After a long journey from Copacabana via La Paz we made it to Potosi in about 20 hours. I took the cheaper bus to save a bit of money and Chris, Mike and Kev took the more expensive one that left earlier. I got to Potosi at 5:30am whilst the others met up with me at the Koala Hostel at 6am. In English money, I probably saved about 3 quid but it goes far in Bolivia.

So we arrive in a nice little hostel called the Koala Den that has a very homely feel to it. We pretty much check in as soon as we were there and showered up ready for the the day’s activities. We only planned to spend a night here before we move on to the salt flats in Uyuni.

It wasn’t long before we managed to book ourselves on the mine tours. We left promptly at 8:30am to go collect our equipment required for the tour, where we also met our guide for the day named Pedro AKA “Batman”. We were given some overall trousers and jacket which were supposedly used to protect our own clothing. However, they didn’t really stand up to the job. We were also given some wellington boots, a hard helmet and a head torch so we could see inside the dark small mines.

Before we went to the mines, the plan was to go to the miner’s market and see the Ore Refinery. We got to the miner’s market where we were told by the guide that this is the place where the miners buy their tools to carry out their tasks. This included 96% proof alcohol, food and drink and of course, dynamite. We bought 5 sets of dynamite of which 3 will be gifts for the miners and the rest for our own entertainment later. The miner’s life here is hard and it is customary to get the miners some gifts as we were visiting their place of work. In addition to dynamite, we got some coca leaves and fizzy pop for the miners as gifts. After the market, we moved on to see the see how the minerals in the rock are separated in the Ore Refinery.

Soon after we finally entered the mines. The entrance was a small dark opening in the side of a hill. We turned on our head lamps and walked in single file. I could see as I walked along the mines that these holes were all hand made as the sides of the walls were not in perfect shape and the ceilings were all at different heights. For most of the time I had to bend my head down and walk looking at my feet so I didn’t hit my head against the ceiling. On a few occasions the height caught me out and a massive *bang* would echo through the mines because the height of the ceiling unexpectedly changed. Fortunately, the helmet did its job and I never felt a bit of pain.

The mine went as far as 18 levels down. Our guide took us down 3 levels of the mine which was 120m deep. All of this was was done without lifts but with climbing, scrambling and crawling through small holes. The further we went down, the smaller the mine holes got. At one point we had to lay flat on our stomachs to get to a small cavern where a miner was working. we could see him hammering away at a small hole just so he can put a stick of dynamite in. He had already been working on it for 3 hours and it didn’t seem he had got far. We gave him some dynamite as a gift and moved on out of the mines. It was getting a little harder to breathe towards the end of the mine tour because a miner close by had let off some dynamite and we had walked through the aftermath of it where there was small floating particles and gases from the explosion in the air. We had some masks but they were pretty useless.

When we finally got out of the mine, I was glad as it was very tiring getting around in there at my height and it was much cooler and easier too breathe. The miners certainly have a tough life working there daily and It’s something I would never would like to do for a living. The good thing about this tour is that a percentage of the cost is put forward to the miners at the end of the year to help them out.

The day we were in Potosi, also happened to be the 189th Anniversary of the town which is a big event in the country. To celebrate, everyone in every possible job in the town comes out on a big march, donning big banners and shouting chants. We were invited to join the march with the tour guides and tourist association and we happily agreed, not knowing what we were actually in for.

After dinner, we went in search for group we was going to join the march with. As we walked along the streets of Potosi, we could see that the march had already begun. We walked against the march hoping we would find the tour guides group at the end. We followed the march for a about half hour and it still hadn’t ended. The streets were lined up with crowds watching the march. The march itself had an estimated 100,000 people in it. We never realised the sheer scale of this thing. We eventually found the tour group who were already preparing everyone by giving out the flag of Potosi to wave around and a Potosi lapel to wear with pride. We all received one along with the other gringos that decided to join in the march. The march itself turned out to be lot of fun. We mingled in with the other tour guides and getting to know them with some banter on the side. Someone in the group managed to sneak in 2 bottles of Bolivian whiskey for us to enjoy during the march. After about 2 hours, the march was still going strong. All of us were getting a little tired, but we were told that it wasn’t far to go. It wasn’t until an hour later we got nearer the end of the march were things got a bit stricter. Our group was organising themselves so that we were in a perfect rows of 4 people with the men and women separated in each line. We were then told to look right and hold up the flags. We then realised that we were marching past some important political people of Potosi and Bolivia and so had to be on best behaviour!

