America - Part 1 (San Francisco - Grand Canyon)

America - Part 1: (San Francisco - Grand Canyon)

I was very much looking forward to travelling through America, especially after the horrendous bus journeys we had experienced while in Central America. It was nice having our own car where we could store our heavy luggage and it was great not feeling like a pack mule! We flew into San Francisco from Mexico City where it was possible to order a taxi without having to perform crazy charades! Our 3 month North American road trip consists of four parts: 1. San Francisco loop via the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Las Vegas, Death Valley and Yosemite; 2. the West Coast up through northern California, Oregon and Washington all the way to Seattle; 3. Vancouver to Calgary, including Vancouver Island; and 4. Halifax, Nova Scotia to Toronto via New England. Buying vs renting a car was an ongoing debate and after lots of research we decided on the latter as it was going to cost more or less the same in the end, only without all the hassle and possible breakdown issues.  

      

San Francisco: We stayed in USA Hostels which is situated in the heart of the city. They’ve won the “best hostel” award for a reason as the service was friendly, the facilities were great and there was free all you can eat pancakes in the morning. It was very funny watching all the other people, especially the younger ones, trying to make pancakes – many have probably never cooked in their lives which was clear by the mushy blobs they produced. While in Costa Rica I lost my bank card in an ATM and since then I was dependent on Gillian for cash. Her Dad posted a new one to me in San Francisco and it was such a relief when it was finally delivered to the hostel. We spent our first full day in San Francisco shopping as well as using the free internet to finalize our road trip – getting a car was our number 1 priority on our long to do list. 

It was only on our second day there that we actually started doing some sightseeing, which involved a walk up and down 3 high hills, China Town, climbing the Coit Tower and taking a tram ride down the iconic steep slopes of the city. The view from the Coit Tower over the city was stunning - I really liked San Francisco. The only drawback is all the twitchies, itchies, shakies and scratchies walking around begging for money.  Apparently there is a big problem with homeless people with many being mentally ill. Back in the days they were provided with free medication but since that was stopped, most wander the streets begging which is a little unnerving while walking around town, especially at night.

During our stay in San Fran I met up with Kyle and his girlfriend who took me out for drinks. Gillian unfortunately couldn’t make it as she was feeling unwell. We met Kyle while on holiday in Iceland and it was nice meeting up with him again. He gave me a few tips on things to do while in America and also suggested I try Sierra Nevada beer which is very quaffable. The rest of our time in San Francisco we spent shopping for camping gear and clothes, and we also treated ourselves to a cinema trip where we saw The Kings Speech which was excellent. We started our road trip from San Francisco driving south down the scenic pacific coast highway (Highway 1) towards Los Angeles. We had to make a slight detour beforehand to visit the REI shop for some camping supplies as well as a new camping mat for Gillian. From there we made our way to Monterey in our black Jeep Liberty – both of us very excited!

Monterey: We quickly discovered that camping in California is a very expensive activity with prices ranging between 25 to 35 dollars for only a tent site! We quickly realised that America was going to drain our money rather fast! With a view to saving money we planned to cook as much as possible although even that is expensive when compared to buying an unhealthy McDonalds meal! Fresh ingredients for cooking dinner was costing us more than $10 where a McDonalds meal costs around $5 – no wonder America has a major obesity problem! That night I did cook though and made a very spicy chicken broth with lots of healthy veggies, however, poor Gillian struggled to eat it as it made her eyes water!  But the raccoon liked it as it ran off with our wooden spoon while we were asleep that night! 

Monterey with its surrounding areas was very impressive with rugged coastline and diverse aquatic life. From Lover’s Point we spotted a few otter families swimming around the bay. They looked a little like drifting fluffballs complete with whiskered round faces - lots of fun to watch as they swam on their backs while cracking open shellfish on their chests with a rock. While we were standing there we also spotted a couple of very fat ground squirrels sneaking up on two vagrant’s chicken which was stored next to them in a plastic tub. If I was a gambling man I would have gone for the squirrel although unlucky for them the vagrant woke up just as he was about to scratch open the tub! We couldn’t help but laugh and even the vagrant below joined in. From there we drove further down the coast to the lighthouse and stopped at a popular area with a beautiful view of the beach and rocks.  All the ground squirrels there were really fat as tourists obviously fall for the doe eyes and cute look, and feed them bad food like fries. They were also fearless and when I crouched down a few came right up to me and looked at me as if to say “where is my snack, punk?”

