dude running about 10 miles up, just
jogging, he knew he was caught. The helicopter made
its circles and took off - then a humvee zooms past us
and catches up to the guy. Ever see the movie - "A
Day w/out a Mexican" where they act like Mexicans
don't exist ?? It's pretty good - and pretty much
documents the fact that half of our country would not
operate. Very true.
Back in Tuscon, now hanging w/ Eric, his girl Evin,
and our old friend Nate. Go to
http://www.denenmusic.com to check out his stuff - a
good friend and saver of lives in lightning storms, he
was playing in Tuscon that night on his southwest
roadtrip of his own. We went to the Nimbus brewing
co. to hear him play and sample some delicious micro
brew.
We said our goodbyes, bombed it back to Phoenix,
snagged the laptop and headed north thru Prescott and
actually drove thru the dark for a change just to make
it up north to Supai so that we could head out early.
Havasu Canyon
----------------------------------------
Why head out early?? Because we had the greatest hike
/ camp / outdoory thing you can ever do in your life
ahead of us for the 4 next days. We had heard the
stories, seen a photo or two in passing - but nothing,
i mean nothing will prepare you for the beauty you can
find just a few short hours drive from Phoenix,
Flagstaff or Vegas. We're talking about Havasu Falls
and the Havasupai Reservation. We had been saving
this for an end of trip thing and it worked out
insanely well.
So if you come out here - rent a car, fly into one of
your destination cities i listed above, and pack up
some camping gear. Drive to Supai on a 68 mile road
towards the Grand Canyon and park at the parking lot.
You better get there early because you have a 10 mile
hike ahead of you - and out in these parts w/ the
heat, you don't want to start any later than 8am. So
we started at 9am. We hike down into a western
section of the Grand Canyon. Beautiful as any section
of this enourmous slice in the Earth's crust. Hike
past all the tourists clambering their way back up
from a long memorial day weekend. The parking lot was
packed to the brim. Luckily we were hiking down that
Monday of the Memorial Day holiday - the day all the
others were coming out. It's dusty, hot, you got
horses going by carrying gear, coolers, you name it.
Helicopters roar overhead, making back and forth runs
from the parking lot to the reservation 10 miles away.
Some people hike out w/ packs, some put them on the
mules. It's $75 per mule for 4 packs. I think the
helicopter transport is like $150 per person. What
would Abbey do? Say screw all of that and hike down.
This is the outdoors, not Disneyland. It sucks that
there are so many people out and that we have all this
going on around us, but once camp is set up it more
than makes up for the sideshow. As you hike down thru
this canyon it gets narrower and narrower until it
fans out into the reservation. That's where cataract
creek comes flowing in and you have this oasis in the
desert.
All the places we've been we've never seen such clear
enticing water in our lives. The reservation and
anything that borders the creek on the 2 mile jaunt to
the campground is dotted in greens of cottonwood trees
that create the utmost tranquility. We press on
through the sand and heat - pay our money at the
campground reservation area and hike down to the
campground. There are 4 main waterfalls in the
canyon, all w/in 4 or 5 miles of each other. The
first is Navajo, then Havasu, then Mooney, then
Beaver. We see the top of Navajo thru the trees
before the campground but press on to get the 30 lbs.
or so off our backs. We then come up to a rockface
that all of a sudden drops a few hundred feet - over
the side, roaring into an aqua blue pool below which
is Havasu falls. The sheer beauty of it makes you
want to weep - and we're just completely blown away.
We've been alot of places all over this world and seen
more than your fare share of intense and magnificent
waterfalls(Hanging lake in colorado and Erawan Falls
in Thailand have similar aqua blue waters from the
travertine in the water that creates the pools and
damns) - but this place has all of them beat -
combined - hands down.
Giddy w/ what we know in our heads will be our
playground for the next 4 days we find a campspot
quick. We want it to be a good, tranquil spot, but
we're tired from the hike. We find a decent one near
the crystal clear creek and set up our stuff and head
back to the falls for a swim. The water is cold - but
we don't care one bit. It's heaven on earth at the
bottom of this towering falls. The surrounding
cottonwoods and grassy areas and beaches make for the
most enchanting oasis on earth. We can die happy.
Ben's tired and goes back to camp. I press on towards
Navajo falls, cutting through the trees and find a
secluded oasis that most people pass up for the bigger
falls. The swimming here is just as good, and the
waterfall is still a little slice of visual heaven.
We make an easy day of relaxing near the creek and 2
first falls, knowing full well the next 2 days we will
see Mooney and Beaver and explore further downcanyon.
The next day we do just that. But first we are woken
up by church groups and obnoxious pre-teen boys and
girls making a commotion near our peaceful site.
There should be a code of ethics when you're in the
woods. Don't disturb your neighbors after the
sunlight is extinguished - and give them adequate rest
- lets say 9am before getting obnoxiously loud. We
prefer to gently awake by the sounds of rushing creek
water entering our dreams and maybe the smell of a
neighbors breakfast grumbling our bellies so that our
eyes open slowly.
