Travel Location: Baratpur,Nepal

Travel About: wildlife-viewing,park,adventure,safari

White Water Rafting auf dem Seti

2 Tage haben wir uns gegoennt. Wir sind ordentiich nass geworden, aber es hat wahnsinnig viel Spass gemacht.

Chitwan Nationalpark

Das war ein einmaliges Erlebnis. Nach der Rafting Tour sind wir direkt auf eine Insel im Chitwan Nationalpark gefahren, wo wir 3 Tage durch den Dschungel geritten oder gewandert sind, auf der Suche nach wilden Tieren. Eine Kanufahrt war auch dabei. Insgesamt haben wir eine Tigerspur, zwei Rinocerus, ein Reh, einen Affen, eine Riesenschlange, mehrere Vogelarten und zwei Krokodile gesehen.

Das Beste war jedoch, dass wir viel Zeit mit den Elefanten des Hotels verbringen konnten. Wir sind ueber ihren Ruessel auf die Elefanten geklettert, auf ihren Ruecken geritten und konnten sie anfassen wann immer wir wollten.

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Travel Location: Iguazu,Argentina

Travel About: park,hiking,travel-tips,getting-there,waterfall

DAY 48 – 20 JANUARY 2008

Well yet another Groundhog Day. We headed out from the hotel for desayno and almost unbelievably found a place that actually served cafe con leche that wasn’t Nescafe. That must be a first here in South America.

The falls are spectacular and you need to see them from Argentina and Brazil to experience the awesome power

We headed to Cordobas main bus terminal and tried to sign up for Murdoch activities but as usual the website is crap and you cant do anything without getting errors.

Scott is progressing well with his bracelet making and is starting to fill up my arm – obviously I am his best friend as he keeps making them for me.

We confirmed accommodation in Iguazu and let them know the eta for manana. Our bus arrived and left about 10 minutes late. The bus wasn’t packed and you could definitely tell the difference between the bus company we took yesterday – very good, and this one – very basic.

The journey was fairly uneventful, except for the really annoying family behind us, who filled their kid up on biscuits and coke and then he went nuts.

The scenery changed to very green with lots of water and from crops to cattle. Had Scott licking his lips.

DAY 49 – 21 JANUARY 2008

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu at 12.10 which was only 20 minutes late. Not bad for a 24 hour bus journey. We got off and walked to our hostel, which was about 10 minutes away. The room is fairly basic, but it was ready so we dropped our stuff off and kept moving and headed back into town to get details on tours, buses etc.

We decided that doing a guided tour of Iguazu is a waste of money so we will be getting up early to catch the local bus. Also saves a huge amount of money. The tourist office advised we need a visa for Brazil, but the local bus driver said we dent, so we are going to give it a go and see what happens at the border when we head to Foz de Iguassu. We have also changed our travel ideas we will head to San Ignacio for the jesuit ruins and then straight to Rosario, a dream destination for me.

We headed to a local restaurant, where Scott had another delicious steak (well he told me, I haven’t yet decided to eat the local dead animals). We also shared a bottle of vino blanco which was really nice, although my wine diet isn’t exactly causing me to lose loads of weight, damn.

We headed to the local Mercado and bought sandwich supplies for the trek in Iguazu tomorrow and went and had a siesta as we are now totally shattered.

Dinner was at an all you can eat Parilla bar and I made sure Scott ate his AUD$8 worth. I also had a huge plate of salad and the customary bottle of vino tinto, this time a Merlot from Mendoza.

We had a slow walk home at about 11pm and everywhere was just starting to crank up. It doesn’t seem to matter how late we go to dinner, we are still earlybirds.

DAY 50 – 22 JANUARY 2008

Well we got up early and caught the local bus to Iguazu which only took about 15-20 minutes. After paying our entrance fee we caught the train to the Garganta del Diablo, which is one of the main falls.