Back in our campsite that night we received some bad news after chatting with a cyclist. The coast road down towards the Big Sur, which is apparently the most scenic between SF and LA, was closed due to landslides caused by the heavy rains a week before. We were really gutted. The next day we spent driving along 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, which had some stunning views. Our next stop was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is a must for anyone visiting that area. The aquarium was very impressive and one could easily spend a whole day there with so much to see and do. At certain times divers fed either the fish or otters which was very entertaining to watch. One of my favorites was the jellyfish display, especially the egg-yolk jellyfish which made for good photography. The only downside was that unfortunately it was school holidays the aquarium was swarming with hords of overexcited kids.

Big Sur: Well, we never did see the Big Sur because of the damn landslides. Nothing more to add other than severe disappointment. 

Carmel by the sea: This town is just south of Monterey and as it had been described as a pretty town we couldn’t resist a quick detour. Other than the lovely sandy beach and beautiful houses lining the coast road, the town is also known for the old Basilica San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission. For some reason the Lonely Planet didn’t give the town a good review although we liked it. It was well kept and the wood paneled houses gave the place a lovely small town feeling.

San Simeon: Getting to San Simeon we had to cut inland and follow the 101 instead of our intended route 1. We passed through Paso Robles which is known for their wines although we didn’t stop there because we going to do some wine tasting in Santa Maria Valley further south instead. Just before San Simeon we found another very expensive campsite where we settled in for the night. Our main reason for visiting that area was to see Hearst Castle and while reading our guide book we read about the elephant seal colony near the castle which we made our first stop the next morning. Even though they were a very noisy and smelly bunch we found them very entertaining as they either played around in the pools, threw sand over themselves or made burping and farting sounds. Who knows, maybe they were as it sure smelt that way! Unfortunately the large male seals with their funny noses weren’t there as with mating done they hadn’t stuck around.

Hearst Castle: One thing we didn’t realize was that because the castle is so popular, you have to make a reservation well in advance. We fell into the trap of not doing so and had to be content with just seeing the castle from afar. At least there was a free exhibition at the visitor’s centre and we could at least read more about William Randolph Hurst and how he had the castle built. We never realized that William was such a big player in Hollywood and that he directed many movies back in the days.

Madonna Inn: I read about this place in a review on Trip Advisor and as their pecan buns were highly recommended we felt compelled to stop - nothing to do with Gillian’s sweet tooth though. The Madonna Inn is a crazy pink monstrosity of a building with such OTT kitsch décor one couldn’t fail to be impressed. Other than laughing at the place we did buy a pecan bun and an apple pie which were delicious and made our stop there worthwhile.

  

Wine tasting: Our next stop was in the Santa Maria wine valley which was featured in the Sideways movie. We inadvertently ended up at a winery called Foxen which was specifically included in the movie! I was designated driver that day and took a replica picture of Gillian tasting her wine – the same as in the movie. The wine tasting there included a free glass which was cool as now Gillian could drink her wine from a glass instead of her huge insulated camping mug.

Solvang: The first acronym that jumped to my mind after driving into Solvang was “WTF”!? It felt like we had driven into Denmark, as the place was complete with windmills, bakeries and traditional wooden houses. The town was a complete tourist trap and you either love it or hate it. We tried to make the most of our visit there by visiting a farmers market as well as having an ice cream which was so big I had to throw part of it away! Not long after we got there bus loads of Japanese tourists turned up and swarmed the town. There was no way we were going to hang around being prime targets for their insatiable appetite for photos with anything and everything of unimportance in the background.