The march finally ended with a high. Everyone cheered each other as we marched past the finishing line. We marched for a solid 3 hours and it was tiring, but such an experience. This was our first and only day in Potosi but it felt like we had done so much and met lots of new people. It was sad that we had to leave the place so soon but it’s definitely one place we will be remembering for a long time.

We left Cuenca on a 6 hour bus ride to the border. From there we found a guy who showed us where to walk to cross to border to Peru. We arrive in a place called Huaquillas where a guy in a cab helps us out by driving us to immigration to get our exit stamp for Ecuador and entry stamp for Peru. This guy called Roberto helps us to do everything, which is fortunate as we didn’t have a clue what we needed to do. He took us to Tumbes where we could catch a Bus to Lima. It wasn’t until we arrived in Tumbes that we found the catch in his top quality service. He wanted to charge 80 US  dollars per person for the whole service which is extortionate. He didn’t seem to budge, but we held our ground and got it for 10 dollars per person which wasn’t so bad.So from Tumbes we caught a 18 hour bus with a company called Flores to Lima which had food and films provided as part of the service. It was really good and we slept surprisingly well.

Once we arrived in Lima got a cab to a hostel called the Stop and Drop. Once there the cab driver started to say that this place was expensive. We went in and got asked for the prices and proceeded outside to discuss where to stay, when suddenly another guy off the street turns up with a leaflet describing a new cheap place to stay. The cab driver and this other guy were pestering us saying their place is good and cheap. Then suddenly, the hostel owner from the Stop and Drop comes out and argues with the guy off the street and taxi driver for taking away their business. At this point, there was a lot of commotion. All we wanted was somewhere to stay and didn’t really need this hassle at a 8 in the morning having just come off a 18 hour bus journey. It was hectic, but in the end we just went with our original decision and go with the Stop and Drop hostel. Quite frankly, we was glad the hassle was over and that we could get more sleep. We never did a huge amount on the day we arrived apart from sleep and eat and a quick look around Miraflores which was the city where we was staying at just outside Lima city centre.

The next day we had more thorough look around Miraflores. We strolled around the parks, eating ice cream. Miraflores is pretty much the rich area of Lima and consisted of mainly expensive high street stores and restaurants. We moved away from the centre of Miraflores to the beach which was long and full of surfers. Quite a contrast seeing the beach so close to a busy city. The beach was busy and full of people paragliding. After the beach we had time to visit an old ruin called Huaca Pucllana maintained by independent local companies. We thought we would get a taste of the ruins we will be like on the Inca Trail but there was a vast amount of ruins to be seen. It was more like one mound of steps and a few walls. We finished off the day with a very nice chinese buffet. The food here was very nice with to my surprise, a lot of more traditional chinese dishes.

Having taken a look around the local area we were staying, we moved on to see Lima City itself on the following day. The was much more busier that Miraflores. It definitely felt less safer and more dirtier. But there was more interesting sights to see here. We first visited the Presidential Palace where we got to see the changing of the guards which involved lots of guards playing music and marching. It didn’t look too professional and well rehearsed as I thought it would be. It was free so I can’t complain too much. We visited a few of the many cathedrals there. More interestingly, we visited a bull ring, but unfortunately, it was closed so we couldn’t see any shows. We strolled around the rest of the city seeing many statues and monuments before we grabbed a taxi back to Miraflores. The roads in Lima are crazy. We got stuck in a sea of cars which must had involved about 10 lanes of cars when the road was only supposed to have about 4 lanes. All you could hear was honking everywhere. It seems so much more chilled on the roads back home in England.

We got back from the hustle and bustle of Lima City and had the urge to try out Ceviche which is a local dish here that consists of raw fish cooked in lemon juice. There is a well know street in Miraflores called Pizza Alley which is a street that only contains restaurants. We walked down this many times in the last few days and you get constantly nagged by workers of the restaurants to go in their place to eat even though you are not hungry! They try to entice you in with free stuff which influenced our decision to at down this street. We simply walk down the street and try to get as much freebies as we could. In the end, we choose a restaurant that provided a free beer and a pisco sour each. These went down quite well with the Cerviche we ordered.