This involved walking for approx 1 km along a metal walkway, similar to Pemberton. The views were pretty spectacular, although as you are on top of the falls you dent really see the whole thing and there is so much mist etc makes taking photos very hard. Tip for anyone coming here, buy a waterproof camera, we have said that throughout our holiday and now it is too late, oh well our next holiday will require one as well.

From there we caught the train back to Estacion Cataratas and did the various hikes to view different falls. These you could view from different levels so it was spectacular to be right at the bottom of one of the falls. We got absolutely drenched, but it is so hot and humid here, it actually felt good.

We walked down to the ferry to get to Isla Grande San Martin but it wasn’t taking passengers, something to do with the high level of the river. So we had a picnic watching the falls and then decided to call it a day and leave the park. We got our tickets stamped so that tomorrow we can come back in for half price, if we cant get into the Brazilian side.

The weather here is 36 degrees with about a zillion percent humidity. My hair is frizzy beyond belief. We had a siesta like everybody else. I left Scott asleep and took a walk into town to have a look at souveniers, but it just seems to be getting hotter and hotter so went back to the hotel.

We headed back out when it was cooler and booked a bus ticket to San Ignacio and a bus ticket from there to Rosario along with some accommodation bookings. I have also booked an apartment in San Telmo in Buenos Aires for our remaining stay.

We went to a restaurant and both had the salad bar much to the amusement of the wait staff who I dent think have ever seen a man eat just salad, but Scott is a tad meated out.

DAY 51 – 23 JANUARY 2008

We headed out to the local bus terminal and got the bus to Foz de Iguassu which is in Brazil. We decided if they wouldn’t let us into Brazil because we didn’t have a visa, then we would just come back and reenter the park again from the Argentinian side. Anyway as luck would have it we entered Argentinian immigration and they stamped our passport. All the passengers piled back on the bus and Scott and I fully expected to stop at the Brazilian checkpoint but no, we drove straight past – so we actually saved some money.

We drove into Foz de Iguassu which is as different as you can imagine from Puerto Iguazu, it is all high rise apartments, restaurants, bars etc. Although our bus driver was intent on training for the F1 championships next year, so we didn’t have that much of a leisurely look around.

We got off at the local bus terminal and found the bus to the actual national park. The buses here have a weird arrangement where you get on the bus pay the conductor (not the bus driver) and then go through a turnstile to get a seat, you then leave the bus from the back door. Again the bus driver was going faster than even I drive, so maybe I should move here as we have never seen a speed camera.

We arrived at the park in one piece, where we paid our entrance fee, luckily they took Argentinian Pesos, as we didn’t have any Brazilian Reals – at this stage I am totally sick of carrying around about 5 currencies. Luckily Scott is a human calculator.

We then bypassed the tour group line and caught the first bus heading out to the falls. We followed the walk which showed the full view of the actual falls on the Argentinian side. The walk took you all along the falls culminating in a walkway that takes you out to the bottom of the falls and another couple of walkways that take you up to the face and top of the falls. All intent on getting you wet.

We think the Argentinian side is better as there is more to do and see and you do have the opportunity to get even closer to the water.

Anyway we had our picnic lunch before completing the journey in reverse back to Puerto Iguazu, again making it through immigration with no problems. I am sure they dent even look and just see the huge amount of stamps we have accumulated and give up trying to find where we have been last.

We headed out for an early dinner and after eventually finding a bank, which we had consistently walked past several times, and is stupidly called Metro which we thought was a supermarket, we topped up our funds and went back to the restaurant we went on the first night as Scott was ready to give the Parilla another go.