Los Angeles: Our last stop that day was in Thousand Oaks in Los Angeles staying at one of my good friend’s places. I had completely forgotten that he lived in the USA and was very glad when he reminded me after seeing my Facebook update. It was so nice staying in a home again with a comfy sofa, TV, kitchen and nice en-suite bathroom. We really didn’t want to leave and had such a nice time there with Hendrik, Carol and their cute, energetic little boy, Jaco. Being in Los Angeles we decided to embrace our tourist status by driving down the Malibu Coast, seeing the Hollywood sign as well as the stars along Hollywood Boulevard and we topped off our activities with a tour of the Warner Brothers studio. The tour was really cool and we got to see the water tank where the Animaniacs live and many of the movie/show sets like “Friends”, ”Ellen’s Chat Show” and the “Mentalist”. As we made our way around some of the outside buildings used in the movies our tour guide pointed out where various famous clips were filmed.   

We were very impressed with the director’s creativeness in changing the same basic set from a modern city to the old Wild West – brilliant! Also included in our tour was a visit to the Harry Potter exhibition where they even had the original sorting hat. When I put it on I was sorted as an evil Slytherin – I don’t think I like that hat. We ended our visit to Los Angeles with a walk in Malibu Creek State Park after which we had a lazy Sunday afternoon visiting a dive bar which was a first for me, eating Chinese take away and watching a couple of movies. All in all we had a very nice stay in Los Angeles made special by staying with good friends.

Williams: While driving to Williams we passed through a few cowboy towns along the famous historic Route 66. One of the places was a gold prospector’s town called Oatman which looked like something out of a Wild West movie - complete with saloon style doors and donkeys roaming the street. The only thing missing was tumbleweed rolling down the street. Also amusing was reading about Kennesaw which is a small town we travelled through, as there is a law making it illegal NOT to own a gun! Apparently they saw a drop in crime when people owned guns therefore they decided to pass a new law!

I’ve always pictured the Grand Canyon as being very hot as it is in a desert but I was very wrong. We quickly changed our plan of camping when we discovered that it was snowing there with overnight temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius! My sleeping bag only goes down to -5 Degrees so we had to splash out on a motel room in the Knights Inn. I was glad we decided not to camp as we could see icicles hanging from the roofs of the buildings outside! Williams is a small town with not too much going on other than being the gateway to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We only stayed there the one night and went for a drink in a local bar which served really good ribs. The fake cowboys and western style buildings outside were, although very touristy, fun to see.

Grand Canyon: We decided to shell out for a helicopter ride over the canyon as it was highly recommended by online reviews. The company we used is called Papillon (french for butterfly) and even though it set us back $150 each, it was worth every penny! From their base we flew over evergreen fir trees which suddenly ended as we ‘dropped’ over the edge of the canyon. The view was, to say the least, magnificent. No words can truly describe the beauty and scale of the canyon so I’m not even going to try. Any person wanting to experience the Grand Canyon has to do so in person and they will need to pick their own jaw off the ground after seeing it. All I can say is that it is massive, beautiful and impressive and it made me feel very small! 

The only downside we experienced was yet more hordes of Japanese tourists pouring from their tour buses, swarming the lookout points like armies of ants. Needless to say we didn’t stay long at the more popular ones and had lunch at Duck Rock, further east on the south rim. On our drive there we spotted a coyote which was the first for both of us. Our original plan was to stay over in a small town called Cameron but as it was so small we drove straight through it so we had to turn around and try again.  However, we decided to drive through it a second time again after enquiring about rooms and prices. They wanted to charge us $90 for a room for the night so we pretty quickly legged it to cheaper accommodation in an Indian Reserve about 30 minutes away which turned out to be a much better option.

Part 2 to follow...

