Up and out early – thank heavens – because our room was on the ground floor right next to the stairs and boy – was it noisy in the morning! Huge tour – well – probably a couple of them – and the luggage was being wheeled out the door by our room, the people were shouting – I kid you not – shouting “good morning” to each other. Mind you it’s not even 7:00am yet! It’s even crazier in the breakfast room. Ay yi yi! We manage to forage for something edible and make it outside to a lovely little table by the pool – all alone and out of the hubbub inside. Ack – as Tony Bourdain says “don’t get on that bus!”
Well, we’re not – and we’re outta there! Another fairly long drive today, but we’re pit stopping in Capital Reef. Not on our original itinerary, but it’s right on the way to Moab – and looks pretty cool. There is an orchard there where you can pick whatever fruit is in season – for free. As long as you eat it on the property. You have to pay a nominal fee if you pick anything and take it out of park. Sounds great!
We meander our way through the vast nothingness of Southern Utah. Nothing but tumbleweeds and the occasional trailer. It’s just astonishing the sheer magnitude of land mass out here – without a single thing around. We make Capital Reef a little before noon. Stop for a stretch at Chimney rock then off to the visitor’s center for our stamp and to find the picnic area. We picnic in Fruita – where the orchard is – but don’t pick any fruit. It’s early in the season anyway, so we don’t know what’s available – and the visitor’s center was too much of a zoo to ask (the people! Argh – the summer season has begun!).
Capital Reef is named for a rock formation that resembles the Capital in DC. It was formed by a “waterpocket fold”, which is a buckled stretch of rock (over 100 miles lone) that was created by water that forced it’s way up through the earth’s crust. The Reef name is because a lot of the buckling left rocks that looks like the reef you’d find off shore.
After stretching our legs a bit and trying to decipher the map, we decide to jettison the rest of the scenic drive and the Capital Reef rock to head straight for the trail head at the Great Wash. We can hike into the slot canyon from the road to Moab and get a sense of just how a slot canyon looks and feels as the walls start to get closer and closer together. Grand Wash is one of two deep and twisting water-carved canyons, with sheer walls of white rock on either side. It’s really, really, really hot – so we use our cool neckbands for the first time and make our way into the canyon.
Wild! Walking through the canyon, knowing that water carved this massive “wash” and if it rains, flash floods will fill the canyon again. Fortunately, even though Ed keeps talking about rain, there isn’t really a threat of any wet stuff, so we’re safe for the moment. All told, we hike for about an hour marveling at the size and sheer height of the canyon walls. Check out the pix here, they don’t really do it much justice, but you can sort of grasp the perspective when we are in the photos.
Back in the car – ahhhh A/C! On the road again – and heading to Moab. This will be our stop for 2 nights – so we can do Canyonlands and Arches. We pull in around 3ish, and check into the Red Stone Inn. What a great hotel! Little rooms that look like the inside of a log cabin, complete with kitchenettes. It’s too fun. We organize then hit the City Market (Kroger by another name! Yay!). Stock up the picnic and snack supplies (great trail mix, fruit and deli stuff), then meander back to get ready for dinner.
Tonight we are going to the Moab Brewery. It’s right up the street, we’re walking, even though it’s about 100 degrees. It’s packed when we get there, so we sit at the bar for a drink – and – how bizarre is this? You can only get beer at the bar! They have wine and I guess mixed drinks, but you can’t get it at the bar, only at the tables! What’s up with that? So, I drink water, Ed has beer and we hang until our table is ready.
Food is great – Sweet and Hot Thai Calamari (in a brew pub in Moab, go figure!); Mixed Sausage Grill for Ed (way big portion, we brought it home!) and smoked BBQ tri-trip for me. It was too good. We roll back to the hotel for an early night and Canyonlands in the morning!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Bryce Canyon
We’re up and out early – as usual. Today is a relatively short drive, only about 3 hours. So the sooner we’re out, the earlier we’ll be at Bryce. We head back out through the park, it’s way too early on a Saturday for traffic, so no problems in the tunnel. We take our time on our way out, stopping at all the overlooks to take some pix. It’s a stunning drive, twisting and turning around the huge outcroppings of rocks. Once we’re out of the park, it’s a straight shot down to Route 89, then about another hour to the park.
Bryce is also a very small park, but where Zion requires the shuttle, Bryce only “suggests” it. We hit the visitor’s center, get all the appropriate papers, flyers and of course our stamp, then take a chance and head out the scenic drive. There are 2 parts to the scenic drive – the drive around Bryce Amphitheater, where the shuttle runs, and then a longer stretch of road that goes South to the end of the park and Rainbow Point. We want to hike down the to bottom of the Amphitheater, so we drive out to Sunset Point and luckily get a parking space.
We’ve been amazed and impressed with all the sights we’ve seen so far, but Bryce Canyon blew us away. It is so amazingly different – all the red rock – this is the home of the Hoodoos. Hoodoos are huge pinnacles and odd-shaped rocks that have been carved out by erosion. Technically, Bryce isn’t a canyon because canyons are carved out by flowing water, like a stream or river. Bryce has been formed by acidic rainwater and freezing and thawing of the water during the seasons. Regardless – it is an astonishing sight to see these Hoodoos, all lined up, all in different shapes and sizes. It was truly just, well, incredible!
Our first panoramic view comes at Sunset Point where we reveled in the rock formations. Then we headed down the Navajo loop trail to get to the bottom of the canyon. We’ve read a lot about the park, and everything says to go down Navajo and up Queens Garden – and boy are we glad we did our research. It’s hot – and Navajo is steep. Going down it was hard enough – we’re glad we didn’t have to go back up! We hiked down the path, past Thor’s Hammer, and down to the two bridges (the Wall Street trail where the canyon walls are so close it reminds people of the skyscrapers on Wall Street, was closed due to falling rocks), then finally to the floor of the canyon at Queen’s Garden.
It’s hotter at the bottom (always in the Canyons – you can gain 10 to 20 degrees from the top to the bottom), but the trail is flatter and winds through some great flora and fauna. We pass by a little area where people have built tons of small cairns, then we wind our way around the base of some Hoodoos and start our ascent up to Sunrise point. It’s easier going this way, but it’s still no cake walk, that’s for sure! The great thing is that while we’re stopping to rest and catch our breath, we can look out over the amphitheater and enjoy the incredible views.
So, up we go, finally reaching the top and the rim trail back to Sunset Point in about 1 ½ hours. We picnic at the benches by our car, then stow our cooler and head off on the rim trail to Inspiration Point. It’s about 1 mile to the point – and it’s almost all uphill. But again, the views are worth it, and of course, coming back down was easy as pie! Stunning –that’s all we can say about the whole experience – stunning!
Check out the pictures here – they don’t do it justice – but at least you can get the feel.
After Inspiration Point, we hit the car and drive the rest of the way out the Scenic drive. It’s beautiful and at Rainbow there are some great panoramic shots. The main attraction through is certainly the Amphitheater – which is so worth the effort!
Back on the road out of the park, we’re at the hotel in Bryce Canyon city way early. It’s a Ruby Best Western (The Ruby’s own EVERYTHING outside the canyon there – hotels, gas, grocery, restaurant – what a smart enterprise they have there!), the new one, and it looks gorgeous. Since we can’t get in our room just yet, we go ahead and start our laundry. Change into bathing suits in the bathroom and throw everything in. It will be so nice to have clean clothes! They have internet in the lobby, so we check in on email (still no phone service though) and catch up on what’s happened the past week. We ask about our room, and they say it’s still not ready. Finally, after we watch a bunch of people check in and get rooms, we ask again about possibly getting another room, since there are obviously some available, and the girls say “Oh, we thought you wanted that particular room.” No, not really, any room will do!
That little snafu handled, we arrange ourselves in the room and finish the laundry. It’s still early, so we rest and read a little bit. We’re going to the Bryce Canyon Pines Motel restaurant. It’s right up the road, and it gets good reviews on TripAdvisor. There isn’t a lot to choose from out here in the middle of nowhere. There are the Ruby restaurants, the Bryce Canyon Pines and then another home-style restaurant further down the highway. The place looks like a dump – in the dirt lot behind Subway – but inside, it’s adorable. All light pine, log cabin looking, cowboy décor. The food is basic, but really good. Service was slow – but there were only 2 servers and a huge group of 12 was there, which slowed down the kitchen. A good mix of Mexican and American with huge burgers and steaks. The only issue was that there was no alcohol. They have a huge bar in the next room, but apparently the restaurant was under new ownership, and at the time we were there, they didn’t have their liquor license. Oh well, check was a lot lighter than if we had beer/wine!
We had specifically gone to dinner early so we could go back in the park to see sunset. And even though the service was slow, we were still really early. We wasted some time at the hotel, then headed out to the Paria view point, which is the only point that faces the right direction for sunset. Unfortunately, we wasted a little too much time at the hotel, and the light had pretty much already gone by the time we got there. But, hey, it was a nice drive through the park in the evening at least!
So – another great day – another early night and early morning – coz we’re on to Moab!
Bryce is also a very small park, but where Zion requires the shuttle, Bryce only “suggests” it. We hit the visitor’s center, get all the appropriate papers, flyers and of course our stamp, then take a chance and head out the scenic drive. There are 2 parts to the scenic drive – the drive around Bryce Amphitheater, where the shuttle runs, and then a longer stretch of road that goes South to the end of the park and Rainbow Point. We want to hike down the to bottom of the Amphitheater, so we drive out to Sunset Point and luckily get a parking space.
We’ve been amazed and impressed with all the sights we’ve seen so far, but Bryce Canyon blew us away. It is so amazingly different – all the red rock – this is the home of the Hoodoos. Hoodoos are huge pinnacles and odd-shaped rocks that have been carved out by erosion. Technically, Bryce isn’t a canyon because canyons are carved out by flowing water, like a stream or river. Bryce has been formed by acidic rainwater and freezing and thawing of the water during the seasons. Regardless – it is an astonishing sight to see these Hoodoos, all lined up, all in different shapes and sizes. It was truly just, well, incredible!
Our first panoramic view comes at Sunset Point where we reveled in the rock formations. Then we headed down the Navajo loop trail to get to the bottom of the canyon. We’ve read a lot about the park, and everything says to go down Navajo and up Queens Garden – and boy are we glad we did our research. It’s hot – and Navajo is steep. Going down it was hard enough – we’re glad we didn’t have to go back up! We hiked down the path, past Thor’s Hammer, and down to the two bridges (the Wall Street trail where the canyon walls are so close it reminds people of the skyscrapers on Wall Street, was closed due to falling rocks), then finally to the floor of the canyon at Queen’s Garden.