The last day in Lima, we simply relaxed in the hostel’s lounge area watching DVDs until we moved to a luxurious hotel called the Mariel where we would meet with a GAP representative and group of people who would be travelling with us to the Sacred Valley, along the Inca Trail and to Machu Pichu. I think the day’s relaxing activities was a good call as I think we needed a break from sightseeing and I think we would need to rest our legs for the big hike along the Inca Trail.

All in all, Lima city was a nice place to visit, but for me 3 to 4 days was enough for me. I look forward to leaving the city to move on to something new. So back to nature for us all and we can look forward to camping again on our next adventure on the Inca trail.

Today is the day where we attempt to climb a volcano called Cotopaxi with a summit of 5897m high. It is a glacier which is not great considering we have only packed for the summer weather. I only have one thin fleece and tons of t-shirts and shorts. Fortunately some much warmer clothing is provided.

We arrived at the Happy gringo office at 8am where we met our main guide called “” that will be leading us up this enormous ascent. We were then led to a trekking shop where we got measured up and given lots of equipment. As part of the equipment we received some warm long john bottoms and top, waterproof jacket and bottoms, a big fleece, gators, gloves and waterproof glacier boots. Additional equipment we got especially for the glacier climb was some crampons (a big ten spike sole that fits on to the boots) and a ice axe. We finally, left the shop to head off on a two hour car ride to the National park where Cotopaxi belongs. Along he way, we picked up our second guide called Segunda. We had a lot of confidence in our guides as they had about 30 years combined experience in climbing, most of which was done at Cotopaxi.

When we arrived in the park, it was another hour ride until we got to a restaurant for us to drop off our main bags and get kitted up in our equipment. This was the point when we picked up our food to the climb and stuffed them into our small rucksacks. We left the rest of our luggage there and started to journey to base camp.

After another hour drive through remote terrain which started off as muddy dirt tracks and fields and slowly progressed to snow filled lands. we arrived at a car park at an altitude to 4500m. We wasn’t at base camp yet. We had to hike up a very steep and slippery mountain. It was only 300m but the altitude was pretty tough me, Mike and Chris. Kev seemed to steam up the hill without any trouble. I found it hard to catch my breath back and the slippery muddy surface just sapped the energy out of me. Every step I took, my foot would slip down a little which meant i only made about half a step rather than a full step. Eventually, about 10 minutes after Kev made it to base camp of 4800m, me, Mike and Chris made it too. The 300m was tougher than we thought at a high altitude. All the long hours of hikes we did in the American National Parks were so much easier. Anyway, we still had a bit of rest yet and time to get more acclimatised to the altitude before we attempt the hike to the summit.

When we reached the top we were greeted by some hot tea and coca with lots of snacks. Soon after we went off for some glacier training. This was to get us used to using the equipment provided such as the crampons and ice axes. The training lasted about half hour which included a hike to 5000m which was surprisingly easier than the hike earlier to get to base camp. The ground was more solid and my breathing seemed more normal. This gave us more confidence in completing this somewhat now mammoth volcano.

After training, we had about an hour rest and went straight into a hearty dinner at about 5pm. It didn’t seem that long ago since we had our snacks and training. As soon as dinner was finished it was time for bed. We went about around 6pm and planned to get up at midnight to get ready and go for the hike up Cotopaxi. This is because the conditions are better at night. By this time a few of us had minor headaches apparently due to altitude sickness. We just hope that the sleep will do us good and remove them.

6 hours passed and i personally didn’t sleep well. I must have only got an hour’s sleep and I still had a slight headache, as did the others. Breakfast was coming up and as soon as we had that our headaches were removed. Only Kev was still feeling a headache and couldn’t even eat breakfast. In the end me, Mike and Chris kitted up and got ready for the hike, whilst Kev say back at base camp to nurture his headache.

So the rest of us started the big hike up the cold, dark volcano at about 1am in the morning. The weather conditions wasn’t perfect as it was snowing fairly heavily which didn’t give us good visibility. To add to the difficulty, it snowed through the night which meant we had to walk through very thick snow. This made the hike so much harder. Every step we took, we slipped a little bit down. It seemed like we wasn’t moving anywhere. It was energy sapping and we were again finding hard to catch our breath back. It seemed like after 3 to 4 steps we needed a break to recover.

Eventually, we reached an altitude of 5000m. Up until now, we were walking freely on our own. But now form this point onwards, we would be connected to our guides via a piece of rope. This ensured we stayed as a group and didn’t lose anyone. At this point we also added on the crampons on to our boots as we were about to walk on to ice. When we started walking up, we couldn’t feel the ice at all. It was still covered with thick snow and the pace up the hill was slow. What made it harder was that we was connected to the guides which meant we had to go at the pace of the guides. We persevered for the first few minutes at his pace but eventually had to a few times to recover.