A man meets us at our tent when we get up. Tells us
that a group of 67 - yes, 67 people are all moving
w/in 20 yards of us and he hopes we dont mind. We
grin and make small talk "oh no, that's fine, sure,
yeah, we don't mind" then on the side "Ben - we're
moving, pack the tent up" Within 10 minutes we have
our tent and bags packed again and walking downcanyon
- "the site is yours now mister" "are you sure" yeah
- it'll give your group more "space".
We walk another mile past everyone's campsite until we
reach the boundary, then find seclusion near the
river, noone will come down this far - and we throw
the tent there. no groups, no people - our site. And
what's this??? 1 minute walk from our site and we
come to another rock face w/ another sheer drop.
We've found the top of Mooney Falls!
After this whole debacle with the moving sites we
started out later than we wanted to. Our intention -
walking the 14 miles roundtrip down the canyon, taking
in Mooney and Beaver falls as well as walking all the
way to the colorado river and the bottom of the Grand
Canyon.
One of the indian kids about our age comes up to our
tent to check our camping permit. We ask him about
the hike down - he tells us he usually starts at 5am
as it takes all day. Oops! It's now 10:30 or so.
Late start - but we'll see how it goes. We head down,
take some photos of the top of beautiful Mooney falls,
almost identical to Havasu falls but as if the colors
are backwards. The canyon is different and the water
is more greenish. It's like the same but opposite.
Anyways - the trail down - i can't even describe, just
go there and do it. You will see. Basically it
involves crawling through dynamite blasted tunnels and
ladders wet from waterfall mist and clambering down
soaken muddy rock. It's the craziest thing. But once
you reach the bottom, it's once again heaven. Mooney
became our falls - Havasu was for the rest of the
campground, this one was ours. So great, and less
crowded. Downcanyon we go - trudging through the
water is the best thing on earth - its crystal clear
and there is beauty and small waterfalls around every
corner. The travertine terraces that make every
corner look like a chinese garden of picturesque
tranquility. Small fish are everywhere and the sand
down there is salmon colored. A feast for the eyes.
We soon find a small grotto and are pretty hot at
midday at this point. Ben says, "I think I gotta get
in for a swim." I'm with him. But on - what is
this??!? Hell yes! It's a rope swing!!! I try it
out first. Tarzan in the desert - deep splash and
easy swim out. Can this get any better?? Ben grabs
it, does a huge looping swing and a backflip off of
the end. Screw the hike down, let's stay here!
Forever! We try - but the hike is still in the back
of our minds. Okay, later i say - we have ALL day
tomorrow for a lazy day, none of this 14mile hiking -
we're coming back! agreed.
So we hike on down and across the creek again. By the
time we would eventually reach the colorado river in
the bottom of the grand canyon we would cross the
creek 11 times. The sound of lizards scurrying away
from the path through dried leaves sounds oddly
similar to a rattle snake. We were bombing it through
the high brush and couldn't see our feet, but we had
to make up time. We hike through wild fields of
grapevines (not yet in season) and across the creek
again and again, we come across some more swimming
holes with rock jumping and more enticing moments we
hit up to get out of the heat. At one point we have
to climb up a rock face using a rope because it's so
steep. (on the way back, we instead decided to use
the rope to lower our pack and then cliff-jumped into
a swimming hole below in order to return safely). We
pass by Beaver falls - a gorgeous spot but we need to
make time down to the river and its far down below, so
we skip it and press on. Eventually we reach the
confluence w/ the Colorado River and reach the bottom
of the Grand Canyon one last time - coming around full
circle in this trip and taking a dip in that fresh
water we did in the easternmost section of this great
chasm.
We hike it back and make it back out of the canyon and
up the ladders and waterfall tunnels and back to
campsite before dinner. Hiking this much sure makes
dinner all that much better after a long day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our last full day down in the canyon was probably the
most enjoyable of the whole trip. It wasn't strange or
adrenaline filled, just relaxing and tranquil. We
climbed down the jungle gym of tunnels and ladders of
Mooney Falls again and hiked to a side canyon we
called Fern Canyon. It was a short hike because it
choked off to an 80 ft climb up slickrock. There were
ferns and it reminded us of Ireland, minus the
leprechauns.
Then and easy stroll back down through the pools to
the rope swing. When we had last left the rope swing,
it was an old rope with knots and a stick tied to the
bottom, but no someone had left springy rope with a
rubber loop to hold onto. I must have jumped 12-15
times, while ben was content to be the cameraman and
document my swings. After wondering back up through
the canyon, we noticed some steel ladders leading up
to what we assume were cliff dwellings. We could never
actually find the bottom of the ladders, and I don't
think the Indians wanted the tourists climbing up
there.