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Travel Location: San-Francisco,United-States

Travel About: natural-wonder,park,mountain,waterfall

For my last adventure in San Francisco, I headed off to Yosemite National Park for a day trip. After a very early start we hit the freeway and were in the park by mid-morning. We headed straight to what Yosemite is famous for, El Capitano and Half Dome. These are 2 huge granite rocks that are pretty impressive. We got pretty close to El Capitano but sadly only saw Half Dome from a distance. After a couple of strolls to see some beautiful waterfalls, we stopped to watch some crazy climbers up on El Capitano, apparently it takes 3 days to get to the top! Lunch was spent sitting right next to a waterfalla and then we headed to see the Giant Sequoa’s. These are trees that are the largest living organisim in the world. And, boy, are they big!

Well, after 10 days in San Fran I think I have pretty much seen everything there is too see! Its been fantastic and tomorrow I fly to my next adventure, Costa Rica. I will be spending the 1st week attending Spanish School in San Jose and staying with a host family and then I meet up with my project on the 2nd of July.

yosemite

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Travel Location: Cardiff,United-Kingdom

Travel About: park,shopping,market,working-abroad,study-abroad,theatre

Ho there blogites!

It’s been hard to find time to write as my internet time is scattered and we’ve been working 12 hour days. Well…sometimes those last couple hours are spent at the pub, but the day is stressful sometimes and hey…we deserve those 2 hours of pub work. So last time I wrote I had just arrived in Cardiff, startin the theatre work. I’m interning at the Royal Welsh College of Drama and Music. It’s a small conservatory (they only take 20 new admits each year to each program) with a small “campus” to match (really only one building) but it is surrounded by a great Park. The park is beautiful as I saw on the only run I’ve taken on this trip (walking a city is plenty of exertion!). THough i was battling the rain, it felt great. It really is a nice way to see a place…just go out for a jog. See others along the way…it was amazing how many people were out and about on such a “wintery mix” day. I suppose they are so used to the rain it doesn’t even occur to them that the next thunder & lighting storm of the century looms directly above. My running speed on the way back did pick up considerably (just don’t die…just don’t die…)The student apartments we are staying in are swaaaanky! …and that was completely unexpected. similar to hamilton, as it’s in suite style (know here as a flat) but there is twice as much space, we each have our own bathroom and everything is brand new. Although, there is the fact i feel like i’m living in a security vault. Get this, i need a key to get into the entire apartment area (actually they are so high-tech…it is a scan key), the same key to get into the building, another key to get into the flat itself, and then one more key to get into my actual room. i was shocked that both the kitchen and personal bathroom were not outfitted with a key lock..i mean…i think that’s a little risky. Ohhh i forgot to mention the laundry room contains all brand new equipment, a flat screen tv and leather couches. We’re thinking of having a party in there. We spent our two free days walking around Cardiff and checkin out the sites. there is shopping galore and we found a cool little market where we bought some fruit, and i got way too excited when i saw “waiit…those look like…yes..i am in wales…welsh cakes!!” which i bought for all of us…yummm. We also found some cool little alley ways with some cool independent punky stores and a record shop i warned i may have to spend an hour or so in. i talked to some kids there and found some sweet welsh punk music…rock! and apparently this record store claims to be the oldest…ever….established in 1894. who knows if it’s true or just the welsh gettin all excited about having invented the song and all that…yep….invented the song. hey…someone had to…

As for the rest of our time not spent lounging about in the apartment, we’re completely shielded from the weather inside a black box called the theater. For the first few days we recreated the space we will have in Edinburgh, which we also build from the ground up. It has been calculated that in any one day during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 3000 performances will take place. Any available space is used for theatre. We will be in a tiny church. It was educational and rewarding to build the theatre from nothing. saw the entire construction and wiring of a lighting rig, the sound equipment and all the staging and seats (no wiring involved here obviously). but recently, although the days are long, unfortunately I can’t say that all this time has been spent working. It’s weird because I thought every day would be INTENSE working, but in fact it seems like we’re often desperate to find things to do and just stand around chatting about our next tea time to come (yes…we take tea breaks). But once we’re in Edinburgh i know this will pick up when we’re running 3-4 shows a day with about a half hour for turnaround time…yeeeah. And apparently pubbing is expected every night of the week. Oh boy. the two shows I’m mainly working on include a “science” show which is more like a mess of science tricks, video, and music all disjointedly interspersed. Some cool moments but it’s all so jumbled together that it’s tiring to watch, especially so because the actors are well…not exactly actors….quite painful at times i must say. Luckily they are awesome people so it’s no trouble to work with them…just slightly painful to watch it at times. The other show, in which I have the responsibility of 58 cues (and that’s just for visual powerpoint slides) is a musical about child abuse, performed by kids aged 13-20 years old…hmmmm. It’s pretty much like watching a high school musical…and we all know how that feels for an hour. Another show, about Dylan Thomas’s life is cool though. We’ll see how I feel about all of these after 3 weeks.