It’s hotter at the bottom (always in the Canyons – you can gain 10 to 20 degrees from the top to the bottom), but the trail is flatter and winds through some great flora and fauna. We pass by a little area where people have built tons of small cairns, then we wind our way around the base of some Hoodoos and start our ascent up to Sunrise point. It’s easier going this way, but it’s still no cake walk, that’s for sure! The great thing is that while we’re stopping to rest and catch our breath, we can look out over the amphitheater and enjoy the incredible views.
So, up we go, finally reaching the top and the rim trail back to Sunset Point in about 1 ½ hours. We picnic at the benches by our car, then stow our cooler and head off on the rim trail to Inspiration Point. It’s about 1 mile to the point – and it’s almost all uphill. But again, the views are worth it, and of course, coming back down was easy as pie! Stunning –that’s all we can say about the whole experience – stunning!
Check out the pictures here – they don’t do it justice – but at least you can get the feel.
After Inspiration Point, we hit the car and drive the rest of the way out the Scenic drive. It’s beautiful and at Rainbow there are some great panoramic shots. The main attraction through is certainly the Amphitheater – which is so worth the effort!
Back on the road out of the park, we’re at the hotel in Bryce Canyon city way early. It’s a Ruby Best Western (The Ruby’s own EVERYTHING outside the canyon there – hotels, gas, grocery, restaurant – what a smart enterprise they have there!), the new one, and it looks gorgeous. Since we can’t get in our room just yet, we go ahead and start our laundry. Change into bathing suits in the bathroom and throw everything in. It will be so nice to have clean clothes! They have internet in the lobby, so we check in on email (still no phone service though) and catch up on what’s happened the past week. We ask about our room, and they say it’s still not ready. Finally, after we watch a bunch of people check in and get rooms, we ask again about possibly getting another room, since there are obviously some available, and the girls say “Oh, we thought you wanted that particular room.” No, not really, any room will do!
That little snafu handled, we arrange ourselves in the room and finish the laundry. It’s still early, so we rest and read a little bit. We’re going to the Bryce Canyon Pines Motel restaurant. It’s right up the road, and it gets good reviews on TripAdvisor. There isn’t a lot to choose from out here in the middle of nowhere. There are the Ruby restaurants, the Bryce Canyon Pines and then another home-style restaurant further down the highway. The place looks like a dump – in the dirt lot behind Subway – but inside, it’s adorable. All light pine, log cabin looking, cowboy décor. The food is basic, but really good. Service was slow – but there were only 2 servers and a huge group of 12 was there, which slowed down the kitchen. A good mix of Mexican and American with huge burgers and steaks. The only issue was that there was no alcohol. They have a huge bar in the next room, but apparently the restaurant was under new ownership, and at the time we were there, they didn’t have their liquor license. Oh well, check was a lot lighter than if we had beer/wine!
We had specifically gone to dinner early so we could go back in the park to see sunset. And even though the service was slow, we were still really early. We wasted some time at the hotel, then headed out to the Paria view point, which is the only point that faces the right direction for sunset. Unfortunately, we wasted a little too much time at the hotel, and the light had pretty much already gone by the time we got there. But, hey, it was a nice drive through the park in the evening at least!
So – another great day – another early night and early morning – coz we’re on to Moab!
Zion
Up and out early – what a surprise – today we are headed to Zion….and Utah! We’ve stocked up with beer and wine so we don’t have to worry about their bizarre alcohol laws – but as it turns out – they’ve changed the “club” law so most bars and restaurants can serve beer/wine/liquor without charging you a membership fee. Anyway – we’re on the road, and Alice of course, is telling us to go a different way than Google Maps – and it looks like her way is out of the way. So we soldier on with Google and the more direct route.
We go through Kanab where Marti and Jim stayed when they were doing the park circuit, then head up Route 89 toward the park. Oh, ok, so now I see why Alice took us the other way – Route 89 is a State Route, but it actually runs right though the park. We have our annual park pass, so we get in “free”, but otherwise you’d have to pay $25 to drive through the road – and on top of that – there’s “the tunnel”. The park road winds through spectacular scenery, but at one point it goes through an old tunnel, drilled years ago before the invention of huge trucks and RVs. So any large vehicle needs an escort, is charged and extra fee, and for us plebian car drivers, shuts down the tunnel in one direction, because the trucks/RVs/Trailers are too large to allow two way traffic. Oy!
There are horror stories of the tunnel causing traffic of up to 3 hours. Yikes! We are totally lucky – either because of the time of day, the time of year, whatever, as we approach the tunnel, our direction of traffic is let through. Phew! Catastrophe avoided! We whip right through the potential bottle neck, and navigate down twists and turns and S curves into the canyon floor and straight to the visitor’s center. Zion is a small little park, with a mandatory shuttle system. We are lucky to find a parking space – the lot was pretty full even though we are fairly early.
We hopped on the shuttle, and rode all the way through the park to the last stop – the Temple of Sinawava and the Riverwalk. Even though it was starting to warm up, the canyon walls blocked the sun, so it was actually pretty chilly walking along the Virgin River to the bottom of the narrows. We had hoped to walk the Narrows as well, where the canyon walls come so close together you can almost touch them – but the river was running really high and strong, so the narrows trail was closed. Just as well – we would have ruined our only hiking shoes walking through the water and the sand in the narrows.
The Riverwalk is really wild though – there are tons of hanging gardens all over the canyon walls. Really amazing the flowers and greenery growing right out of the rocks. We walk down along the river and make our way back to the shuttle. We hit the Weeping Rock trail and climb up to see the springs rushing down the rock. It’s nice and cool up there – with a nice little spray of water. Since it’s warming up now, the water and coolness is a relief! Next stop is the Grotto trailhead. We take a break here to munch on our trail mix and drink our water for lunch. We nix the longer, moderate trail going to the Emerald Pools, and settle on the flat Grotto trail that leads to the Lodge. After some consternation and wandering around, we finally find the trail head – not marked at all – so if you’re going look for a little dirt path behind the service building to the right of the picnic area.
It’s a quick walk to the Lodge, where we cross over to the Pool trail. There are 3 pools, each one requiring more strenuous hiking. We get to the Lower Pool, and you know, that’s good enough! It’s hot, there are a lot of people, and it’s getting on into the afternoon – we’re just as happy going to the hotel and scoping out the town of Zion.
Pictures are here.
Easy on the shuttle, back to the visitor’s center, get our stamp – and two of those little neck bandanas you can soak to stay cool ($4 here, as opposed to $9 at the Grand Canyon). Easy out of the park – and within a minute or two, we’re in downtown Springdale and at our hotel. Great place with a view of the cliffs right out our window, a nice pool (but it’s too darn hot to use it!) and amenities. We hit the grocery store to stock up on our picnic supplies, and the gas station, then go back to refresh and cool off in the room.
This is the beginning of a highly unusual heat wave that is hitting the country. Beginning in Santa Fe even, everyone is complaining about the heat and how it’s just too hot too soon. We’re feeling it – even though there’s no humidity! It just wears you down. But, fortunately, when the sun goes down, it does cool off nicely, so that sometimes I even need a sweater. That’s the difference in the dryness out here.
Dinner tonight is right across the street at the Bit and Spur Saloon. Great location (yeah! Walking!) with views of the cliffs, and an outdoor patio with a fountain and lanterns. We sit outside and just bask in the warmth and the great view. Food is fantastic too! Ed had the best ribeye we’ve ever tasted – I was really sorry I didn’t order one even though my Steak Asada and butternut squash salad was awesome! That steak though…wow! So we hung out and ate and drank, then went into the bar and hung out some more. The bartender was talkative and friendly, as were the locals at the bar. Met the guy who invented Chums for sunglasses, and who is working on a new invention right now. Fun!
Wandered back across the street to our hotel, and had our nightcap out on the little deck on the 2nd floor. Rocking chairs, a porch and a view of the mountains. Yeah, this is the way to end a great day!
We go through Kanab where Marti and Jim stayed when they were doing the park circuit, then head up Route 89 toward the park. Oh, ok, so now I see why Alice took us the other way – Route 89 is a State Route, but it actually runs right though the park. We have our annual park pass, so we get in “free”, but otherwise you’d have to pay $25 to drive through the road – and on top of that – there’s “the tunnel”. The park road winds through spectacular scenery, but at one point it goes through an old tunnel, drilled years ago before the invention of huge trucks and RVs. So any large vehicle needs an escort, is charged and extra fee, and for us plebian car drivers, shuts down the tunnel in one direction, because the trucks/RVs/Trailers are too large to allow two way traffic. Oy!
There are horror stories of the tunnel causing traffic of up to 3 hours. Yikes! We are totally lucky – either because of the time of day, the time of year, whatever, as we approach the tunnel, our direction of traffic is let through. Phew! Catastrophe avoided! We whip right through the potential bottle neck, and navigate down twists and turns and S curves into the canyon floor and straight to the visitor’s center. Zion is a small little park, with a mandatory shuttle system. We are lucky to find a parking space – the lot was pretty full even though we are fairly early.
We hopped on the shuttle, and rode all the way through the park to the last stop – the Temple of Sinawava and the Riverwalk. Even though it was starting to warm up, the canyon walls blocked the sun, so it was actually pretty chilly walking along the Virgin River to the bottom of the narrows. We had hoped to walk the Narrows as well, where the canyon walls come so close together you can almost touch them – but the river was running really high and strong, so the narrows trail was closed. Just as well – we would have ruined our only hiking shoes walking through the water and the sand in the narrows.
The Riverwalk is really wild though – there are tons of hanging gardens all over the canyon walls. Really amazing the flowers and greenery growing right out of the rocks. We walk down along the river and make our way back to the shuttle. We hit the Weeping Rock trail and climb up to see the springs rushing down the rock. It’s nice and cool up there – with a nice little spray of water. Since it’s warming up now, the water and coolness is a relief! Next stop is the Grotto trailhead. We take a break here to munch on our trail mix and drink our water for lunch. We nix the longer, moderate trail going to the Emerald Pools, and settle on the flat Grotto trail that leads to the Lodge. After some consternation and wandering around, we finally find the trail head – not marked at all – so if you’re going look for a little dirt path behind the service building to the right of the picnic area.
It’s a quick walk to the Lodge, where we cross over to the Pool trail. There are 3 pools, each one requiring more strenuous hiking. We get to the Lower Pool, and you know, that’s good enough! It’s hot, there are a lot of people, and it’s getting on into the afternoon – we’re just as happy going to the hotel and scoping out the town of Zion.