The conditions were getting somewhat worse and we were getting really tired. We had only a reached up to 5300m and only had about 550m to go. It was this point on that our guides told us that we were heading back because we were stopping too much and would take too long to get there. We also stopped because the conditions were getting worse. I was secretly gutted as i actually wanted to carry on and felt that I had a rhythm going but also glad in a sense that this tiredness and pain is going to be over. So we headed back down which actually was more difficult tan we thought. We fell over a few times and it was very tiring. It just seemed like that this was an epic journey with no end! We finally made it back to the base camp at about 5am. Soon after we arrived back, we saw other groups also returning due to the weather conditions.

We went back to our cabin bunks to some screaming noises. It was Kev who seemed to be suffering immensely from a bad headache. All we could hear was bursts of “Arggh” every few minutes. Our second guide Segunda, decided that we should go down to a lower altitude because Kev’s headache was brought on by altitude sickness. Moments after the decision, we pack up all our equipment to leave. The was a a final 300m hike down from base camp to the car park where we got into a car to drive us down to a lower altitude. Kev seem to instantly get much better. By now it was about 7am, so we decided to grab the rest of our luggage and get a bus to Banos our next destination.

So our Cotopaxi climb ended in tears because we were all beat by some form of altitude sickness. However, I have a future plans to comeback and conquer this volcano and many more. But next time, conquering it when we are properly acclimatised to the altitude which takes about 2 weeks rather than the 5 days we had! Anyway, we now have the adventure town of Banos to look forward to.

After a nice time in Salta, we went off to Mendoza which was a 15 hour journey. We finally got to the main bus terminal where we grabbed a taxi to our hostel. This soon turned out to be one of the most costly rides yet…

So, we arrived at our hostel and it wasn´t until the taxi raced away that Chris realised he left his little rucksack in the taxi along with a bag of gift wrapped Christmas presents. Fortuneatly, there was a second cab following which Chris managed to get in and attempt to chase the runaway taxi. But luck wasn´t on our side and the taxi was no where to be seen.

After a whole day, hanging around the bus terminal and a tough time speaking Spanglish at the police station, we gave in considered the bag lost forvever.

We lost a lot in that bag which included the following items.

1. Laptop, power adapter and black wallet with screen cleaner
2. Tripod, Canon Ixus 860 Camera, 4GB Crucial Memory Card and wrist strap for camera
3. 160Gb Hard Drive with just under 40Gb used (which works out to be 3 months worth of photos/videos)
4. Tupperware Box with pasta, toothpicks, camera case, money belt (with drivers license, $20)
5. 80GB iPod, case and headphones + all the music + Chris´s high Klondike score
6. Flight Tickets, £10, Insurance Certificate, Yellow Fever Vaccination certificate, 2 Malaria pills, Vaccination history
7. Pack of mini playing cards
8. Various coinage from Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru
9. Diploma for egg balancing on the equator in Ecuador
10. Postcards from all the places we have been so far and notebook of suggestions for places to visit next
11. Christmas presents Chris had wrapped the day before (with the exception of one)
12. Travel Adaptor
13. North Face Daypack - Ios 20 (Rubbish)
14. Along Came a Spider book, already read by Kev, John and Chris
15. Various free Pen’s from most dangerous road, Mariel hotel (Lima)

As you can see, we haven’t updated the blog for a while but we had lots of posts about to be posted, but all that was lost as it was stored on the laptop.

Anyway, there´s no need to worry about us as we have replacement equipment coming our way and we are still working on the posts to catch up.

We arrived in Miami at about 8:30am where we had about 4 hours sleep in 24 hours. All we wanted to do is sleep. It took over an hour on two buses to get to our hostel. When we arrived we were told that there was no room ready until 3pm which meant no sleep for us. The good news was that the receptionist upgraded us to a private 2 double bedded dorm with a flat screen TV and en suite bathroom. So we locked up our bags in the hostel and just walked around Miami for a bit.

The weather wasn’t great. It was dull and cloudy. Most of the side streets were flooded right up to the entrances of shops. There was a supermarket we was interested in going to which had a small bridge to get over the flood. Unfortunately, it was crap and still got our feet wet.