Central America - Summary:

Central America – Summary:

We travelled through Central America for a total of 2 months and visited 6 countries during that time. I experienced many weird and wonderful things and came to learn that random is the norm of everyday life of the local people. Health and safety was a term that would have given most of the locals a glazed look in their eyes if ever mentioned, as it simply doesn’t exist in most places, especially when it comes to their dodgy electrics! Travelling through Central America was tough at times and I was getting fed-up with lugging my heavy luggage around and having to spend a lot of time in very cramped minibuses. Although a wonderful place, I couldn’t wait for our American road trip where we could have our own car. This is my summary of highs and lows in Central America:

Best food: The best local food was at a place called Finca El Cisne (Honduras) where local ladies cooked traditional food for us. Also in Honduras was the chocolate cake in D&D Breweries which we couldn’t resist. El Castillo in Nicaragua served up the largest river prawns I’ve ever seen in my life and tasted really good with garlic butter! Learning how to make chalupas in San Cristobel (Mexico) was not only fun but also delicious. Last but not least was an Italian dinner with a view in Flores (Guatemala) where I had a tender (not very common in Central America) steak while watching the sunset over the lake.

   

Worst food: Our first impression of Guatemala was not a good one as our shuttle stopped at a restaurant for a quick breakfast on our way from Copan to Antigua. If bad cooking was an art, that particular restaurant had perfected it – everything tasted horrible! The mashed beans were burnt AND tasted of cardboard, the plastic cheese in my omelet wasn’t melted and the ham inside was cold. It came with a sausage that was probably boiled for a number of years and a dollop of white cheese which looked like something I’ve stepped in before. Yuck.

I’ve had some really good empanadas especially in South America although one in San Carlos, Nicaragua takes the crown as the worst I’ve ever had. Instead of wheat they used corn dough and produced a brilliant sample of a culinary nightmare after deep frying a frozen empanada for long enough that it soaked up at least a pint of 2^nd grade oil. I had to accompany the empanada safely to the nearest available bin after just one bite.

      

Favorite country: My favorite country was Guatemala as it had so much on offer: volcanoes, lakes, exciting activities, lots of wildlife, a beautiful colonial city and best of all, the local culture. Travelling through South America we hardly saw any colorful markets after exiting Bolivia as so many countries are now much more westernized which is a shame.

Worst accommodation: Our hotel room in San Carlos, Nicaragua looked like I felt that day (I was dry retching over a boat for most of our journey there after picking up a 24hr bug). The room was dark and dank with a large plastic bucket filled with water for flushing the toilet AND for using to have a shower. There was both an electricity and water cut which didn’t help matters. That place was so dirty even the cockroaches stayed away…   

Best City: I loved Antigua in Guatemala as it was a beautiful city with old Colonial buildings and towering volcanoes in the background. The city was clean and had many shops, restaurants, local markets, churches and ruins. A close 2^nd would be San Cristobel in Mexico which reminded me a lot of Antigua.

Worst City: Yet again San Carlos in Nicaragua. It ticked most boxes of what not to like in a city.

Best natural wonder: Glovers Reef in Belize was my favorite and still haunts my dreams. It was such a lovely place with picture postcard perfect palm lined beaches and colorful corals teeming with fish. I was hooked with all the activities on offer like kayaking, diving, snorkeling and last but not least fishing for big fish such as bonefish, barracudas or reef fish. I would go back tomorrow if I could!

I also loved Semuc Champey in Guatemala as it had much to offer. The pools viewed from the top of the mountain were cool both to look at and swim in while the water caves were thrilling. I walked and swam through a network of caves using only candles to light the way – great fun! To top it off, we stayed in a place called El Portal which had a view over the jungle and river. We could have breakfast while watching toucans have theirs!

Best manmade sight: The Tikal Ruins in Guatemala were very impressive with the large temples. To top off the experience was the abundance of wildlife around – it was like viewing ruins while in a zoo! We saw many toucans, monkeys (howler and spider) and other colorful noisy bird species.

Favorite activities: Spending a week relaxing, fishing, diving and kayaking on Glovers Reef in Belize was one of my favorite activities. I was like a little kid brimming with excitement with so many things to do. When I wasn’t active, lying in a hammock sipping a cold beer or coconut rum and watching the cute hermit crabs scurrying around was just as much fun.

The water caves in Semuc Champey which would have broken all first world health and safety rules was also a lot of fun. Also, catching my first ever sailfish in Costa Rica had my adrenaline pumping!