Pictures are here.
Easy on the shuttle, back to the visitor’s center, get our stamp – and two of those little neck bandanas you can soak to stay cool ($4 here, as opposed to $9 at the Grand Canyon). Easy out of the park – and within a minute or two, we’re in downtown Springdale and at our hotel. Great place with a view of the cliffs right out our window, a nice pool (but it’s too darn hot to use it!) and amenities. We hit the grocery store to stock up on our picnic supplies, and the gas station, then go back to refresh and cool off in the room.
This is the beginning of a highly unusual heat wave that is hitting the country. Beginning in Santa Fe even, everyone is complaining about the heat and how it’s just too hot too soon. We’re feeling it – even though there’s no humidity! It just wears you down. But, fortunately, when the sun goes down, it does cool off nicely, so that sometimes I even need a sweater. That’s the difference in the dryness out here.
Dinner tonight is right across the street at the Bit and Spur Saloon. Great location (yeah! Walking!) with views of the cliffs, and an outdoor patio with a fountain and lanterns. We sit outside and just bask in the warmth and the great view. Food is fantastic too! Ed had the best ribeye we’ve ever tasted – I was really sorry I didn’t order one even though my Steak Asada and butternut squash salad was awesome! That steak though…wow! So we hung out and ate and drank, then went into the bar and hung out some more. The bartender was talkative and friendly, as were the locals at the bar. Met the guy who invented Chums for sunglasses, and who is working on a new invention right now. Fun!
Wandered back across the street to our hotel, and had our nightcap out on the little deck on the 2nd floor. Rocking chairs, a porch and a view of the mountains. Yeah, this is the way to end a great day!
North Rim Grand Canyon
We’re up and out by 7:00. Our sleeping patterns keep us moving in the morning – which is actually a good thing for the driving and the heat and – well – everything! So we are on the road fast, heading down Desert View drive (same way we headed last night for the sunset) only this time in the glaring sun. The viewpoints on this side of the canyon are magnificent as well. The Lipan point viewpoint is easily the best view on this side of the canyon looking all the way back down the cliffs, along the Colorado River. It’s just spectacular.
We are so early, however, that nothing is open yet at the Desert View East Entrance. So, we unfortunately miss our last South Rim passport stamp, but it’s not worth the 15 or 20 minutes we would have to wait for the stores to open. So off we head – out of the park and up highway 64 to skirt around the end of the canyon and head back down the other side.
It’s a long drive, but amazing in that the scenery changes almost every hour. From the Canyon views, to scraggy pines and boulders to immense mesas with nothing but tumbleweeds for miles, to the Vermillion Cliffs and the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River near Lees Ferry. It’s just incredible. We saw a bald Eagle at the bridge too – pretty close. Oh – and deer too – but that was at night near the donkey barn on the South Rim. Wildlife everywhere – we guess Pietro is happy with all his 4 legged buddies….sigh.
So – back to the trip – we made a pit stop at the river, then headed up through the cliffs into the high country and the North Rim. Again, the scenery changed from rocky barren cliffs to pine and aspen forests. Of course, as we are making our way through the mesa, Alice, who has been totally quiet for miles, now pipes up and directs us to turn left off the highway onto some road called Marble Canyon ranch or something like that. No way – do you see a sign that says Grand Canyon? No, we are NOT turning, I don’t care what that witch has to say. As we pass the turn off, we look, and it’s a DIRT ROAD. Oh yeah, we’re going 4-wheeling through the mesa and canyons! Ha. Ok – so Alice needs some fine tuning – and it’s obvious, you really need to know where you are going and not have blind faith in the GPS.
So, we stay on the paved road and the higher we drove, the more the forest closed in around us. We arrived at the North Rim entrance a little before 11:00 and headed straight to Point Imperial, East of the main canyon area. We picnicked at the benches by the trails, then walked a little ways through the trail there that led through the area where the 1000 Outlet fire burned. 10 years ago, and there still isn’t all that much re-growth, it’s pretty interesting how the fire just rages and then jumps complete areas. It was started as a controlled burn, but then got out of hand and roared through the park.
Back in the car, we head down to Cape Royal, the furthest part of the scenic drive. There we wander through the paved walkways looking out over the canyon and through the Angels Window. It’s spectacular here and very different than the South Rim. Much more rustic and undisturbed, and a lot less people. Since the Rim is only open a few months out of the year (it’s only been open a few weeks when we were there) it gets a lot less traffic and retains a much more wild feel to it.
We backtrack back up the drive stopping at all the viewpoints, then head into the main area of the North Rim to the Lodge. We have the cutest little cabin for our room tonight – log cabin with our own front porch – and a gas fireplace! How fun! Once again, no internet, so we walk the North Rim trail – and sit on a bench to try to access the web through the phone (not much phone service around here either btw!).
Click here for all the pictures.
Back at the cabin, we clean up, sit on our porch for an aperitif, then walk over to the rim for Sunset. It’s neat how the sun changes the light on the canyon, we take our photos, drink our coffee (that Ed so thoughtfully made!) then head over to the Lodge for our 8 pm dinner reservations. Once you’re there at the North Rim, you’re there! You either eat at the Pizza/Deli, the Sports bar, or the Lodge. It was a very nice dinner, good food, and not too exorbitantly priced. The view was spectacular through the floor to ceiling windows facing the canyon. How can you complain?
After dinner we wander back to our log cabin and collapse after a very long, but totally fun day.
We are so early, however, that nothing is open yet at the Desert View East Entrance. So, we unfortunately miss our last South Rim passport stamp, but it’s not worth the 15 or 20 minutes we would have to wait for the stores to open. So off we head – out of the park and up highway 64 to skirt around the end of the canyon and head back down the other side.
It’s a long drive, but amazing in that the scenery changes almost every hour. From the Canyon views, to scraggy pines and boulders to immense mesas with nothing but tumbleweeds for miles, to the Vermillion Cliffs and the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River near Lees Ferry. It’s just incredible. We saw a bald Eagle at the bridge too – pretty close. Oh – and deer too – but that was at night near the donkey barn on the South Rim. Wildlife everywhere – we guess Pietro is happy with all his 4 legged buddies….sigh.
So – back to the trip – we made a pit stop at the river, then headed up through the cliffs into the high country and the North Rim. Again, the scenery changed from rocky barren cliffs to pine and aspen forests. Of course, as we are making our way through the mesa, Alice, who has been totally quiet for miles, now pipes up and directs us to turn left off the highway onto some road called Marble Canyon ranch or something like that. No way – do you see a sign that says Grand Canyon? No, we are NOT turning, I don’t care what that witch has to say. As we pass the turn off, we look, and it’s a DIRT ROAD. Oh yeah, we’re going 4-wheeling through the mesa and canyons! Ha. Ok – so Alice needs some fine tuning – and it’s obvious, you really need to know where you are going and not have blind faith in the GPS.
So, we stay on the paved road and the higher we drove, the more the forest closed in around us. We arrived at the North Rim entrance a little before 11:00 and headed straight to Point Imperial, East of the main canyon area. We picnicked at the benches by the trails, then walked a little ways through the trail there that led through the area where the 1000 Outlet fire burned. 10 years ago, and there still isn’t all that much re-growth, it’s pretty interesting how the fire just rages and then jumps complete areas. It was started as a controlled burn, but then got out of hand and roared through the park.
Back in the car, we head down to Cape Royal, the furthest part of the scenic drive. There we wander through the paved walkways looking out over the canyon and through the Angels Window. It’s spectacular here and very different than the South Rim. Much more rustic and undisturbed, and a lot less people. Since the Rim is only open a few months out of the year (it’s only been open a few weeks when we were there) it gets a lot less traffic and retains a much more wild feel to it.
We backtrack back up the drive stopping at all the viewpoints, then head into the main area of the North Rim to the Lodge. We have the cutest little cabin for our room tonight – log cabin with our own front porch – and a gas fireplace! How fun! Once again, no internet, so we walk the North Rim trail – and sit on a bench to try to access the web through the phone (not much phone service around here either btw!).
Click here for all the pictures.
Back at the cabin, we clean up, sit on our porch for an aperitif, then walk over to the rim for Sunset. It’s neat how the sun changes the light on the canyon, we take our photos, drink our coffee (that Ed so thoughtfully made!) then head over to the Lodge for our 8 pm dinner reservations. Once you’re there at the North Rim, you’re there! You either eat at the Pizza/Deli, the Sports bar, or the Lodge. It was a very nice dinner, good food, and not too exorbitantly priced. The view was spectacular through the floor to ceiling windows facing the canyon. How can you complain?
After dinner we wander back to our log cabin and collapse after a very long, but totally fun day.
South Rim, Grand Canyon
Well, today at least is a relatively easy drive. We’re up at the crack of dawn – and on the road by 7:00. We make the Canyon before 9:00. Head straight for the visitor’s center and the bike rentals. We’re so early, the Bright Angel Bike guys aren’t even there yet. But that’s ok, because once they arrive, they give us the scoop (it’s the first nice day they’ve had – where you can’t see your breath or have to bundle up to ride! It snowed here the week before we arrived!), we get the first bikes and we’re on our way around 9:00. The bikes – the best decision we’ve made. It’s great riding through the Village on the greenway trail, nice and cool, not a person in sight. We swing by our hotel, the Maswick Inn, looks pretty cool! From there it’s an easy pedal (or walk) right to the turn off to Hermit’s Rest –where everyone else is riding that packed shuttle to the viewpoints, but we’re cruising on our bikes. Totally worth it!
The first view of the canyon – wow!!! It is more spectacular than you can imagine – which is what everyone has told us. We’ll let the pictures tell the story. Click here to go to the picture site.
So – we cycle. The first hill from the transfer point to the Trailview overlook is the killer – but it’s so worth it. We avoid the packed bus (which is packed with a HUGE group of Japanese tourists – so we are thanking our lucky stars at every outlook!), we get fresh air (the breeze is so cool and refreshing) and exercise. And the bike helmets don’t even look that dorky! Ha ha. So we take our time and meander up and around the main look out points, each one better/different than the last. It’s really just an amazing sight – hard to comprehend that water has done all this, made this vast and incredible landscape.
So we press on- there are many points where we don’t see another human being for 5, 10 even 20 minutes – just alone, riding our bikes through the rim trail stopping anywhere and everywhere for more picture opportunities. We make it all the way to Hermit’s Rest with tons of extra time. Bright Angel bikes aren’t coming to pick us up until 1, so we have over an hour to explore the “end” of the pedestrian trail and Hermit’s Rest.