We really not much motivation to do much, but as we had s much time on our hands before check in, we decided to do the half hour walking tour to see some art deco examples around Miami. It certainly had lots of it.

The half hour tour turned out to be a 10 minute tour that we cut short. We headed back to the hostel we slept on the common room sofas and played free pool for the rest of the day. By the time we could check into our room, we just grab the keys and hit the bed for a few hours. We were so shattered. We got up about 8pm and headed towards Espanola Way and treated ourselves to a decent meal.

The next day, we just headed to the beach for a few hours to catch the sun before it hid away again. We had a dip in the Atlantic ocean which we shared with jellyfish.

We didn’t want to do too much this day as we were heading to Ecuador the following day. After the beach, we grab a few beers and some fod to cook at the hostel and just enjoyed a few games of pool, table tennis and watched a few films showing on the big screen TV.

Not a huge amount happened in Miami. Just the beach, some pool and mainly sleep.

It´s a new day in San Francisco, but have moved out of the hotel an into a hostel. We was up early today as we had to drop off our car rental, check into our hostel, drop off our bags and get to the pier for the trip to Alcatraz. Thankfully, we made dropped the car off without the need to fill up with fuel. But the rest of the time was tight and we needed to catch a cab to the Pier for Alcatraz. We was cutting it fine but our immaculate timing meant we never missed the ferry to the island.

Only me, Mike, Chris and Jingkei went there in the end because Kev had already been. The four of us arrived on the island which was riddled with flies. Unfortunately, the island is on its fly breeding season which meant we had to put up with the pests for our time on the island. It didn´t really affect us much when we went into Alcatraz Prison. We got to see the cells of famous cellmates and hear the stories of escape attempts which were interesting.

Following Alcatraz, we met up with Kev and did a walking tour around, visiting various areas such as Chinatown and the Coit Tower. We also stopped by the Chinese History museum which essentally informed us about how the Chinese population in San Francisco grew. The walk was thirsty work and so we treated ourselves to a beer. We found this Thai bar that seemed to be a massive Manchester City Football club fan as they had their memorabilla all over the place.

We continued on from the bar to a small chinese cafe who were offering an all you can eat Dim Sum buffet for about 5 dollars. This was perfect for lining our stomachs for the pub crawl we signed up for at the hostel that was to start on the same evening. It was a good night and met loads of new people. Surprisingly, most of the people on there were British. Infact, we met a people from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The morning after, our plans for getting up early to explore San Francisco by bikes were delayed by a few hours. We still made it to a bike rental place by about 11:30am. Apart from a wobbly seat and dodgy brakes, the bikes were perfect.

We rode along the coast of San Francisco towards the Golden gate bridge. We then rode south towards Golden Gate Park where we enjoyed the nice view of the beach. Soon after we entered Golden Gate park where we saw the buffalo sanctury. The next stop was to ride along the golden gate bridge.

It turns out that Kev rode all the way to Solstice as he thought we would do the same. He realised that he needed to go back to the bike shop to hand his bike in and so he goes and catches the ferry across the bay instead of riding across the beach as it was quicker. Whilst waiting for the ferry a very very loud bang suddenly lashed out which clearly gave every else waiting for the ferry a shock. Kev ended up walking back a fair way, but at least he made it back safe.

We was leaving the next day to start our road trip along the Pacific coast highway and so we decided to grab a curry that was recommended to us and call it a night.

As we moved closer to San Francisco, the weather was dull and seemed pretty foggy. Then we found out from the Lonely Planet guide to the USA that the temperature doesn’t usually get higher 70 degrees and can be foggy most of the time.

We arrived in San Francisco a day earlier than planned and we had booked a night in the Hotel Marina as the hostel we planned to stay in for the duration was fully booked up. Not wanting to waste time we parked up our rental car and dumped our bags in our room and headed off to look around. We walked up some very steep streets which were pretty tiring. We eventually ended up at Lombard Street where queues of cars line up to drive down a very narrow winding road. The road itself is actually a residential area. There were masses of people on both ends of the winding street. I don’t know how the locals put up with it!

From there we headed off to the very touristy Fisherman’s Wharf. We strolled down a few piers but the most interesting of them all was Pier 39. This was home to the sea lions. They were very smelly and noisy but entertained us nonetheless.