something completely different: don’t worry! we easily made time in our busy schedule to pick up the new Harry Potter book at midnight on the 15th…quite exciting! We stood in line for over an hour. I’ve only spent a couple of days reading and i’m already 250 pages in. Ahhh to revel in our nerdiness. because our days end so late we often just start our free time at around 8 or 9 or 10pm. Romina’s birthday was yesterday and after the shows we all went out for “Curry” (Indian food) and ate our second dinners at 11pm. then some cake of course. the food was amazing…but the feeling in my stomach that night and the next morning was more like bed-spring bending, which it actually was making a loud pop as i rolled my gluttonous self over. it was comical.

So you ask…what is the title of this piece? making some political statement? ha…of course not…me? well anyway,…we all know that it rains incessantly in Wales, but the rain they’ve had this July has been unheard of and quite odd…even the locals (two specific theatre pals) are confused by the crazy weather. There is serious flooding in parts of the country, and thousands of people have been evacuated…oy. i’m hoping the island doesn’t sink while i’m here. that would just be no fun. Evidently the reports so far have said that havne’t had this amount of rain (within these past 3 months) for 230 years. record breaking. As Daz said “i’ve seen rain…i mean…of course, i live in wales…but never anything like this”. Maybe the weather gods wanted me to feel like i was back at hamilton! either way…rainy or sunshiney, it really is nice here and i can’t wait to see other parts of the country on our drive to Edinburgh. unfortunately seeing family has proved difficult as both the phone numbers grammy gave me didn’t work…sad!! perhaps i’ll just have to return to make the visits and manage to join the ice hockey team here (yes they have a rink in town…new and everything) Well, see you in Edinburgh!

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Travel Location: Phi-Phi-Islands,Thailand

Travel About: wildlife-viewing,park,island,scuba-diving,cool-photos

Booked our longtail boat again for a mornings visit to Phi Phi Ley which was the location for the film ‘The Beach’.

We had heard lots of negative press about the Hollywood bods coming to the island and basically trashing it. We have however heard that they actually cleaned the island up and removed 4 tons of rubbish and planted extra palm trees before filming could even start.

metre high waves bouncing the boat from side to side

Our boat journey here was a traumatic one. After a couple of years working in the shipping industry I thought I had had my fair share of hairraising journey’s but this was something else.

Picture the tiny longtail boat with only a tiny tarpauling roof for protection – now picture metre high waves bouncing the boat from side to side and up and down all in one movement. Our guy brought along his 5 year old son for the journey which was really lovely except that I have now taught him every English swear word in the book.

It was a strange island – when you first see it, it looks to just be rock with no bays, then you turn a corner and this beautiful beach just appears. We were very lucky to be the first ones to arrive that morning as its normally really busy with tour groups.

You can see why Hollywood chose this location as its just perfect. After a look around the interior of the island which takes you literally 10 mins we returned back to the beach to find two more boats had arrived.

After a dip in the sea we saw a huge speedboat on the horizan and decided to leave before the crowds came. On the way back around the island – again, convinced I was going to die, we passed some beautiful coves. When we turned the headland and sailed to the other side of the island the waters were calm and Lee had two opportunities to indulge in his new first love – snorkling! He saw some beautiful coral and fish – our disposal underwater camera came in useful here!