I was a bit disappointed in the actual structure – I had over glorified from everything I read, so after about 10 minutes of wandering around the 1914 Mary Colter built rest area (originally built as a rest stop for Fred Harvey coach travelers who were ultimately headed to Hermit’s Camp), we decided to brave out a little bit of the Hermit’s Trail – which is marked expert on the maps.
Obviously we weren’t going down to the canyon floor which was a 5-7 hour trip, we just wanted to head done a little ways under the rim. It was a spectacular hike – even if we only did ½ hour. We met a few folks coming up from the floor – one couple had camped down there overnight. Pretty wild. The little trail was treacherous in some areas, and we finally turned around after snapping a ton of pix! Our big under the rim experience!
Back up top, the bike van finally came and deposited us back at our car around 1:30. We grabbed our picnic lunch (we’d stocked up in Santa Fe and had lunch for a couple of days), hit a bench near the visitor center and ate our ham, roast beef and cheese while enjoying the people watching. Next up – we head to the hotel. They let us check in (thank you!!!) and we dump our stuff, get organized, cooled off and decide to go walk the other side of the Rim trail from the Canyon Village to Yavapai point.
It’s an easy walk, paved all the way, with TONS’O people. While we may have been all alone on the Hermit’s Rest route – we’re not here. It’s amazing the number of people. We brave the crowds and just wander along, taking more and more pictures. There is a great “walk of ages” that the park is installing with all different types of rocks from different ages (it wasn’t complete – so there were lots of marble bases waiting for their rocks!) and lots to see – of course – it’s the Canyon! At one particular point near the Yavapai museum, we walked out near the edge and saw these 2 people WAY out on a huge boulder overlooking the canyon. Scary as all – and the girl had on FLIP FLOPS! No way, I couldn’t even watch! Ed snapped pix – which you can see here – we couldn’t believe that they could be so courageous – or dumb!
As we were heading back to the shuttle bus – we had a devastating experience. Pietro was missing! We were crushed! He had been riding in my pocket, loving the scenery, wishing he could go further into the canyon – when suddenly we looked down –and he was gone! We searched, and searched, and called his name. We asked everyone if they had seen him, but to no avail, he was gone. We knew he loved the canyon – but we had no idea he’d want to stay – without us. We were crushed. Here’s the last known picture of our little pal.
The first view of the canyon – wow!!! It is more spectacular than you can imagine – which is what everyone has told us. We’ll let the pictures tell the story. Click here to go to the picture site.
So – we cycle. The first hill from the transfer point to the Trailview overlook is the killer – but it’s so worth it. We avoid the packed bus (which is packed with a HUGE group of Japanese tourists – so we are thanking our lucky stars at every outlook!), we get fresh air (the breeze is so cool and refreshing) and exercise. And the bike helmets don’t even look that dorky! Ha ha. So we take our time and meander up and around the main look out points, each one better/different than the last. It’s really just an amazing sight – hard to comprehend that water has done all this, made this vast and incredible landscape.
So we press on- there are many points where we don’t see another human being for 5, 10 even 20 minutes – just alone, riding our bikes through the rim trail stopping anywhere and everywhere for more picture opportunities. We make it all the way to Hermit’s Rest with tons of extra time. Bright Angel bikes aren’t coming to pick us up until 1, so we have over an hour to explore the “end” of the pedestrian trail and Hermit’s Rest.
I was a bit disappointed in the actual structure – I had over glorified from everything I read, so after about 10 minutes of wandering around the 1914 Mary Colter built rest area (originally built as a rest stop for Fred Harvey coach travelers who were ultimately headed to Hermit’s Camp), we decided to brave out a little bit of the Hermit’s Trail – which is marked expert on the maps.
Obviously we weren’t going down to the canyon floor which was a 5-7 hour trip, we just wanted to head done a little ways under the rim. It was a spectacular hike – even if we only did ½ hour. We met a few folks coming up from the floor – one couple had camped down there overnight. Pretty wild. The little trail was treacherous in some areas, and we finally turned around after snapping a ton of pix! Our big under the rim experience!
Back up top, the bike van finally came and deposited us back at our car around 1:30. We grabbed our picnic lunch (we’d stocked up in Santa Fe and had lunch for a couple of days), hit a bench near the visitor center and ate our ham, roast beef and cheese while enjoying the people watching. Next up – we head to the hotel. They let us check in (thank you!!!) and we dump our stuff, get organized, cooled off and decide to go walk the other side of the Rim trail from the Canyon Village to Yavapai point.
It’s an easy walk, paved all the way, with TONS’O people. While we may have been all alone on the Hermit’s Rest route – we’re not here. It’s amazing the number of people. We brave the crowds and just wander along, taking more and more pictures. There is a great “walk of ages” that the park is installing with all different types of rocks from different ages (it wasn’t complete – so there were lots of marble bases waiting for their rocks!) and lots to see – of course – it’s the Canyon! At one particular point near the Yavapai museum, we walked out near the edge and saw these 2 people WAY out on a huge boulder overlooking the canyon. Scary as all – and the girl had on FLIP FLOPS! No way, I couldn’t even watch! Ed snapped pix – which you can see here – we couldn’t believe that they could be so courageous – or dumb!
As we were heading back to the shuttle bus – we had a devastating experience. Pietro was missing! We were crushed! He had been riding in my pocket, loving the scenery, wishing he could go further into the canyon – when suddenly we looked down –and he was gone! We searched, and searched, and called his name. We asked everyone if they had seen him, but to no avail, he was gone. We knew he loved the canyon – but we had no idea he’d want to stay – without us. We were crushed. Here’s the last known picture of our little pal.
Dejectedly we got back on the shuttle to the hotel. We cleaned up, tried to access the internet (ha – that’s a joke), then headed out to watch the sunset at Lipan point, supposedly the best place for a sunset view. Before we hit the road though, we stopped at the general store to just nose around and see what was there – and lo and behold – we found HooDoo. He was a poor lonely Bison sitting in the bin with the little foxes. All alone. No other Bison – or other animal his size – anywhere in the store. It was destiny. So, off we went with HooDoo safely in our backpack – no more pockets for mascots, that’s for sure.The drive to Lipan took about ½ an hour and probably would have been worth it if the clouds hadn’t have rolled in obscuring the sunset. Bummer. We stayed a couple minutes, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. Had a great hamburger (surprisingly inexpensive) and a couple of drinks at the “sports” bar, then headed back for an early night and big drive to the North Rim in the morning.
Check out all the pix here.
Flagstaff – we’re off to the parks
We’re on the road….headed to the Grand Canyon – but first a couple of pitt stops in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Out of New Mexico we go – into Arizona – for the beginning of our Parks tour. The Petrified Forest is a quick hour from the border of New Mexico – and a really beautiful Park. The colors of the hills and canyons in the Painted Desert are just incredible – the pictures just don’t do it justice.
We detour off of Route 40 and into the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Check out the pix – they describe everything! After visiting the Painted Desert Inn (a historical inn, and an original Fred Harvey House), we headed out toward the Petrified Forest, crossing the original Route 66 route, marked by an old car grill. The landscape is incredible – all different hues of pinks and reds. Once into the Petrified Forest, the landscape becomes even more arresting – looking like a pink and white glowing moonscape – with an asphalt road running through it!
We hiked one of the trails into the Blue Mesa – walking along the floor of the canyon with all the petrified wood – looks just like real wood logs, cut by chain saws. Amazing! We’re still getting used to the altitude though – climbing back up from the mesa – that was an adventure. But, there’s a cool breeze (or we should say gale force wind!) that at least dries us off as we walk. After our hike, we continued through the scenic road, and walk a quick little loop through the largest concentration of petrified wood and then stop at the visitors center for a rest stop and our park stamp.
Pictures are here for the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.
Cool! Now the drive through Arizona – even through “Winslow, Arizona”!!! Singing the Eagles song all the way – until we arrive in Flagstaff and the Alpine hotel. This is the coolest hotel/motel! It’s an old roadside motel converted into a boutique little place. King size beds, luxe bedding and pillows, redone baths. The room they originally give us is great except there’s no room for desk or a chair – so we asked for another if possible –and they upgraded us to a 2 room Jacuzzi suite. Yes! That Jacuzzi was just what the doctor ordered for our tired and aching muscles! Plus they have a complementary happy hour with beer and wine every night – can’t beat that. We soaked and drank – then headed out to an Indian/Nepalese restaurant. Yes, we are in Flagstaff Arizona! Great food, wonderful evening – we’re ready to hit the road early to The Canyon!
We detour off of Route 40 and into the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Check out the pix – they describe everything! After visiting the Painted Desert Inn (a historical inn, and an original Fred Harvey House), we headed out toward the Petrified Forest, crossing the original Route 66 route, marked by an old car grill. The landscape is incredible – all different hues of pinks and reds. Once into the Petrified Forest, the landscape becomes even more arresting – looking like a pink and white glowing moonscape – with an asphalt road running through it!
We hiked one of the trails into the Blue Mesa – walking along the floor of the canyon with all the petrified wood – looks just like real wood logs, cut by chain saws. Amazing! We’re still getting used to the altitude though – climbing back up from the mesa – that was an adventure. But, there’s a cool breeze (or we should say gale force wind!) that at least dries us off as we walk. After our hike, we continued through the scenic road, and walk a quick little loop through the largest concentration of petrified wood and then stop at the visitors center for a rest stop and our park stamp.
Pictures are here for the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.
Cool! Now the drive through Arizona – even through “Winslow, Arizona”!!! Singing the Eagles song all the way – until we arrive in Flagstaff and the Alpine hotel. This is the coolest hotel/motel! It’s an old roadside motel converted into a boutique little place. King size beds, luxe bedding and pillows, redone baths. The room they originally give us is great except there’s no room for desk or a chair – so we asked for another if possible –and they upgraded us to a 2 room Jacuzzi suite. Yes! That Jacuzzi was just what the doctor ordered for our tired and aching muscles! Plus they have a complementary happy hour with beer and wine every night – can’t beat that. We soaked and drank – then headed out to an Indian/Nepalese restaurant. Yes, we are in Flagstaff Arizona! Great food, wonderful evening – we’re ready to hit the road early to The Canyon!