After, Fisherman’s Wharf, me and Chris had to go back to Vallejo to pick up Mikes glasses. It was about 20 miles away, but it was the only pair mike had so we had to get them. The distance wasn’t a problem. The problem was that we left during rush hour and we had planned to drop the car off on the same day. It took over an hour just to get to Vallejo when it should have taken much quicker. Another bad thing was that about on the way to Valljeo, the fuel light comes on telling us we were low on fuel. We still had about 20-30 miles left to do! The car rental company told us to left the car fuel as empty as possible. This influenced our decision not to buy any fuel but it was pretty nerve racking considering that the car manual says when the fuel light comes on, there is only 2 gallons remaining in the tank. The minivan we was in runs 20 miles to the gallon so we were cutting it fine. Fortunately, we made it back to San Francisco, but never made it back to the car rental place in time. This meant a daunting task of driving another 1.5 miles to our hotel and then driving it back another 1.5 miles back in the morning with virtually no fuel…

Anyway, we just left the car in the hotel parking lot and left our worries for the next day. We decided to go stufff ourselves with chicken wings and beer from infamous Hooter’s bar to end the day.

The day starts off in Yosemite valley where only Chris is awake before 6am. No one moves when the alarms goes off and so Chris takes the liberty of taking the down the tent while the rest of us were sleeping in it. But boy did that work. It was freezing and lights were seeping through the mesh walls of the tent. It wasn’t quite like a cold shower feeling, but close to it. After fumbling around, cleaning up our stuff from the bear safe lockers, we are all packed up and ready to go by 7am.

After about driving 80 miles we enter Napa Valley, the wine country of California. Pretty much all of us didn’t have much of a clue about wines, so we thought we would visit the Vistor center and find out more. Kev managed to get a map with some of the cheapest wine tasting we could get.

The first on the list was the Napa Valley Winery where we managed to get a wine tasting for $10 for all 5 of us. We never knew what to expect from a wine tasting since we were more beer conissieurs than wine ones. We gingerly walked in to this oval type bar where a barmaid greeted us. We was honest and told her we had no clue and wanted some cheap wine tasting. Thankfully, she was understanding and very helpful. We learnt to swish the glass of wine to release some flavours and attempted to pick out individual flavours just like the experts. We managed to try about 6 wines and at the end we were persuaded to buy a bottle of Folie A Duex White wine Zinfandel.

After the Napa Valley winery we had time to go to one more. We headed to one called Sutter Winery which looked pretty upmarket from the outside. Infact, we felt quite underdressed for occasion. We all were in shorts, T-shirts and flip flips and also a bit merry from the wine tasting before. This was proven when we entered into the winery to be greeted by a middle aged Californian woman who thought we we collge kids who just graduated. She even thought we was from Santa Cruz! The woman fired question after question like the spanish inquistion but finally stopped and let a nice chap called “Ralph” who guided us through the wine tasting. We sipped through about six different wines which I thought were very tasty (and I’m not a wine person). It was so tasty we bought four bottles for the group and Kev bought 2 for himself. I must also add it was only about 4 US dollars a bottle!

I had to be a little careful about tasting these wines as I was driving. I couldn’t help myself to just gulp down the wine but I had to spit out the last few and just appreciate the taste as I could feel the alcohol reach my head. But the others didn’t think twice to spit it out!

After the wine tasting, we safely got some to eat and found a hotel of which all 5 of us bundled into a room. The night was still young and there was no bars nearby. But there was a cinema which was showing Tropic Thunder of which we went to see to finish off for the day.

So this was the last day of our road trip. The next day we will have to drive San Francisco to hand the keys back for the minivan we have lived in for the past 3 weeks. It definitely has been fun and got to see many parts of the USA that couldn’t be reach by public transport alone. We say goodbye to the van who we affectionately named “Sheila” and hope the guys who get her next will have a blast as we did. Adios!

Seeing as we walked so many trails during the national parkathon, it feels only right to document in more detail our collective favourite hikes.

So here follows a short countdown of our hiking highlights…

8, Ooh Ahh Point, Grand Canyon
It´s only fair to mention our first successful hike. This was a short 1.5 hour round trip which hugged the steep sides of the eastern portion of the grand canyon. We learned quicky not to walk too fast up these trails, especially in the incredile heat. Ohh Ahh point looks like this…

7, Hidden Canyon, Zion
This was a short but steep trail which led sharply upwards from the Weeping rock (A constantly flowing waterfall comes flowing right out of a huge rock) towards a small canyon out of sight from the valley floor. The climb was pretty uninteresting but once near the top having to navigate large boulders and steep drop offs the fun started.