The island is a national park and protected area because of the nests of swifts here. They are collected by locals to take birds nest soup, a local delacacy.

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Travel Location: Las-Vegas,United-States

Travel About: park,scenery,the-strip

We had to take the long and tortuous route from Yosemite to Death Valley as many of the roads at higher altitudes were still closed due to the winter snow. It was amazing how you could leave the snow capped mountains and arrive in the searing desert heat just a few hours later.

We arrived just in time to secure the last available room in the Stovepipe Wells lodge, before setting off to explore the hot, desert landscape. We saw marble effect canyons, crystallised salt flats, rolling sand dunes and The Devil’s golf course, where “only the devil could play golf on such rough links”.

We cheered as we thrashed the computerised dealer

Next stop was the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip, and the opulent luxury of our room in the New York, New York Hotel. We weren’t brave enough to try our luck at gambling on the tables, but we had a little flutter on the Blackjack slots. We cheered as we thrashed the computerised dealer, and decided to cut and run with our winnings – a grand total of $7 (about £3.50)!

The following day we took in the sights of Vegas’s many extravagant hotels and Dan braved the Stratosphere Tower’s vertigo inducing rides, which literally reduced me to tears (I thought I’d conquered all my fears after New Zealand – obviously not!).

Our final night was spent in traditional Vegas style by gorging ourselves on the delicious food at the Carnival World Buffet in the Rio Hotel, followed by a show at the Venetian – The Blue Man Group, highly recommended. However, I think the highlight of my time in Vegas was a little trip to Tiffanys in the Bellagio…

To be continued…!

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Travel Location: Cesis,Latvia

Travel About: food-&-wine,park,festival,camping

Friday 14th July

Time to move on again. This time to Cesis which is the main town of the Cesis National Park. It’s only a 2hr bus ride from Riga so there was no need to leave too early. We c limbed on the bus at 11am only to find it titally full with only standing space. So… we stood for 2 hours in the hot vehicle. ! We had 2 Dutch girls to chat to who had also been in our dorm in Riga and we all decided to stick together and find accommodation in Cesis as a group. On arrival we discovered that we’d pickedc the wrong time to come here as it was fully booked out due to the town’s huge celebrations of being in existence for 800 years! Latvia’s oldest town!! We enquired about camping and made the decision to go for that. Great for the girls as they have a tent but we had to go and buy one!! Found a cheap one to serve the purpose and started the search fro a bus to the campsite which is a good 5 or 6km out of town. In the heat we stood for another 2hours waiting for the right bus to come along and were finally dropped off in the camping village. OK, so where is the campsite? There were no signs to it nor was there much of a vilalge! Just ramshackle buildings and no shop [we didn't have supplies]. Hopefully the camping site will have a shop, they normally do. Somehow we found out the way to the campsite, a 1km walk through the forest down to a river! There were spots free, thank goodness, but no shop!!! The campsite owner offered to drive 2 of us back to the town to buy things whilst the other 2 setup camp. Me and the one Dutch girl found a good place under the trees and sussed out the plac.e A really nice location way out in the sticks, next to the river and surrounded by forests. By the time the other 2 had returned with food etc… the weather was beginning to change!! A great relief to have some coolness but not at all good for camping as the rain was threatening. So typical, just because we’d bought a tent! the time we DON’T want rain it happens. Anyway, we ended up having a fantastic braai as we now had heaps of chicken which we made into skewered kebabs. Together with salads, chips and beer it was very reminiscent of home!!! Only problem now, the rain had started!! Oh no!! Was this cheap tent going to be waterproof??? We waterproofed the packs just in case and dubiously climbed into the tent. So far so good!! Just dont’ touch the sides of the tent, a bit difficult when it’s so small. Our luck held our, the rain wasn’t too heavy and thankfully stopped in the night, but instead the wind picked up!! How I wish we’d had this weather during the past 2 weeks. It was now actually getting pretty chilly….