The Mesquite Trees were in blossom and they smell just
like honeysuckles. Coming from a hot desert to a
tropical jungle is such a mindtrip, but we sucked in
every scent, sight, and sound there was in that place.
I wandered off back up to Havasu falls while ben made
dinner and suddenly people started showing up. One of
the scout leaders had about 100 kids in a little
amphatheater telling stories, and there were plenty
more running around the upper camp. I quickly returned
to end a relaxing day with a meal, a game of Rummi,
and finish a few chapters in my book.
We hike it out, after 9am again, cuz it's too easy to
sleep in and stay forever. It's so hot at noon by the
time we finally get back to the car that we are happy
to pay $2 for a soda from the rasta indian living in
the RV in the parking lot.
We continue on to Vegas....

______________________________________________
LLama Gratis a cualquier PC del Mundo.
Llamadas a fijos y móviles desde 1 céntimo por minuto.
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.: Ben Hansen :: 5:56 PM [+] 0 comments

:: June 13, 2006 ::

Trippin in the Southwest Part 3

These next 2 emails, just so you know, Mike is
writing. It's been a long trip and its alot to sum
up, so he is going to take over for parts 3 and 4 - I
will summarize the end of the trip w/ the 5th part...
it may take a while to read as well, there's a lot to
go over...
MEXICO
So we pick up our insurance and get to the border -
park the car, go inside, and deal with visa details -
and from here, basically, is where our use of the
english language goes out the friggin window! From now
until the day before we return back to the US we only
find 1 or 2 people in all of Mexico that we run across
that speak any resemblance to English. Now I took 4
years of Spanish in high school - made AP spanish in
fact - Ben took French - but between the 2 of us we
had no idea what the hell was happening from the
start. The visa agent asks us, "how long you here
for?" we say "2 weeks" he says "ok 6 months" we say
"OK". Then its 50 cents, then $21, then $51 - whatever
it is, we pay it and get the hell out of there. Border
towns are scary, we ask at a gas station "tienes
mapas??" and get "no adfkladlfjdfkjldasfkjl" something
i cannot process - so basically there are no good maps
of Mexico. We have an old US atlas that has Mexico but
alot is missing, so we just go on that - and blind
faith. Even the main highways, there are no signs, so
you just feel it out. "That way is east - go that way"
then all of a sudden, or 30 minutes later "Look,
Mexico highway 2 - we're going the right way !!!" and
on we go....
So rolling hills and desert just like AZ we head
southeast towards Chihuahua city, the capital, w/
intentions on hitting up a national park along the
way. We drive and drive and drive, 1 inch on our map
scale for Mexico is like 75 miles, whereas all the
states we've been in 1 inch = 30 or 40 miles at most.
Long days of driving, then all of a sudden I ask -
"Que es este agua Benjamin???" Ben replies, "No se'
senor". What is the water that i see hitting our
windshield and hood, washing off all that Utah /
Arizona backroad dirt we had successfully piled up
inches thick on all sides of the car creating a nice
two-tone shade??? Que Milagro!!! este es la lluvia!!!
the rain - i think that is the word - that water that
falls out of the sky that i've heard so much about but
havent seen since we both moved from Denver to
Breckenridge. Since Dec. 2005 we hadn't spent a day w/
rain yet - all of a sudden the Subaru was engulfed in
rain for a whole 5-10 minutes as we sped east into the
dark clouds and lightning.
yes. Lightning! Mike's favorite kind of weather! not
really - the scar on my left arm starts twitching like
it senses the kinetic energy. There are storms on all
sides of us but so far off it presents no significant
danger. So we see the crazy catholic statue off the
side of the road and up a hill (Mexico is dotted with
these things all over) and head up for a photo. At the
top we take in the looming weather in the distance,
set up the tripod, and get some shots of storms clouds
rubbing up against each other and giving off that
all-powerful force. Purple and bright, sometimes
orange. Scary stuff.
We finally find a spot before dark to pull of and camp
- just as the clouds let up enough to show up a
magnificent orage glow of sunset straight out of the
florescent part of the crayola crayon set. Morning
comes, we head south to Cumbres de Majalca National
Park - we still dont know what that means, for some
reason we never got it translated. Probably because it
wasnt much of a national park - it was as if they set
it up to be one, set up a pay booth at the beginning,
set up signs and picnic spots, then noone came
probably because noone in Mexico cares about that crap
or has better things to deal w/ - like the garbage.
Let me just go on a rant to say that i've been in 3rd
world countries and never seen so much garbage
everywhere in my life than i've seen in Mexico.
Period. End of rant.
So we pull up to find a pay booth, we get out our
cash, and find a broken window and noone there. We
drive past. Up and into this canyon and out the other
side of the park where theres a crazy village w/ some
weird rocks. Then, we drive back and thru, stop to
picnic w/ not a soul in sight. And drive out. We drive
to ciudad Chihahuaha and find it it to be a sprawling
mess that we cant make much out of. We find a pretty
church, stroll around the block to what Ben thought
was another church, but find out it is a huge prison -
and get the mess out of there. But not w/out some
cheap Tecate.