A sign which greeted you at te entrance to the Hidden canyon indicated… ”Scrambling required” !! More fun! This was more akin to an assaut course in here, each large set of rocks in the way posed challenges to hurdle, but most had routes which allowed “scramblers” to pass. Finally my progress wat halted after about 40 minutes in the canyon at this tricky obstacle. Scrambling = fun!

6, Observation Point, Zion

This is one of the longest day hikes in Zion with a multitude of different scenic views all the way to the top of the point. It starts off as a daunting steep zig zag up a hill which slowly enters between a narrow canyon. The path follows on into the canyon, gradually getting higher and hotter. the higher you go the steeper it gets with uneven paths and sheer drops. The higher you go, the more amazing the views. Eventually, at the top of this great hill, it´s feels like you are in another world where there´s a variety of vegiatation and wildlife that doesn´t seem to exist in the rest of the park. As you walk through this mini ecosystem, you reach the end of the trail where I was rewarded with a beautiful view of Zion Canyon.

5, Navajo Loop, Bryce Canyon
This was not a challenging trail, more of a gentle stroll but the scenery walking in between the vast hoodoo´s of bryce canyon was amazing. The sculpted switchbacks were fun to decend and walking amongst the trees was a new experiance after the red rockyness of all trails which we had completed before this.

4, Half Dome (Nevada Falls), Yosemite
After completing all other trails in our paths, we decided to take on the toughest of them all. Half Dome plateau is a staggering 8000ft ascent and we gave it our full attention leaving on the first bus for the trailhead to start this 14 mile / 12 Hour hike. We followed the Mist trail which included a few impressive sights on en-route, the first being the mega steep steps up to the Vernall falls.

Out of season the waterfall was only a shadow of its raging self but the trail to the top was hard and strenuous, making the view from the top more special. Beyond some scenic emerald pools and yet another steep climb we reached the next checkpoint on the trail. Nevada falls is equally as impressive as Vernall but the view of Yosemite valley from its rim is far more spectacular.

Full of confidence we struck off on a flatter section towards half dome´s summit. This confidence was soon to be extinguished as word of mouth has spread rumours of a trail closure. Sure enough we were stopped in our tracks by a ranger and told to turn back. A forest fire was blocking our way and the fire crews were busy at work trying to contain the inferno. Saddened at the news we somberly skulked down back to the valley floor disappointed You cannot win them all!

3, The Narrows
This was a tremendous difference from all trails which come before it. The Narrows trail follows the virgin river upstream through ever decreasing widths of canyons & ever increasing velocity of water. Sure footing and balance were required as you planted each step on the extremely cold riverbed. One wrong move could have easily sent one for an unscheduled swim! Thankfully nobody fell, I was however rescued few times by my trusty walking pole/branch.

This hike was extremely long and we decided not to tackle it all, but the scenery in the narrow canyons with the raging river and various waterfals throughout the watery world was great.

2, Bright Angel
This is the first trail we tackled which was a 12 mile round trip hike all the way to the hot and desolote Plateau Point. It was a nice relaxing walk all the way down passing through the a few resting stations adaptely named “A Mile and a Half Resthouse” and ”Three Mile Resthouse”. The scenery quite spectacular nearr the rim where you can see miles into the deep canyon. There was a few wild life such as condors and lizzards and some cactus plants dotted along the trail. It was all different when we reached the last major resting point called “Indian Garden” where there was lots of vegetation and a river that run through. This resting point marked the 4.5 miles from the rim and it was onlt a further 1.5 miles to Plateau Point. However, the last 1.5 miles had no cover from the canyon cliffs or trees. it was pretty flat and the sun was pounding on our backs. We survived this part and was greeted with a nice and close view of the Colorado River.

By now we wasn´t that tired or worn out and ready for the trek back up. This was certainly the hardest part. It was pretty much a very steep 5 mile hike back up in the blistering heat. The resthouses didn´t matter so much on the way down, but they sure did on the way back up.  In summary, you get an outstanding views of the canyons from a distance and close up. But be prepared for the enduring walk back up.

1, Angels Landing

One of Zion´s best day hikes in the park that´s challenging, thirilling and palm sweating. It starts off with a nice stroll up which progressively gets steeper. Nearer the top of the trail we get the steep paths that zig zag all the way to a point called Scout´s lookout where you find most people stop. It´s only a short hike to the summit, but involves narrow paths with sheer drops either side.