3 Days in Santa Fe
The first leg of our trip – easy flights on Saturday to Santa Fe, where we’ll get acclimated to the altitude then head on west for more oxygen deprived sight-seeing. Flew in to Albuquerque, grabbed the car and made it to Santa Fe by 7 (of course that’s 9pm our body time – so we’re not exactly chipper and fresh!). Hit the grocery store – stocked up on the essentials (yep – beer and wine! Remember – we’re going to Utah – and while they’ve recently changed the laws – we’re still not convinced we’ll be able to drink or buy anything beyond 3.2 beer there – so we’re not taking any chances!!!).
Hit the hotel, the shower then made our way old town to the Inn at Loretta. It’s adobe, it’s right off the plaza, and they have this great lobby bar called the “living room” where on Saturday nights they have tapas specials and an acoustic guitarist singing pop/rock hits. Great way to start our trip! Lamb sliders, Buffalo sliders, wine, beer. Too fun! But too late! We’re exhausted, so it’s off to bed we go on a Saturday night.
On the way home, we plug the hotel address into Alice (Al-ee-chey in Italian – our pet name for the GPS) – and the darn thing took us to the highway to get home? What? We didn’t follow it, and ended up going through speed bump alley to get home – but there is definitely a more direct route from the Old Town to our hotel. (every day though, FYI, “she” sent us to the highway from Old Town – there is a serious glitch here!!!).
Sunday dawns bright and early – because of course, we’re still on EST! Ed goes to the gym, Cathy to go run on the trail that follows the railroad. Uh, yeah, duh! Altitude!!! So, that’s why it feels like Cathy’s having a heart attack and can’t run more than 100 yards at a time. Dope! But , the run – now a walk – is still fun –following an arroyo under the road and to the RR tracks, then walking the paths. Will be even better when we have our “lungs” in shape.
We’re taking it easy today – after coffee, we head to old town to wander through the Memorial Day craft show on the plaza near the cathedral. We meander through the streets ending up at Cowgirls for their Sunday Gospel brunch – which is just too fun. Ordered too much food – as usual – but enjoyed sitting in the shade listening to the music and passing the time. Explored the Railyard complex (the old sightseeing train leaves from there, and there is a redevelopment going on – 2nd Street Brewery has a location and there are 1 BR lofts on the market as well) Hit a local craft market, then headed back to the main Plaza to grab the car and head back to hotel.
Dinner tonight is a low key affair at one of the fun bars in town. Wings and Burgers at Del Charro. The “Saloon” at the Inn of the Governors. It’s a great little hang out joint with good food, flat screen TV’s and a great local crowd. Nice way to spend a Sunday night! After dinner we head back to the hotel (on the highway – thanks Alice!) and take our drinks out to the little arroyo at the back of the parking lot so we can sit outside with our night caps. Gorgeous night, great town. How fun!
Monday – Ed’s big Birthday!!! We’re up and out and hiking in the early morning. Hit the Dale Ball trails – a huge complex of trails all over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. After the Dale Ball trails, we head up into the mountains a little further to hike the Chamisa trail that eventually leads to a pond/lake across the ridge of the mountains. We didn’t quite make it that far, but we did make it all the way to the ridge.
On the way down, we were passed by two mountain bikers! How in the world do they stay on those little trails? No way Jose! We also rounded a corner to be confronted by this huge black curly haired thing – which Cathy immediately asked “that big black thing is a dog, right?” I mean, come on! We are in the wilderness, there is a big black animal on the path and there is no other human in sight! Of course Ed thought that was funny – and yes – it was a dog – the human owner showed up shortly – but still…..
Hiking didn’t take us as long as we anticipated, so we head off to find the Pecos National Historical Park, about 25 minutes away. Here, there is an easy trail that winds through the ruins of an old Pueblo and church from the Spanish missions. There are over 20 Kivas here- ceremonial pits, where the Puebloan people communed with spirits. They’ve reconstructed 2 Kiva, so you can climb down into them. Pretty cool, actually! All in all, it’s a fabulous site – and our first National Park! We bought a little “Passport book”, so now we can get stamps at every National Park to record our visits.
Back to cool off and shower, then on to Ed’s Birthday dinner! He had picked a great tapas restaurant we had read about, and is rated really highly - La Boca. Sitting one long block off of the Plaza in Old Town, this little restaurant is packed – with lines forming outside to get in. Great food, atmosphere and service. So glad we made reservations though – we would have been doomed to walk the sidewalks waiting for a table without them. After dinner – we hung out on the 2nd floor open air balcony of the Marble Brewery for beer and coffee and watched the happenings on the Old Town Plaza below. Fun night, great times, happy birthday to Ed!
Click here for all 3 days worth of pictures.
Hit the hotel, the shower then made our way old town to the Inn at Loretta. It’s adobe, it’s right off the plaza, and they have this great lobby bar called the “living room” where on Saturday nights they have tapas specials and an acoustic guitarist singing pop/rock hits. Great way to start our trip! Lamb sliders, Buffalo sliders, wine, beer. Too fun! But too late! We’re exhausted, so it’s off to bed we go on a Saturday night.
On the way home, we plug the hotel address into Alice (Al-ee-chey in Italian – our pet name for the GPS) – and the darn thing took us to the highway to get home? What? We didn’t follow it, and ended up going through speed bump alley to get home – but there is definitely a more direct route from the Old Town to our hotel. (every day though, FYI, “she” sent us to the highway from Old Town – there is a serious glitch here!!!).
Sunday dawns bright and early – because of course, we’re still on EST! Ed goes to the gym, Cathy to go run on the trail that follows the railroad. Uh, yeah, duh! Altitude!!! So, that’s why it feels like Cathy’s having a heart attack and can’t run more than 100 yards at a time. Dope! But , the run – now a walk – is still fun –following an arroyo under the road and to the RR tracks, then walking the paths. Will be even better when we have our “lungs” in shape.
We’re taking it easy today – after coffee, we head to old town to wander through the Memorial Day craft show on the plaza near the cathedral. We meander through the streets ending up at Cowgirls for their Sunday Gospel brunch – which is just too fun. Ordered too much food – as usual – but enjoyed sitting in the shade listening to the music and passing the time. Explored the Railyard complex (the old sightseeing train leaves from there, and there is a redevelopment going on – 2nd Street Brewery has a location and there are 1 BR lofts on the market as well) Hit a local craft market, then headed back to the main Plaza to grab the car and head back to hotel.
Dinner tonight is a low key affair at one of the fun bars in town. Wings and Burgers at Del Charro. The “Saloon” at the Inn of the Governors. It’s a great little hang out joint with good food, flat screen TV’s and a great local crowd. Nice way to spend a Sunday night! After dinner we head back to the hotel (on the highway – thanks Alice!) and take our drinks out to the little arroyo at the back of the parking lot so we can sit outside with our night caps. Gorgeous night, great town. How fun!
Monday – Ed’s big Birthday!!! We’re up and out and hiking in the early morning. Hit the Dale Ball trails – a huge complex of trails all over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. After the Dale Ball trails, we head up into the mountains a little further to hike the Chamisa trail that eventually leads to a pond/lake across the ridge of the mountains. We didn’t quite make it that far, but we did make it all the way to the ridge.
On the way down, we were passed by two mountain bikers! How in the world do they stay on those little trails? No way Jose! We also rounded a corner to be confronted by this huge black curly haired thing – which Cathy immediately asked “that big black thing is a dog, right?” I mean, come on! We are in the wilderness, there is a big black animal on the path and there is no other human in sight! Of course Ed thought that was funny – and yes – it was a dog – the human owner showed up shortly – but still…..
Hiking didn’t take us as long as we anticipated, so we head off to find the Pecos National Historical Park, about 25 minutes away. Here, there is an easy trail that winds through the ruins of an old Pueblo and church from the Spanish missions. There are over 20 Kivas here- ceremonial pits, where the Puebloan people communed with spirits. They’ve reconstructed 2 Kiva, so you can climb down into them. Pretty cool, actually! All in all, it’s a fabulous site – and our first National Park! We bought a little “Passport book”, so now we can get stamps at every National Park to record our visits.
Back to cool off and shower, then on to Ed’s Birthday dinner! He had picked a great tapas restaurant we had read about, and is rated really highly - La Boca. Sitting one long block off of the Plaza in Old Town, this little restaurant is packed – with lines forming outside to get in. Great food, atmosphere and service. So glad we made reservations though – we would have been doomed to walk the sidewalks waiting for a table without them. After dinner – we hung out on the 2nd floor open air balcony of the Marble Brewery for beer and coffee and watched the happenings on the Old Town Plaza below. Fun night, great times, happy birthday to Ed!
Click here for all 3 days worth of pictures.
National Parks 4-Corners Tour of the Southwest
Two weeks. 2850 miles. 12 National Parks. 4 States. That kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Well, we suppose you need a little more detail than that, so the following is our mini-blog. It’s got the details, the funnies, the travesties, and all the travel stories plus a few pictures along the way. We’ll also post the majority of the pix on our Shutterfly site so you all can see the grandeur and the majesty of the Canyons and parks in more detail.
For now, here, we’ll just give you an overview of our 2 week odyssey – without making you gag on the myriad of adjectives that one could try to use to describe the amazing and breathtaking sights we took in across the Southwest!
So – here we go…..
Well, we suppose you need a little more detail than that, so the following is our mini-blog. It’s got the details, the funnies, the travesties, and all the travel stories plus a few pictures along the way. We’ll also post the majority of the pix on our Shutterfly site so you all can see the grandeur and the majesty of the Canyons and parks in more detail.
For now, here, we’ll just give you an overview of our 2 week odyssey – without making you gag on the myriad of adjectives that one could try to use to describe the amazing and breathtaking sights we took in across the Southwest!
So – here we go…..
Saturday, January 23, 2010
1-20 Montes Vineyard and the long drive home
We have a semi-fitful night at the Parador. It’s a little warm (no a/c) and sound carries here in the valley so I wake up a few times listening to people having a party somewhere out there in the vineyards. Ed wakes up a few times too because of the heat, but we both finally end up sleeping soundly for a few hours. The sun is high in the sky as we finally wake up for good. The alarm is set for 7:30 – and what do you know – but that darn Satellite alarm clock has somehow picked up a signal from an East Coast satellite and shows as being 5:05am. We’re thinking it’s really weird it’s so light at 5am – and then we figure it out. That stupid clock! Honestly! But thank heavens we wake up! we have to be at Montes Vineyard by 9:30 for our hike and we would have been so sad to miss it!