Worst journey: We had so many of them while travelling through Central America as their minibuses are just not made for tall Westerners. Most of the time I sat only on one very numb bum cheek while my knees where cramped up in the seat in front of me. Our journey from Semuc Champey to Rio Dulce however takes the prize as worst journey.

 Either the driver or conductor bought a few hundred chicken eggs which were piled on the back seat taking up two spaces. Again we were sardined up into the small minibus and as the sh*t covered eggs took up two spaces, the conductor had to sit the entire journey sitting half in and half out of the side window getting pelted by bugs while driving along the bumpy roads. At some point the cover keeping the eggs in their packaging came undone and one by one eggs crashed down onto the floor. Our bags underneath our seats were drenched in egg juice while the stench made people nauseous which resulted in a vomit-stop along the way.

   

Funniest moment: The monkeys and raccoons in Manuel Antonio (Costa Rica) stealing unsuspecting tourists’ food was very amusing. I couldn’t help but laugh after a family of raccoons stole a German woman’s food while she politely tried to shoo it away to no avail. The raccoons really didn’t give a toss and just kept on munching her food!

  

Biggest fright: This happened to me while snorkeling in Belize. I was happily swimming along minding my own business when I saw a big rock with a large overhang. Holding my breath I dove down to check underneath and nearly had a heart attack when I came face to face with a fish bigger than me! I’m not sure who had the biggest fright though as the fish darted back into its “lair”. It turned out that I was very lucky to have seen it though as it was a Jewfish which are quite rare.

Favorite animal(s): I saw a sloth for the first time ever while in Costa Rica and it is impossible not to like them especially seeing them up close. Like dolphins, they seem to have a permanent smile on their faces. They are very inquisitive and loving animals.  

The cheeky toucans remain another favorite as they are such beautiful birds with their long colorful beaks. Seeing them flying freely in the wild was very special and we couldn’t help but take many pictures.

Most disappointing moments: We were told by another fellow traveler that he had climbed a volcano and had the chance to poke a stick in molten lava. I was all over that idea and couldn’t wait to do so while in Antigua. However, after arriving there we discovered that the volcano had stopped spewing lava and all that was left was smoke. We came across the same situation while in Costa Rica re Vulcan Arenal. For some reason the volcano gods were definitely not on our side!

Most thrilling moment: The water caves in Guatemala was by far the most thrilling - many of our group freaked out especially after their candles started blowing out.

Will miss: I will miss Glovers Reef in Belize the most as it was just such a great place with its laid back lifestyle and beautiful scenery. Also, spotting either toucans or howler monkeys in random locations. Fresh fruit for breakfast is also high on my list followed by the warm climate and friendly people.

Won’t miss:  I really really really won’t miss lugging my heavy luggage around and getting into cramped up minibuses. Throwing toilet paper in a bin next to me and cold showers is also not something I will miss. Food was also not a highlight and I will definitely not miss eating tough meat with either rice & beans or corn tortillas. I also picked up a few ear infections while swimming in contaminated water which is something I will not miss.

Least privacy: Sharing a room with your partner in Central America can be very interesting especially some places where a thin curtain acted as the only separation between the toilet and the rest of the room. Eating dodgy food caused upset tummies on many occasions and let’s just say that there are no more secrets in our relationship…

Favorite village: My favorite village had to be El Castillo in Nicaragua. Although very small, the village had a lot of charm with wooden buildings built on top of the water. The locals there were very friendly and we didn’t see many other tourists which made for a nice change. There were many activities on offer which ranged from jungle hikes to canoeing in a traditional canoe. They also served up the massive river prawns which are the biggest I’ve ever seen.

Tips: If I can suggest a few things it would be to take Spanish lessons before visiting South and Central America. It would be easy enough doing it while there as one would get the best out of both worlds by learning the language while experiencing the culture. I really regret not doing so beforehand. Something else to consider is getting a pet parrot who you’ve trained to sit on your shoulder while saying “no gracias” non-stop, especially when visiting the local markets.