Hike is the wrong for the last bit of this trail. It is defintely more of a climb. There is a chain provided along side parts of the final climb that provides some support in surpassing the paths the barely exist.

Once at the top, the view is amazing. It is a good spot to catch a tan, but was fairly small and got easily crowded. The climb down from the top of Angel´s landing is just as exilerating if not more of a rush than climbing up due to the fact you have the sheer drop and images of death constantly in view. All in all, although a short hike in comparision to other trails, but one of our favourites.

We have finally reached our last major city before we head off on a 3 week road trip. Quite frankly, I’m a bit bored of skyscrapers and museums so vegas and the road trip should be a breath of fresh air.

We arrived in Las Vegas at about lunchtime via an internal flight. We headed to the baggage claim area of the airport where we were surrounded by big screen advertising big name shows at a variety of casinos. It seemed a be very hectic here.

I thought I would check out how to get to the terminal to meet Jingkei who is joining us on the road trip. As soon as I stepped outside, it felt like my face was in front of the oven door and when the door opened a blast of heat hit me the face. It was unbelievealbly hot which i didn’t expect. It was pretty constant and I rushed back into the air conditioned airport area to cool down. We managed to avoid the heat and meet up with jingkei. We jumped in a cab and headed straight to our hotel which was the Sahara. As we were travelling for the year, we are on a budget and so never tipped the cab driver. When we handed over the exact money for the cab, the driver asked “where’s the tip”, of which we ignored and promptly rushed away, probably leaving the driver somewhat pissed off. However, we thought the 30 dollar cab ride for about a 20 minute fair was reasonable enough.

By the time we arrived to the hotel, we were already knackered as we only had 3 hours sleep due to our mistake of thinking our flight leaving from Chicago departed at 11 am, when infact it departed at 6am. When we realised this it was already midnight! So after, all the commotion with screwing up flight times and cheesed off cab drivers, we decided to catch the mono rail down to end of the strip and have a slow walk down back to our hotel to see what’s along the infamous Las Vegas strip. On the way we saw the brilliant Treasure Island “sirens” show and the infamous Belliago fountains that were choreographed with music.

On most days when we woke up, we went and chilled out in the hotel pool which was very relaxing. Then when it got darker and cooler we would head off to bars, shows and gambling. On the second night me, mike, jingkei and chris went to see Crazy Girls whilst Kev went to see bite. Crazy girls is one of the longest running shows there and we managed to get some cheap tickets for it. I would say it’s an interesting experience where it’s pure seedy dancing and bare skin. Let’s just say mum wouldn’t approve! The following night we went and saw a hypnotist show called “Hypnosis Unleashed” at the Planet Hollywood who had a hard time starting and getting the crowd in the mood for it. But when the warm up and prepping was over there was laughs galore and we couldn’t help but cheer on the brave souls who volunteered themselves to be hypnotised.

When there wasn’t shows we went to a few bars and clubs. The first one we went to was the Tropicana. We was persuaded to go in but a PA guy that gave us a huge load of buy one get one free on any drinks flyers which save us a bucketload. We also hit a few bars in other town such as Diablos where we got the diablos beer. This beer was very expensive and it tasted horrible. I think it was the first time no one actually finished one. Being on a budget, we tried to have a few drinks before we left for bars so we popped to the local store and bought a couple crates to bring back to our room. The beers were nicely chilled in our hotel bath tub with free ice provided by the hotel.

It took a fairfew trips to the ice machine to get this much ice to chill the beers!

When we weren’t seeing shows or going to bars we was gambling! We never gambled every night as it wasn’t that appealing really. We had a few goes on some slots which provided lots of flashing lights and pictures to keep us entertained before it took our money. Other than slots we had some goes on roulette which all of us except kev managed to hit a number which made him a profit rather than a loss like the rest of us. Then we discovered the blackjack tables which are really fun. Most of us managed to make a profit on this which  reduced our overall loss. I was only 25 dollars down overall having been 60 dollars down which put a smile on my face. The biggest profit of all of us was by mike who ended up 35 dollars up when leaving vegas!

We left the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas at lunchtime to emabark on our epic 3 week road trip of the west of california. It was sad to leave the place as I had a lot of fun. There’s a few things i never got to see or do such as going to the older parts of the vegas strip such as Fremont. It’s defintely a place i wouldn’t mind revisiting for pure fun.