Tecate, Sol, Modelo, Bohemia, all good beer, cheap
mexican beer. But good beer. But dont try to buy the
big 22oz bottles, because little 13 year old girls
running businesses cant communicate w/ you enough to
let you know why you cannot buy it. We just owned up
to the fact that we could only buy cans. Later we find
that its the whole deposit bottle thing and she can
tell we dont live in her town, are just passing thru,
and will not return the bottles, therefore we will
have to pay more for deposit on the bottle and lose
out on the money. I guess you're expected to buy cans
and just pitch the empty can on the side of the road
like the rest of the garbage. Only kidding, we dispose
of everything properly. Anyways, we find a campspot
after some great mexican food and sleep at about 7000
ft. above sea level 30 min outside of the town of
Creel, which will be our departure point for the main
reason we came to Mexico.
My goal of this trip was to see the parts of Utah I
missed before on roadtrip 2004 and hit up the area
south of the Grand Canyon in AZ because before I had
only seen the north rim. Ben added Mexico to this trip
due to his passion for being a vagabond in 3rd world
countries - a mysterious passion but not all too alien
to the both of us. I wised up to this addition to the
trip when we researched pictures of a small speck on
our incomplete atlas map called Barranca del Cobre or
"Copper Canyon". Not too many Mexicans make websites,
the ones that are out there on Copper were made by
American tourists and most weren't updated. But the
photos we could find blew us away. A canyon 4 times
the size of the Grand Canyon in scale and depth, in
the middle of nowhere in Mexico.
Creel is the hub. We roll up - see a sign outside a
tour place that says Lonely Planet recommended their
tour office and pop inside to find the only english
speaking person we'll find in Mexico our entire trip.
Yolanda.
Yolanda is quite the character. We roll into her shop
to find out she and her husband run it and she's
originally from Oklahoma, but pretty much a gypsy
since then. She's got books, maps and info on the
canyon and alot of advice on where to go but is very
strange about everything. We ask about hikes. She
recommends either the 6 day extremely strenuous hike
or the 3 day easy hike (the only 2 she's been on in
the canyon we presume). You have to take these hikes
w/ a native indian guide (not a Sioux, not a Navajo)
but a Tarahumara indian native to the canyon. He wont
speak any english but he will guide you she says. We
rule out the 6 day on the fact that we're feeling lazy
and I don't have good hiking shoes anymore and plus we
just dont have the time. The 3 day is to some hot
springs - and my vision of me, Ben, and some naked
native indian sitting in a hot spring in the searing
heat was not what i had in mind. So we got some info
and left - or tried....
All of a sudden this old lady walks in, Ronnie. The
walls of the shop are lined w/ little knickknacks and
wooden carvings and such, which Yolonda seems to be
selling for her. Ronnie starts ranting to Yolanda,
then asks about rent $$ - then starts to get
beligerent when Yolanda tries to blow her off. The
conversation escalates until Yolanda is saying
"alright Ronnie, do I need to call the cops again?"
They keep going back and forth and back and forth, Ben
and i sitting there throwing glances over and wanting
to get out before a catfight begins when finally
Yolanda gets her to leave against her will, and slams
the door. With a tear in her eye she watches her out
the window and tells us how she's the crazy lady of
the town and yada yada yada, all of a sudden Ronnie is
outside the window and Yolanda is freaking about not
locking the back door. She then tells me to get down
as Ben is peering out the window laughing and walks up
behind me and grabs my t-shirt and pulls me to the
ground - completely serious that she didnt want crazy
lady to see anyone was still in the shop. Ben complies
and joins Yolanda and I in cowering underneath a
bookshelf. So, we are now being holed up in this
lady's shop until crazy Ronnie gets a ride into town
w/ some Mexican dude. We get our info and get out of
there.
So basically we decide to skip the hikes and just
venture out on our own, because there are roads, paved
and unpaved into the hearts of the 4 canyons. So a
full day of driving yielded us a drive from 7500 feet
all the way on dirt roads to 1000 ft and brought us to
the bottom of Batopilas canyon and into the heart of
an awe inspiring area where we had basically driven a
6000 ft. decent into the bottom (think having a road
that will drive you to the bottom of the Grand Canyon,
only more dramatic) and then through to these towns of
a few hundred people. Ben and I end up in the town of
Batopilas w/ an hour to kill before dark and
sweltering heat and nothing to drink but our water
which has been heated from the sun of the long day's
drive. We want some beer, and some food. We dont care
where. We pull through, much of the amazement to
everyone in town that's probably never seen a subaru
before, only trucks...finally decide on a place that
says "se vende comida" and stop in. Knock on the door
and a little girl in her pajamas stares back at us.