We shower and pack up our junk, then head into the little sitting area for breakfast. It’s a spread – with local strawberries from San Pedro – right down the road – and an awesome pound cake (yeah, diet, diet, diet…..), ham, cheese, plus real brewed coffee and eggs! Scrambled! But they’re not scrambled like we know – they are almost soft boiled, then crushed up in a frying pan – served in this teeny little cup with a teeny little spoon. Oh my gosh – so good! Plus Chilean English Muffins – so I guess they’d be Chilean Muffins. Even better. A great way to start our day and prepare us for our big hike in the vineyards.
We check out and hit the road – the tire is holding it’s air – yay! – and we head off through the valley and all the orchards and vines to Montes in the middle of the Colchagua valley. We tell the guard at the huge wrought iron gates we are here for the “trek” and he shows us where to go. We park at the Visitor’s Center, this fabulous stone and wooden structure with “cement” ponds surrounding a wooden walkway to the mammoth wooden front door.
We wait in the lobby for a while and finally someone comes to greet us. There is another couple there waiting as well. The guide tells us that there is a little problem and their normal guide couldn’t make it today – so we can go now to a short nature walk in the hills – or wait 45 minutes and do the hike to the top of the mountain – which is what we all signed up to do. We’re flexible – we’ve got time (we’re flying out at 10 pm, so 45 minutes isn’t going to affect us one way or another), but the other couple has to be out of their hotel at 12 noon and they don’t have time to wait. They are getting pretty hot under the collar about it – and don’t want to wait – but don’t want to do the “short” walk either.
Finally we all decide to just go and do whatever so we don’t have to wait around. Our guide, who I will call Felipe, because I can’t remember his name, escorts us out the door, and then into a little open air truck. We start cruising thr0ugh the vineyard while he gives us a little background on the grapes. This vineyard only grows red grapes – the white grapes are at another property nearer to the coast. They are planting new areas with Malbec, the grape Argentina has made their top seller, and have a variety of cabernet sauvignon and carmenere as well. There are rose bushes planted at the end of some of the vine rows – and we learn that this used to be done to detect disease, because the pestilence would attack the roses first, but now it is done only for decorative and tradition purposes.
As Felipe is telling us thing, we are climbing higher and higher in the vineyard. There are times when I think the truck isn’t going to make it up the hills – or we’ll fall out of the back. It’s arduous and we finally stop at a crossroads in the vineyards and pile out of the truck bed. We start up the trail – and it becomes quite apparent that Felipe is taking us on the “hard” trek up the mountain. And he’s booking it up that trail too! No rest for the weary here – you want the top of the hill, you’re getting the top of the hill buddy! So, up we go. It was hard, and tiring, but so worth the climb. The views were fantastic – the vineyards stretching out below us, the hills rising gently in the foreground with the Andes and their snow peaked caps towering over everything in the background. Fabulous!
On the way down, we run into a tarantula. Lovely! It’s big too – and hairy – and well – you all know my track record with spiders – so I am not a happy camper. Ed keeps saying look, look, and I'm saying get out of my way, I’m running! Ack! We escape that little drama and head back down the trail to our little truck waiting to take us back for the winery tour and tasting.
As it turns out, our hiking partners don’t have time (nor the desire) for the tasting, so after we get the nickel tour of the steel and oak barrels and the testing room, they head back to their hotel to check out. That leaves Felipe and us all by ourselves for the wine and cheese. Works for us! We spent a delightful hour talking about wine, about life in the valley – he’s lived here all his life, in his parent’s house, his wife works for another vineyard right up the road – and tons of other topics, including (of course) world and US politics. The wine is excellent – and we can get it here at Total Wine, btw, Montes Cab. – and I’m even learning to like reds after all this!
Finally we bid adieu (or I should say Ciao!) to Felipe and the Montes vineyard and turn our little car toward Santiago. It’s 1pm and we’ve got tons of time, but we’d rather be in Santiago and close to the airport with time to kill than on the roads trying to figure out where we are going.
As it turns out, that was quite the prophesy. The drive to Santiago was uneventful until we got into the city. It starts out on gorgeous country roads and ends up on big highways – complete with bizarre trucks hauling everything you can imagine – as you can see here with the onions just stacked on a flat bed!
But, remember the cruddy maps, the instructions from the rental car guy telling us there are tons of signs for the airport, and finally Google Maps letting us down for the very first time. It is totally confusing in Santiago with the roads – Google gives you completely wrong directions, which, when followed, screwed us up in a bad way. After getting lost on the highways for about 45 minutes, we finally think we are going in the right direction, but again – who’s to know? There are no signs, the map stinks, and we’re getting a little frustrated. ‘
We finally pull off onto the “local” road and search for some business or gas station where we can ask directions. After a couple of misses, we finally find a gas station where we can fill up and get info. But, alas, there is no electricity, what luck!, so no gas, but I get out to ask directions. Habla Ingles? No, never Ingles is what the attendant tells me – with a big smile. So, I go into “gotta figure it out” mode. My “donde esta el aeroporto internacional?” brings a map – written on a wooden board there at the pumps. I quickly get my paper and the sweet little gas station guy draws a map and even pantomimes driving a car around an exit ramp to the road we need. He’s fantastic – and off we go.
In actuality – we’re only about 10 Km from the stupid airport, but you’d never know it! There is one measly little sign at the exit and then we still have to guess, because the signs all but disappear until we turn off onto the actual airport road. Phew! What a mess.
Well, at least we’re here. Now to find the rental car agency. They don’t have a booth or return section on property, so we are supposed to pull into regular parking next to the ramp for departures and our guy will be there to meet us and pick up the car. Well, we cruise around the lot a couple of times and see no one. We ask – and everyone directs us to the rental car return area – but we know for certain that isn’t right. We park and walk over to the long term lot – and still – no car rental guy. Finally, we break down and call – and well – we’re too early! They had us down for an 8pm return and it’s only 5pm – so no one is there to meet us! Sheesh! So, we take the keys and parking ticket to the Budget counter and they keep it for us until the car guys show up.
The sum of all this mess is that we did waste a couple of hours and now only have 5 hours before our flight leaves for home!
We spend the next 5 hours eating at a restaurant in the airport (great wraps and chips!), sneaking beer of our plastic bag stash and pouring it over ice cubes, sitting in the waiting hall and drinking the rest of our soda, wine and beer before going through security, then having a last drink and spending our last Pesos at the “Last Pisco Sour”.
Finally, they call our flight. We go through the extra security – hand searching our bags, no liquids whatsoever allowed in carryon – and crawl into our seats ready to take off for our overnight flight home. All in all, a fantastic trip – one we’d do all over again if we could!
1-19 On our own in Chile
Today begins the last part of our adventure – driving through the wine country to Santa Cruz in the Colchagua region of Chile. We’re up and out early so we don’t have to worry so much about traffic and can take as much time as we want to get down to Santa Cruz. It’s another beautiful day, and we drive out into the sunshine.
On our way down south, we’ve decided to take a detour to Isla Negra – a small little town on the coast where Pablo Neruda, the famous poet, lived. We make it there with plenty of time to spare – and quite easily considering the only map we have of Chile isn’t very detailed. It’s too early to go to the museum, so we stop at a restaurant on the main road to have some coffee. They sit us down at a table outside and we ask for Cortados – the waiter thinks for a moment, then says yes and disappears inside. After about 15 minutes I go back inside to see what’s going on! How long can it take to make coffee? It finally arrives, and it is more like cafe con leche than Cortado, but hey, we’ll take it. As we are paying the bill, it dawns on us that the restaurant isn’t even open yet! They were just polite and served us anyway – so that’s why the service took so long.
Off we go to Pablo Neruda’s house. We luck out and get an English tour within 10 minutes of arriving. The house is fantastic. It is said to be his favorite house and we can see why! Sitting on a promontory overlooking the ocean, it began as one room with large picture windows facing the ocean. Neruda expanded it using his own designs to include living areas, a bedroom and his office/study area. Neruda was a collector – and this house shows it. The stuff in there! In the huge 2 story open living room with loft , there are maybe 10 full size figureheads from old ships. The room is so big, that even sitting at odd angles and hanging from walls, they don’t crowd it, but actually make it seem like there are always people there. The dining room (which was the original room of the house) has a large round table with more figureheads on the walls and tons of glass vases, blues vases facing the ocean, orange/tan color vases facing the land, and many other collectibles. Also in the pantry here are the numerous sets of dishes and glassware that he collected.
Next up is the bedroom, on the second floor overlooking the ocean. You can feel the strength and fury of the waves hitting the rocks and the beach to the south of the house. A huge plate glass window faces the water and the bed is positioned to take advantage of the view. It is said that it is here that Neruda wanted to be in his final moments, but unfortunately he became so ill that his wife took him into the city to a hospital in his final days and hours.
The last area of the house if Neruda’s study – which was the last wing of the house he added. It mimics the shape of two train cars – with curved ceiling and “trailer” like length and width. His desk looks out onto the water, and you can imagine how this could enhance his literary prowess. The centerpiece of these rooms is an incredible stone and marble impressionist fireplace. I can’t even describe this piece of artwork (and there were no pictures allowed, so I can’t even show you) – but it was stunning, breathtaking, an amazing structure with all sorts of different stones pieced together into a totally harmonious masterpiece. Just incredible!
After exploring the study, with Neruda’s immense collection of pipes, Hindu carvings, ships in bottles and seashells, we were released into the fresh morning air to explore the grounds and the final resting place of Neruda and his 3rd (and final – as the guide kept telling us!) wife, Mathilde. Here, of course, we are allowed photos – so we snapped a few to try to capture the view, the wonder, the fury of the ocean and the general feeling of the place.
Back to the car we go – only to find a little parking “ticket” on the windshield. 400 pesos per 1/2 hour – so 800 pesos later and we’re on our way to Santa Cruz. We head in the direction of San Antonio where we hope to have lunch. After some confusing signage, we find ourselves in San Antonio – a really busy, bustling port city. There is mall and a casino – and around the mall – there are more taxi cabs than we have ever seen in our lives! We have no idea what they are doing – but it’s crazy – the traffic if stop and go and so clogged, that we ditch the idea of lunch here – and move on toward Santa Cruz.
We drive for miles and miles through San Antonio – and it’s all port! Every time we look to the west, all we see is the port. Wow – probably great seafood around here – but we’re not in the mood to try to stop and figure it out. So we head on down south and then East into to wine region and the Colchagua valley.