800 Years Medieval Festival

Saturday 15th July

No more rain yet. but very windy. Not a good sleep as tent was very cramped. All of us chilled out in the morning hoping the weather would improve as we wanted to walk around the “Town of Celebration”. What a celebration it was. There were literally thousands and thousands of people milling around in this ancient old town which had been transformed into a real working medieval village. At each and every corner it felt as if we were in a time warp. Every single local was dressed up in medieval dress wandering in amongst everyone. It was like walking around a live theatre set. Ironmongers worked on one corner, the church gardens were filled with beggars, priests and monks all in authentic dress. The ruins of the castle had armourplated horses and knights with jousing sticks, around the fountains sat the rich gentry folk in their afternoon suits, bowler hats and gorgeous gowns, sipping tea!!! Suddenly along comes a whole host of beautiful children in colourful peasant outfits and garlands in their hair. Believe me, all the stops were pulled out here today. Every square had music and dance of some sort and the cannon ball was fired on the hour to mark the passing of time. What a festive day.

Sunday 16th July

Hitched into the town, to find bus/train info for a way out of here. Once again, a bit of a mission as we are in a small village again. The town was back to normal today, with no trace of any festivities ever having happened here in the past few days. Considering the last event ended at 4am, it’s incredible how fast everything had been dismantled and all the litter removed. Pretty impressive. In the evening we had a last braai before packing up, in preparation for the next stage of our trip – Estonia.

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Travel Location: Salou,Spain

Travel About: park,theme-park

We headed towards Solou which is South of Barcelona, having booked our hotel San Costa Daurada which must mean something in Spanish. For us it means a humungous hotel with air-conditioning with lunch and breakfast included. Having flung our bags into the room, we had a quick lunch with chips Billy didn’t like, Kimmy getting stuck into the mountain of smoked salmon and Will enjoyed actually sitting at a table with cutlery and thought the cakes and custard were worth a second visit. Fuelled up we headed to Park Aventure amusement park 2kms up the road.

We arrived at 4.00pm and discovered that things take time in Spain: queuing up for tickets, rides etc only to be greeted vaguely and thus, The Spanish Inquisition!! You do meet people to talk to, and you get to watch large families traveling together in clumps with at least one pusher loaded with a giant stuffed toy, and a Spanish mamma keeping the group on track by volume control.

The Park is laid out in themes. China, Mexico, Frontier Land, Polynesia and each were beautifully presented

The Park was spread over many kilometers and we sure did some walking. Despite the shortage of water, the gardens were lush and shady and lots of refreshment stops. We went on train rides, merry-go-rounds, dodgem cars and of course rollercoasters. We have a policy..No spinning tea-cups!! Only a couple of rides Billy was too short to go on and he loved most of rides… again and again. Will to tall for some of the kid’s rides so lucky Kimmy got to fill that role. As the night grew on the queues subsided, and we went on some more water rides to get drenched on!! The Park is laid out in themes. China, Mexico, Frontier Land, Polynesia and each were beautifully presented and authentic as can be possible. You kind of knew when you’d arrived somewhere because the theme music blaring changed we walked the Great Wall of China and watched a crowd of kids getting squirted by a large dragon fountain. .Billy went on a huge dragon playground until he was red in the face and needed hosing off. Dodgem cars were a favorite with all of us perhaps it was because it was easier than driving in Palermo.

Back to the hotel at 11.00pm to discover the Spanish version of Battle of the Sexes was poolside, popular and loud. Billy got a cool bath to wash the dirty off, and fell straight to sleep. He has been in excellent health and either running or jumping throughout the trip!!

TOOL OF THE DAY

One: The hotel for invoicing us $24E for Billy, most hotels don’t, and he ate three chips from the buffet!!