Then Ben steps on the balcony and says, "Si' comida?
donde es madre o padre?" Finally mom, in her pajamas
as well, comes in and tells us to sit at her kitchen
table. Her dark kitchen is a strange experience to be
in but comforting nonetheless. We plead that we just
wanted food and beer and she opens the refrigerator to
reveal two 12-packs of Tecate and rips us 2 off of the
plastic rings. Sweet bliss! 4 seconds later we ask
"Senora?? Uno mas ?" Si, of course, we can drink as
much as we please, it's a restaurant! we call it
"grandma's house" because that's what it felt like. We
didn't know what we'd be eating, but we were happy,
and even more when we received one of the best mexican
dishes i've eaten to this day, polished off w/ a few
more Tecates, paid her $10 US a piece and went on to
camp by the river in the bottom of this 7500 ft.
canyon. Our first choice was thwarted by the stench of
a dead cow rotting in the bushes and a trucker and his
family trying to bathe in the river. We moved on and
once again were woken up by braying donkeys.
Out of Batopilas Canyon and onto Sinforosa Canyon
where after a long drive we roll up to...nothing, a
small village, w/ a ranch. We're confused until a man
walks over, we ask him where this canyon (the size of
the grand canyon) is and he points to the gate, says
its 15 pesos (just under $1.50) per person to get in -
no problems there and we drive thru the gate and thru
this man's backyard and onto a huge friggin gash in
the earth. Beautiful lookout, lots of little lookout
towers and Mexican families pic-nic-ing. I spot a
bridge down below, a hiking bridge, we drive down a
huge embankment w/ many switchbacks to get to it to
find a pretty tranquil spot w/ a sweet suspension
bridge (how much do you trust Mexican reinforced
steel??). Well we did - but getting the car back up
and out of the canyon, quite the ordeal in 1st gear,
Ben handbraking and revving up to 5-6000rpm and
releasing the brake to inch forward several several
times- but we made it. Back towards Creel but not
before seeing a sign for hot springs - or we assume.
So 6 miles on backroads turns out to be an hours worth
of driving, and right before we're about to give up,
around the bend in the mountain appears a village. A
man appears at the gate where we have to park our car
and tells us its another $2 or so per person for the
hot springs - we decide to check it out and find 4
full size swimming polls of different levels of
elevation and temperature all in this picturesque
valley. A nice dip to end a long day. Then camping
amongst the donkeys, cows and whatever else what
outside of our tent that night munching on loud crisp
pine-coney type things.
On to Creel and then south the other way, down to
Divisadero, to the main tourist trainstop. See, when
most tourists come to Copper Canyon they fly in to Los
Mochis and get the train through this area to see a
view or 2 of the canyon, take some photos and move on,
back to Los Mochis or on to Chihahuaha. So we arrive
at what is typically known as "Copper Canyon" but is
actually the convergence of 3 of the main
canyons(Oteros, Urique, and Cobre) and the view was
quite simply amazing. There is a train stop there, a
very nice hotel, lots of people trying to get you to
buy their tourist crap and ladies screaming at us to
buy their mexican pita instead of the other lady's. We
get a pita from the only lady who didnt scream and
walk into the lodge. No one is there, but its
gorgeous. It has a bar that has huge windows that look
out into the canyon with hummingbird feeders all
around the windows. A few $2 beers later we decide to
go out to the car and pack up our stuff. Yolanda back
in Creel said the best part to ride the train was from
Divisadero (where we presently are and drove to) down
to Temoris. So we take her (crazy) advice and make
this plan. But Ben and i being so frugal while
travelling decide not to pay for a place to stay (we
havent yet up until this point) and we're going to
take daypacks w/ our stuff to sleep (mats, bags, etc.)
and some water (and tequila) and just show up in town
and probably hang out and sleep outside of town by the
river.
So we pack our stuff up, while the town children watch
and giggle and ooh and aah in amazement when we do
simple things like open our cooler to get food out or
turn a light on in the car, etc. They particularly
liked the indiana jones whip Ben bought in Juarez.
I'm thinking - this car is getting stolen or broken in
to for sure. Those little kids are gonna tell their
big brothers all the cool stuff they saw in our car...
The train takes off and we're headed south. There is
apparently no food or drink allowed on the train but
there's a burrito guy roaming the isles selling his
homemade food along w/ tomales. Ben busts out his
bottle of Agave tequila and we swig the thing clean -
all the while the train is loaded w/ armed guards w/
AK-47s just so noone hijacks the train, i guess. I
think their real job was to harrass any cute single
women they found instead of protect the train. Finally
after many a stop we end up in Temoris where almost
everyone gets off, so we do as well. When we get off
we say to ourselves "where the hell are we??" and
watch everyone reboard onto pickups or buses and
drives off, leaving the 2 of us, 2 gringos, in this
bumf*ck little trainstop town in the middle of
nowhere.....