We made one wrong turn when we lost the Santa Cruz sign, but righted ourselves after about 5 minutes. We end up arriving in Santa Cruz right around 2 – which is when our room should be ready. We come into town from the opposite direction of where we think we should be – so we miss the turn off for the hotel and hit the 2 speed bumps in front of the university hard. A quick U-turn gets us back to the right road and down through the vineyards to the Parador de la Vina.
What a find! This adobe house out in the middle of the vineyards – literally – with 6 rooms and tons of little sitting areas, windows and doors – plus a pool right at the edge of the vineyard. Wow! We check in – all in Spanish btw – no one here speaks English much at all. We are in room #5 with 2 beds pushed together to make one – a great bathroom and walk in closet area with mini bar (and complimentary coke, coke light, water and wine!!!) – plus windows looking right out onto the vineyard. We dump our bags, get a little organized and head out to explore the town of Santa Cruz and get some lunch.
As we are leaving we ask about a Peruvian restaurant we saw very close to the hotel. The gal at reception calls them, and makes reservations for 8pm. Yay! And we’re still not speaking English!
Off we go to explore, as we are on the main road looking for the Peruvian restaurant, we forget about those darn speed bumps and hit them full speed again. Ouch! Finally, we get into town and park on the main street. We ascertain that we don’t have to pay for parking until we leave (again, no English) and we go off in search of a bank and food.
We find the bank, but get a little hung up on the food. It’s a little late for lunch and there doesn’t appear to be much open. We end up on the same street as the car – and lo and behold – we have a flat! Ed had suspected this when we hit the last speed bump – but was hoping he was wrong. Nope. Bummer! This is going to be fun.
Well, we’re starving so we end up at a nice little restaurant where they put us upstairs at a nice table, but all we want are snacks, so we go back downstairs and really weird everyone out by sitting at the bar and asking for beer, wine and “snacks”. It’s not going very well – no empanadas (come on! That’s just so disappointing), but we end up with Papas Fritas (yes, french fries – oh are we going to diet when we get home!) which are extremely good and do the trick. But it’s totally apparent that you don’t eat at the bar here in Chile. You drink. Several men come up and order drinks and then leave, but no food. Well, those crazy Americans, what can you do?
The waiter is really friendly though, so as we sit there, I decide to ask him about a service station for the tire. It took a while – a couple of missteps with service station and gas – but we ended up getting there – and it turns out the station is only a few blocks away. We pay our little parking guy (they are all so official looking with their orange vests and little tickets – although the Isla Negra guy had an electronic ticket machine – not so here in Santa Cruz), and head off to the gas station on our little flat tire (praying the whole way it’s just a slow leak and not a total blow out). The gas station attendant (it’s all full service here – no self serve anywhere) figures out our horrible pronunciation of “aire” when we point to the tire – and fills up both front tires. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We’re pretty beat by this point, and it’s getting really hot, so we head back to the Parador to do a little work and relax. We have internet access there – so we do a few things – then head out to the pool. What a fantastic 2nd to last day! Cooling off in the pool next to the vineyards (and we mean cool – it’s not heated and it’s COLD in that water!), then drying off and relaxing under the huge draping limbs of the monstrous tree off the veranda. We spend the next 4 hours, reading, napping, blogging and playing with our new best friend who follows us all over the yard – including to the pool for a drink!
After a quick shower, we head up the narrow lane lined with vines to La Casita Barreales, the Peruvian restaurant up the road. We are, of course, the first people in the restaurant – even at 8pm! We’re escorted to a cute table inside a small dining area divided by adobe walls, and adorned with Peruvian looking artwork. Everything is in Spanish – no English – so of course we order drinks first (that’s easy!) and they come with corn nuts – fresh corn nuts. Oh – yeah – we’ll just stay here and drink and eat those little delights!
Eventually we have to make our way through the menu ordering Pulpo con Moztardo (octopus in mustard sauce) to share, and for dinner, I had Fondo de Alcachofo y Camarones (cheese gratin of artichokes with shrimp) and Ed had some sort of fish (that we can’t remember now!!). Unfortunately, there was apparently something wrong with the Fondo, because our waiter came back and was trying to tell us something about the artichokes and that maybe they didn’t have it or something? Not entirely sure, but he brought the menu back and pointed at the artichokes with crab – and so after a few minutes of bad Spanish translations, I finally said “Si, Bueno”. Whatever! It’s food, I’ll eat it.
Well, whatever happened, and whatever was said, we’ll never know, because I got artichokes with shrimp and some sort of awesome cheesy seafood sauce. To die for – I was a happy camper. Ed’s meal was really great too – at least we remember he liked it – even if we can’t remember what it was! We asked the waiter to take our picture, and he made this big production of focusing and moving the camera around to get the best shot. And then, well, you can see for yourself…….think he needs to stick to his day/night job of waiting tables!
So, our last night in Chile has come to an end. We can’t believe it’s over so quickly as we head back to our cute little room in the cute little adobe house in the middle of the vineyard.
1-18 Reunion with Ada and Renato
Monday morning dawns a bit overcast and cool, but we don’t really care. We’re more interested in reuniting with Ada and Renato then sitting on the beach. We meet in the hotel lobby at 9:30 – with hugs & kisses all around – then head off to our little
Suzuki to tour the coast around Vina.
Ed, the #2 driver (yes, Sigis, you are still the #1 driver in todo mundo!!!!), takes over with Renato as our guide and we head off North to explore the coastline of Chile. We work our way through Vina, and thankfully the traffic is light - and we make it out of town in no time.
We head North with our ultimate goal being Zapillar – an old money town of gorgeous homes along the coast. First, however, we cruise through Vina – down the main avenue – Libertad – past the shops, the restaurants, and the mall, as well as the high rise condominiums at the end of the town limits.
Next up is Renaca, where Ada and Renato have their apartment. A bit down the coast, it is a lovely enclave with restaurants and shopping right on the main shore drive, and a fabulous funicular ride up to get to their apartment facing the beach. Their cousins are there visiting, and we’re so early, they are still sleeping, so we can’t visit, but we still went up to the public areas, the pools, the exercise rooms, the cafe, and wandered around completely in awe of the view and the atmosphere!
Next up, we drive through Con Con, another resort area north of Vina. A very pretty community all built into the side of the massive hills facing the water.
Then we head off through the forest to Horcone – an old hippie enclave that is the cutest little fishing village. One road – straight down to the water – where you park and “pay” guys to to watch your car. There is a little Catholic church here where the statue of the Virgin Mary purportedly cried (and as you can imagine, caused quite the stir!). Now the church is only open if you go and knock and ask to come in. We’re happy bypassing it to wander down to the water where all the fishermen are hanging around selling the fresh fish and shellfish they have caught. At night, when the boats come in around 5 pm, the tide is so low that they have horses pull the boats ashore. How cool!
Obviously, we’ll miss that spectacle, but simply walking around the cute little village is quite enough for us! As we continue on our northward journey, we come into Maicenello, a wonderful family beach with thatched roof houses you can rent. We stop at a little area with vendors – fresh fish like you’ve never seen! – and walk out onto this ricketedy walkway to a huge rock over looking the water. Renato (probably wisely) doesn’t join us! But Ada and Ed and I bravely forge our way out to the rock for the incredible views.
Onward we drive – to the northernmost point of our tour – Zapallar. On the way, it is truly amazing how the scenery changes from beach front to rolling hills and valleys to forests and then to urban/commercial zones. In three hours we have seen virtually every type of habitat and flora and fauna, changing constantly and incredibly right before our eyes.
Zapallar is a beautiful enclave filled with amazing homes (almost mansions) and towering trees all perched on the hillsides sloping down to the water. We stop at a little restaurant right on the bay and have Cortado – the Chilean version of Cappuccino. How gorgeous is this – sitting by the water, in hand hewn wooden chairs drinking Cortado under umbrellas to keep us cool in the shade with our friends. Can’t beat this!
Our tour guide, Renato, tells us it’s time to go – no more rest! So back down South we head for lunch. We have a choice of two restaurants – one that can be very busy. and another, Punta del Este with excellent food, but not as good atmosphere. As it turns out, we’re too late for the atmosphere restaurant ( a 45 minute wait), so we settle in at Punta del Este and have fabulous snacks of empanadas (shrimp with cheese, and marisco), chorillos con parmesan (mussels with parmesan for Ed – looked like a soup with 3 dozen large mussels swimming around), ostienses con ajillo for me (scallops – with the red muscle still attached – and garlic butter) and mixed mariscos with papa fritas for Ada and Renato. Fabulous meal – and so inexpensive! We’re all quite satiated by the time we’re done – and they give us an apertif on the house – menta (chilled mint apertif) and manzanillo for the guys (an apple type liquer) – excellent! We’re happy and relaxed on our way home to Vina.
We get to seista until 7, when Ada and Renato come to pick us up for drinks with Ricardo and Alfredo – whom we met on the Constellation Baltic trip as well. They have an apartment here in Vina and stay here the entire summer season. The apartment is adorable – with a lovely little balcony overlooking the tree lined street. We’re greeted with many hugs and kisses and are shown out to the balcony where we catch up over Pisco Sours and fabulous snacks. Ada had told Ricardo and Alfredo no food – we weren’t there for dinner, just drinks, so their version of no food was little canapés of shrimp, smoked salmon and anchovies, followed by some sort of artichoke puree in a teeny tartlet crust, then a mushroom quiche. No food!
We stayed on the balcony eating, drinking and talking well into the evening. We finally took our leave, promising to stay in touch and hopefully see everyone again soon. Renato squired us back to our hotel and we said goodbye for one final time. Talk about a totally delightful day and night!
Pictures #5
1-14 Chacabuco – Puerto Ayslen and Coyhaquie
1-15 Puerto Montt – the lake district and volcanoes
1-17 Valpo and Vina del Mar
Pictures #4
More pix!!!
1-10 Ushuaia – The end of the world
1-10 Cruising the Beagle Channel – Glaciers galore!
1-12 Cruising the Chilean Fjords
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
1-17 Vina del Mar and Valpo
Our first day ashore! Debarkation was, well, quite frankly a nightmare. They were running at least 1/2 hour behind due to the fact that we were docked so far from the port terminal it took 10 minutes on a bus to get there. There were only 3 buses to start with – a fourth was added later – so you do the math. We actually snuck out with another luggage tag color just to get off the ship and get our car on time!
Once out of the terminal (where we had to lay our bags on the floor for the dogs to check them), we found out luggage easily (out in the parking lot, mind you!) and then found our rental car. The Rental guys were great – very helpful and friendly and we were on our way in no time at all. No maps (they had run out – horrors! Cathy without a map!), but it was easy to find Vina and our hotel. the rental guys gave us great instructions - and truly – it was only one turn.