Two: Spanish theme park music!!

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Travel Location: Grand-Canyon,United-States

Travel About: natural-wonder,park

After leaving Mesa Verde we traveled into the Grand Canyon in Arizona. No pictures a person can take do this natural wonder justice. If you are intending to go to the Canyon make sure you get the proper directions as we were given a route into the South Rim and were supposed to stay at the cabins on the North Rim. We had traveled so far we could not make it to the North Rim and wound up in a Motel 88 which was very disappointing as the North Rim when the sun rises is supposed to be spectacular. We did take the tram up the South Rim and each view was more breathtaking than the last. If you want to take the donkey ride down to the floor of the Canyon make your reservations 6 months to a year ahead as they were sold out when we arrived!

We left the Grand Canyon and headed north to Las Vegas. We spent a couple of days of rest in Vegas swimming in the pool and seeing a couple of shows before heading on to Bryce and Zion National Parks.

No pictures a person can take do this natural wonder justice.

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Travel Location: Grand-Canyon,United-States

Travel About: natural-wonder,park,adventure,hiking,national-park,photography,grand-canyon-national-park,eco-tourism,fun,cheap

Today we got up early and loaded the cars with all of our gear. We went to Denny’s in town to get some breakfast since we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We got the atlas out and planned our route until our breakfast came.

After we finished eating we stopped at a gas station to fill up our tanks and get some snacks. I made the unfortunate mistake of not packing any cds and not having a cord for my iPod so I was subjected to the radio in Utah which mainly plays country music or horrible god-talk…….it was terrible. After awhile I just put on my iPod earphones and all and that helped some.

it was nearly sunset and the colors on the canyon were stunning. It brought tears to my eyes!

The drive from Moab to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon took 5 and a half hours. Along the way we passed turn offs for the Monument Valley Tribal Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, the Four Corners Monument. We decided to skip these since some were a considerable distance out of our way and we wanted to get to the Grand Canyon as quickly as possible.

We stopped about half way in Kayenta, Arizona to get some gas and stretch our legs. I called ahead to the Bright Angel hotel to see if they had any openings…they did not! The Bright Angel is one of the cheapest hotels in the Grand Canyon Village and is situated right on the Rim with fantastic views. I was a little disappointed. They referred me to the Maswik Lodge in the village and said that they had plenty of openings.

When we entered the boundary of the Grand Canyon National Park the rangers on duty gave us some maps. Along our drive into the village I could see hints of the canyon and it looked amazing. We stopped along the way at a few of the scenic viewpoints.

At my first glance of the Grand Canyon it was nearly sunset and the colors on the canyon were stunning. It brought tears to my eyes! You can see it effects everyone who sees it for the first time the same way. There were people from all walks of life, just staring in silence with their jaws hanging open. Amazing!

We continued on into the Village. Donna and Lindsay had decided that they wanted to camp. I only had one more full day before I had to fly home so I decided to get a hotel. I said goodnight to the girls and we made plans to go hiking the next day in the park.

I checked into the Maswik Lodge in the village. It ended up being quite a bit more expensive than the Bright Angel Hotel but it was on property so I wasn’t going to complain. I took my suitcase into my hotel room and began the task of repacking everything very neatly so it could get through airport security. While I was repacking I was listening to the hotel’s activity channel on the tv. It gave me a few ideas of things to do the next day.

After I finished packing I went into the main lodge of the hotel and did a little souvenir shopping. I came back to my room, showered, watched some tv and planned out my day in the Grand Canyon.

Things learned on Day 8 out west:

1. Its a long drive from Moab to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It takes 5 and half hours and there aren’t a lot of gas stations along the way. Keep your tank full.

2. If you have the time visit Monument Valley Tribal Park, Natural Bridges National Monument

3. Monument Valley Tribal Park website http://www.desertusa.com/monvalley/

4. Natural Bridges National Monument website http://www.nps.gov/nabr/

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