... let the madness set in.
We have a good laugh about it to ourselves, figuring
we're up for a long night. I secretly curse Yolanda
and her advice under my breath and we venture off thru
town, 2 little dirt streets and walk into chickens,
dogs, trash, and some natives. Then we see a little
shop, ask about food, and the guy says "cerveza??"
and points. We turn around and painted on this white
building is our favorite word - Tecate. We run up like
school children on the last day of school - some woman
sees us and walks up, opens a fridge bin and reveals
100s of Tecate beers - at $1 a piece!! we'll take 5 we
say - and how long are you open?? another 2 hours???
great! we'll be back! and we stroll off to the river
w/ our beer and smiles. WE sit at the river, take off
our packs, crack open some beer and enjoy the scenery,
away from town, but only about 200 yards away. Now
what do we do??? drink here until night comes, find a
spot away from the rocks and throw down our mats?? not
unlike any other night on this trip... we drink and
talk and keep making jaunts back into the village to
get more beer and then that weird wet clear liquid
from the sky comes back and finds us for the second
time in 6 months.... and now its raining, lightly,
heavier, then cats and dogs! uh, what do we do. well?
have a laugh, and then grab the tarp Ben so cleverly
brought and try to string it up(the rain is blowing
mostly horizontally rather than downwards) - this part
we have on video because our tarp job was oh so
humorous, but it managed to keep us somewhat dry and
keep us in the mood to finish the beer. The rain
eventually passed over as always and we headed into
town for more beer. By this time we're starving and
we stop back in the shop. Comida?? Si!?! We sit down
for another meal that we have no idea what we're
getting because the shopkeeper woman and her son have
taken to us and decided to cook us a meal. The
highlight of this meal was the little red pepper balls
you add to your tortilla wrap. The lady says only use
one, so Ben throws 7 on there, just for a laugh.
They're not hot unless you directly bit one and the
contents will explode into a fireball in your mouth. I
walk out to the river to take photos of the sunset
over the canyon walls - sunsets are always best after
a good rain, they only get really colorful if theres a
lot of moisture in the air. Now the lady and her son
(Rosa and Mario) and this crazy guy (Tito) who pointed
us to the beer are all around chatting with us. The
son is our age and thinks we're pretty funny - then
pulls his car around and shows off his suburban w/ his
modified extra bass sound system and blasts crazy
mexican music so loud you could have heard it back in
the states. So i eat, drunkenly, another great home
cooked meal while absurdly loud Mexican music blasts 3
feet from my ears. Meanwhile the crazy guy sitting at
the table next to us, Tito, has taken to us and we're
trying to talk to him about what's up w/ this town.
When we got in, i failed to mention, we heard gunshots
going off, somewhere in town, like there was a firing
range. Tito asked if we wanted to shoot guns - i told
him, what do we shoot?? All of this got jumbled in the
Eng / Span. translation and i kept making them laugh
by telling them that i'd like to shoot a cat (i'm a
dog lover). So i would say, "Me gusta perros, pero no
me gusta gatos" (i like dogs, but not cats) and then
told him i wanted to shoot a cat (not really). That
would get a good laugh. Then i would make a motion
like a machine gun and make the gunfire noise. ak- ak
- ak. Gato!
Great meal, increasing drunkeness, and increasingly
drunken Tito all ended up in absurdity and we were all
wasted having a laugh at the fact that we call couldnt
understand each other. We just wanted to pay the lady
for the meal but she kept saying not to worry about it
until tomorrow. Then Tito offered for us to sleep at
his place. Ben sets up our beds on a concrete floor,
not noticing until morning that there are prison bars
on the windows. But Ben drags me to Tito's and we
couldnt care less, we need sleep, badly, its been fun,
but we need sleep. So we sleep.... for two hours -
tops...
At precisely 4am by my watch - i'm woken up by the
sound of dogs barking all over the village. Barking
loudly and crazily, all at the sound of each other,
causing such a disturbance that i can't sleep. Then
when all the dogs finally shut up - a final dog comes
out near our place and starts up - now he is just
barking, by himself, out into the night. The barking
is so loud that its echoing off the canyon walls in
the distance and returning and he thinks there is
another dog out there - so this dog barks and barks
and barks for a straight hour, right outside our place
until i just cant take it. Now i've turned my desire
to shoot cats onto this lone dog and in my hungover
sleep can only think about a muzzle and throwing this
dog in the river so that i can get some sleep.
Finally, Tito wakes up, stumbles around his place -
at this point i just want him to shoot the dog, but he
doesnt. Instead - he's up for the morning - and
decides to blast mexican pop songs as loud as his
stereo (the only thing he owns in his place) will go.