We parked the car for free (yea! free parking! unheard of!) and checked into the hotel. That took forever! It was sort of funny, but not really. It’s too early for rooms yet, so we store our bags and go off to explore Vina. Being election day, NOTHING is open – and we mean nothing. An occasional panateria or mini-market – but beyond that – it’s deadsville. In Chile, if you are registered to vote, you must vote or incur a large fine. And you must vote where you originally registered. So, like our friends here, if you registered in Santiago, but live in Vina, you must go back to Santiago to vote. The government has a rule that all businesses must be closed until at least 2:00pm in order for their employees to have time to vote. Thus…..the deadsville comment!
However, Vina is quite a pretty town – even with everything closed. A great promenade all along the water –where the Pacific Ocean just pounds the shore – and tons of little streets and cafes and shops (of course all closed). There is also an awesome park – Parque Vargara – where we walked all through the forest and then explored the huge amphitheatre. There is a festival here in February that is supposed to be incredible. As we are leaving the park, who should be coming but Bob and Kim and 2 other Cruise Critic folks. Wow! who would have thought that! We say hi, talk a bit and let them get on their way. They are staying in Santiago, but have booked this tour of Vina on the way to their hotel.
We wandered around a bit – and found a neat looking restaurant – Cap Ducal – right on the water. Thought that might be good for dinner. so put that in the back of our minds. Got back to the hotel – tried to check in – oh my gosh – talk about nightmare. It just takes so long for them to do anything. The paper work is astonishing! It’s a a hotel – it’s checking inn- we’re not closing on a house for heavens sakes! Oy!
Finally, got our room – and went up to check it out. At the very end of the hotel – great breeze - although noisy right on the main road. But for now – it’s fine – all the amenities, plus a mini-bar! we are so good. Got our bags, then headed off to Valpo for a walking tour. We took the metro – beautiful, new, incredibly accessible. Took us right back down to the port where the ship was docked in no time and we headed up into the hills of Valpo.
Except for the fact that it was deserted (remember, election day), it was a great walk. The houses are all very colorful and perched right on the hilly lanes and alley that make up Valpo. Tons of little alleyways and funiculars and stairways. We took one funicular (100 pesos – about 20 US cents) and then walked all the way down to the main avenue by the port. Very fun for a Sunday afternoon.
We took the subte back to the hotel and had a message from Ada and Renato, who had already arrived in town. We called and scheduled our meeting for Monday – along with drinks with Alfredo and Ricardo. We’re very much looking forward to seeing everyone again! Ada has also recommended Cap Ducal for dinner – so since we found it too – we figure we can’t lose. We shower and prepare for our evening out.
We leave the hotel around fairly early – knowing we are a bit early for South American standards, but figuring we’ll be fine for dinner. It’s really quite chilly out now – the day had been gorgeous – sunny and cool, but now in the evening – it’s a tad on the cool side. We walk quickly to the restaurant – trying to warm up as we go. We arrive about 7:00 to find that it doesn’t open until 8:00. The man at reception says we should make a reservation, and we do for 8:00pm. We have quite a bit of time to kill and try to go to the Sheraton for a drink, but it’s too far and by the time we would have gotten there we would have had to turn around. So we hang out on the promenade and watch the water pounding into the rocks.
As we are hanging around the streets and the promenade – there are tons of cars zipping around town honking their horns and flying Chilean flags and Pinera balloons and banners. Obviously they have called the election – and the Pinera supporters are out in force - everywhere – all night (until about midnight) cars are driving up and down the avenues, honking their horns and showing their support for their winning candidate.
Also as we are hanging about, watching the water, a helicopter comes by and starts buzzing the beach right by the restaurant. Apparently it’s too rough to swim and they want people out of the water. Pretty interesting way to accomplish it, but hey, it’s a great photo opp! (when we get the photos organized, you’ll see how wild it looks!).
After about 1/2 an hour, we see people going into the restaurant and being seated at probably one of the best tables in the place – looking directly out on the ocean in both directions – toward Vina and Renaca and also the castle. The menu looks awesome – tons of seafood – words we don’t even have clue about – but we can figure out Congria (eel) and corvina (sea bass) and sopa de cebolla (onion soup), so we are fine.
We order drinks, but no, it’s election night, so they aren’t serving alcohol until 10 pm. Well, ok, so agua naturale sin gas. Whatever. we make our choices and close our menus and sit. And sit. And sit. There are a group of 10 French sitting next to us and then 4 other Spanish speaking folks come in. Then another 4 Germans. And still we sit. No one speaks English except for the reception guy. So after about 45 minutes, I go out to him and ask if there is a problem? No one has taken our order. He says he will check. So we sit some more. Meanwhile, our friends from the cruise, Linda, Chris and Charlie come walking in! Talk about a small world!
A few minutes later, our reception guy comes over to all of us who have now been sitting here for about an hour waiting patiently without so much as a bread basket, and he tells us they are running very late and will start with orders at 9:00pm. Oh, no way! We’ve had no lunch (remember election day), I am so hungry I’m going to cry – and there is no way I’m waiting until 9 (yeah, like I trust this guy!) to begin to order. We get up to leave and ask how much we owe for the water we drank (because of course, we couldn’t order anything else), to their credit, they gave it to us free, and we left the place as quickly as we could.
We just headed back to the hotel – which quite frankly turned out to be an excellent choice. I had an artichoke stuffed with tuna and caviar (incredible awesome!), Ed had mussels that he loved. For entrees, Ed had fried congria – which was incredible – and I had steak stuffed with sundried tomatoes and goat cheese. Oh – I was in heaven. Both came with baby corns, peppers and hearts of palm. You know what? Excellent meal in a hotel – and are you ready? Only $40 US including 2 beers and wines.
We head off to bed very happy, full and satisfied!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Pictures #2
More daily pictures:
Buenos Aires – day 3 – bike tour & Tango:
Montevideo, Uruguay – Wine tour:
Puerto Madryn, Argentine – Penguins at Punto Tomba:
Pictures!!!
Here are some albums from each of our different ports. A few at a time so we can load them while on the ship….trying to use up the last minutes of our internet package….
Iguazu – day 2 Brazil:
Buenos Aires – day 1, New Year’s Eve:
Buenos Aires – day 2, breakfast tray, walking around Recoleta and downtown:
Saturday, January 16, 2010
1-15 Puerto Montt, Chile
Last port! Boo Hoo! Today we have a tour with some of our new friends, and we all meet at the Java Cafe at 8:00 to try to grab a tender. They are a little more strict today with the tender lines and we can’t get down to level 3 until they are ready – but we all manage to get on the first tender (it was a little tense there for a while!) and head off to find GV Tours for our all day tour of the Puerto Montt area.
Veronica and Gail Stein (yes, Stein) are waiting for us right where they said, outside the port gates. After a little confusion about who was riding with whom, we all trooped down the street to our waiting van with Annie, Veronica and Gail’s daughter. There are 12 of us stuffed into a fairly rickettedy van (complete with cracked windshield and jump seats that reclined when they really probably weren’t supposed to) and after the police inspect the van, ask for the papers and to see the tire iron, we’re off to see the sights.
Annie is an absolute delight, giving us the history, the politics and the environmental background on Puerto Montt and Chile. This is the lake district of Chile and we’re going to the largest lake in country, Lake Llanquihue. Lake Llanquihue is surrounded by quaint little towns – a few German villages (from when the Germans settled in the area in the 1800s) - and incredible volcanoes (some of which are still active). As we drive up the Pan American highway, the skies, which were overcast with quite chilly temperatures, begin to clear and the temps start to rise.
We arrive in Frutillar after about 40 minutes and get out to explore the little German enclave. We have coffee and an absolute awesome square of mint chocolate at a little German cafe (where we all successfully resisted the sinfully delicious looking kuchen displayed on the counter) and use the facilities. Then we all wander down to the lake to gaze across the water and take in all the great Germanic type architecture. It’s a cute little town – and a nice little pit stop on our tour.
Back in the van, which loading it with all of us is an adventure in itself, we head out to Puerto Varas, a larger German style village on the lake. Here, we wander around for 1/2 an hour, trying to avoid the hordes of cruise tour people that are here from their tours. It’s a beautiful day, and we can see the volcano pretty clearly now (which Annie said is quite unusual). We look through some arts and crafts stalls, and watch a guy paint tiles with just his fingers (and they are gorgeous) then head back to the van for the drive to lunch.
Along the way, we take pictures out the windows of the Volcanoes like crazy. Annie takes us to a spot where we can get out and take pictures – and where there is a little zip line we can try. What a blast! I so want to do a real zip line – now even more. It was great just flying down this little clothesline type zip line. Too fun. There were also llamas here, grazing all over the fields and cottages you could rent overnight. It was a pretty fun little place.
Next stop is the restaurant for lunch, Don Salmon. It’s an adorable open air kind of place, overlooking the lake and the Calbuco Volcano. The lunch is fine, a choice of lamb or Salmon, plus salad and dessert. Ed and I both got the lamb, which saw was being grilled outside on a wood fired grilled as we arrived. Everything was very tasty, including the wine and the beer! And it was great sitting inside, with the sun shining through the huge plate glass windows looking out at the volcano.
Our next and final stop are the Petrohue waterfalls. It’s about a 500 metre walk through the forest to get to these spectacular falls – and worth the effort. The water is the bluest of blues (from the copper sediments in the water) and the way the water rushes over the lava rocks is incredible – made more picturesque by the fact that they are framed by the Osorno and Calbuco Volcanoes. Not quite as grand as Iguazu, but nonetheless spectacular with their intrinsic beauty and force of rushing white water.
It’s time to return back to the ship. An hour long ride gives us all time to gaze at the scenery and nap a bit before diving into the hustle and bustle of downtown Puerto Montt. We get the the dock about 4:45 – and all decide not to shop at the market. Probably a wise decision since the line for the tenders is horrific. Ed and I wander a bit looking for beer and wine. Annie has reminded us that Sunday is National Election day, and nothing (emphasis on the “nothing”) will be open that day. It is illegal to be open during voting. So – we’re taking precautionary measures and stock up on an extra 6 pack and litre of wine for our hotel room.
After our successful shopping excursion, we hit the tender line, where after 1/2 hour, we board our final tender back to the ship. Only 1 sea day remains – can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly! We’re looking forward to Chile, Vina del Mar and the vineyard tour, but we’re sad to leave our little NCL Sun home for the last 14 days.
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