So now, the loudest mexican pop music i've ever heard
is penetrating through every wall and all i can say is
"you've got to be _____ing kidding me". Then Tito
stumbles in, flips on the light and has 2 Tecates in
his hand and says something about "bailando" which
means "dancing" and i'm like Wha!? NO! Ben!!! get your
ass up and dance so this crazy fool will leave us
alone!!! Get up now! Dance so he will turn off this
music! So Ben gets up and drinks and dances with Tito
and Juan (his other drinking buddy). Little old ladies
cover their ears as they walk past on the street, but
nothing seems out of the ordinary for them. Mario
doesn't want to be outdone, so he pulls out his
suburban and rocks the entire house. Had to be well
over 100 decibles. The bass is so loud, i thought it
would shatter the windows. Tito wants to drive us
around in his truck to see the old town, but Ben
manages to avoid being driven off a steep cliff by
going back into our room and trying to sleep. With
more beer in his hand, Tito tries to wake us up again,
but he finally gives up and drives off to work or
whatever it is that he does. I nearly make a shoe
trade with a Caballero who had made flip flops out of
old tires and some rope, but decides to keep mine
instead. Ben says he would have made the trade except
they didn't fit his feet. What brand of sandal is
that? Nike, Chaco, Birkenstock... nah, Goodyear.
We decide to go for a hike to the mountain pass to get
over our hangovers and kill time before the train
comes. So we go for it, hit the pass, and hike up into
.... Temoris Viejo or old Temoris - which is
apparently the big lively town Yolanda talked about
and turned out to be quite nice. She failed to mention
the town over the mtn. pass...and the other town - but
we found it, in enough time to get back by train, find
our car in one piece, and find out way out of the
canyon area and back towards the highway.
The next morning we headed for one last national park,
Basaseachi. We hoped to find a Cascada here, a
beautiful waterfall we saw in pictures....but
apparently there's no water until after august when
all the storms come through for monsoon season which
is high season for this place. It was a beautiful
canyon but no waterfall. So - west, through many a
mountain and on towards the coast.
San Carlos, Mexico - touristy, but peaceful. We found
some great scenery, some gnarly rock formations
towering over the coastal waters, and a tranquil
beach. We set up our stuff and then Ben goes for
beer. He comes back and tells me he's found a better
beach - i tell him thats great news, because i walked
along the beach and was stunned to find some dead fish
skeletons and a huge beached seal that had been
decaying in the heat. Yum.
So beer and onto the new beach - yes! paradise found!
White sands, free camping on the beach, clean water,
and town not far away for fresh supply of cerveza.
We've got everything we need. So much so that we
decided to stay for not 1, not 2, but 3 nights and 4
days before leaving. While here our daily life
consisted of going into town twice a day to replenish
beer and ice supplies (best thing about Mexico, free
ice w/ beer purchase), consume way too much, get way
too much sun, cook out at the car, play our music,
play some cards, throw the frisbee, chat w/ our
mexican neighbors Dachy and Roche(most of the words we
didn't know we used the dust caked rear window as a
blackboard to write on) and cause havoc only our own
health. And so it was, day after day we loved our
spot and would go back any day. When the time came to
leave we did not want to but continued north past
Hermosillo, and on to Rocky Point a.k.a. Puerto
Penasco a.k.a. gringo tourist hell- we were not
amused. We basically stopped in town, decided there
were too many americans and too many people that spoke
english for a change - so we slipped outside of town
and hung out w/ the locals and watched some mexican
kids play soccer just outside a travelling circus. A
nights sleep and out thru the border in the morning -
only to get glanced at and have the border patrolman
say - you guys are good, go ahead. Way too easy. Our
running joke was that whenever we got stopped at a
military checkpoint, we were asked what was in the
car, but never what was in the carry case on top of
the car. Instead of camping gear, we imagined a little
mexican hiding up there. Sure enough, we could have
smuggled one of them in.
So, no need for the mexican car insurance, no flat
tires on the numerous dirt roads, no montezuma's
revenge from the water, and no unfriendly people. For
all the trouble we're going through to keep mexicans
out of our country, I reckon more americans should see
what we saw. We'd go back anytime, and I hope there
isn't a giant wall blocking our way...
Next up: Havasupai Reservation...
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.: Ben Hansen :: 3:23 PM [+] 0 comments

:: June 08, 2006 ::

Trippin in the Southwest Part 2

So, last we left you with this little adventure we
were just coming into Phoenix, AZ to drop this
electronic contraption of a laptop off at Ben's
cousins' house. Mike, being a little worried about
safety of belongings and of personal health in Mexico
wanted at least our photographs to survive this trip -
as a last reminder of a happy time while we rot away
in a Mexican prison - or whatever might come in the
near future.
So on the way to Mexico we are hot and sweaty - as you
do in the southwest in mid May, and desperate to jump
in a body of water, any water, a puddle would do. We
look on the map - there are rivers that feed to and
fro from a big lake called Lake Pleasant. Sounds
nice! Pleasant in fact! But we're dying...the
Phoenecian sun is unbearable and anything w/in 100
miles of this sprawling capital city seems to just
bake, including us. We drive and drive and find every
body of water on our map to be bone dry. So finally
we go for this massive lake. A little tip for anyone
trying to get into state parks: they don't charge
admission fees after sunset. So Mike and I camped out
with some rednecks hooting and hollering in their
anchored boats in a little bay behind our campsite.
But that wasn't too bothersome. What was strange was
the donkeys. Yes, this state park had wild donkeys
wandering around, and they make for an interesting
alarm clock. Along with coyotes and ducks, the donkeys
woke us up at sunrise (5am).
On our way out of Phoenix, we were introduced to
Ceragem("Did you Ceragem today?" goes the slogan).
It's basically a mechanical massage bed with jade
rollers and heat. There are demo centers in strip
malls all over the country. They say they don't push
you to pay per session, just buy a bed after you see
the benefits. We were the only people there under 60,
and they play an infomercial(partially in a Korean pop
song) for 40 minutes while the rollers work your back
and front. Then, you have the option to sit on a
smaller roller, which the lady said was good for your
prostate. That's marketing speak for: stick this hot
thing up your butt. All very interesting, but I don't
think I'll be buying a bed anytime soon. Look it up
though - http://www.ceragem.com/ - there is bound to
be a free center near you. Don't be thrown off if you
feel like you're walking in on a Scientology seminar.
The heated prostate ball is well worth a free visit!
Ok, east of Phoenix is the Superstition Wilderness.
There is a National Monument there but we got there
too late, and were told about some other ruins. It was
a 20 mile trip down a pretty tough dirt road. I
couldn't make the last 1.5 miles, so we set off on our
hike. There were no trail markings, just a description
we got from the internet. So, after a lot of
scrambling and route finding, I turn back to ask mike
if he sees the ruins. He looks at me and says they're
right above you. Sure enough, they were hidden in an
overhang right above us. When I turned back around and
looked down, I saw something rather unique. I had
found a 500 year old Salado Indian pottery piece. We
examined the rest of the ruins and Mike found one as
well, along with corn cobs, metates(stone used for
grinding grains). No arrowheads, but a secluded and
little known area. Our hike back down was pretty
tough. The trail was loose scree and Mike was still in
his sandals after losing his shoe in the Escalante
River and had to go pretty slow. Mike ended up losing
his balance down many a scree slope, pitching over
rocks and cactus. I wandered ahead and found out
later that he was picking cactus needles out of his
hands and legs. He finally found a stick in an attempt
to brace himself on the descent downwards, and ended
up falling really bad even with the stick - basically
it looked like a grizzly bear and a wolverine had
their way with his legs by the time we reached Tuscon
- a bloody scabby mess. Then we head to Tucson to
visit our old college friend Eric.
Eric is an avid climber and brought us up to Mt.
Lemmon outside of Tucson to do some climbing. Mike and
I both climbed up 5.7 and 5.8 pitches. In difficulty
terms, they were pretty intermediate and we were
top-roped with eric taking the lead and cleaning. Fun,
but I know I'd have to practice a whole lot more to
get any better at equipment climbing. Tuscon nightlife
is pretty wild. We listened to a band, that was
playing out of a short school bus. There was no room
insided except for the musicians so you had to either
dance on top of the bus or out in the street.
Saguaro National Park is on both sides of the park,
but they closed the eastern section to repave the
road. We still saw some sweet succulants and desert
habitat. We somehow lucked out at the fact that
Saguaros in May near Tuscon are blooming their flowers
this time of year which happens to be the Arizona
state flower.
We quickly drove through Tombstone, walked the main
street, and got the hell outta dodge... er, well got
the hell outta tombstone. You have to pay to see the
O.K. Corral, and I've seen enough cheezy re-enactments
of the shootout.
Then off to Cochise Stronghold for our last day before
entering Mexico. The Cochise Stronghold is an area SE
of Tuscon heading towards the US / MEX border which is
flat desert all around and then thousand foot granite
and limestone towering rocks jutting out of the earth.
We found a tiny Javalina skull(like a wild boar),
named it Cochise, and it became the protector of the
car while we headed towards Mexico.
So, camped out at Chochise, we wake up and get to the
US / MEx border town of Douglas where Mexican car
insurance is needed. Just in case you didnt know -
when you drive to Mexico your US insurance that some
insurance company has charged you out the ass for
(especially if you speed) is no longer valid when
entering this third world country. Makes perfect
sense. So you are required to purchase extra insurance
for the time you spend in their country (North
America) unless you dont mind walking out and finding
that your car is sitting on bricks with everything
stolen out of 4 broken windows. On a side note -
nothing extra is required to enter our country, North
America, and to go across the border into the north -
that crazy place called Canada.
next up - Mexico !!
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.: Ben Hansen :: 1:54 PM [+] 0 comments