REFLECTION

10 months of travel, 15 different countries, 16,000 km by road (and many more by plane), some amazing memories, new friends and a refreshed outlook on life. Our thanks to everyone that helped us along the way, put us up for a few nights or more, or shared a beer with us. If you are ever in Melbourne make sure get in contact; you’ll always have a place to stay.

We’re in Perth at the moment enjoying some time with Sabina’s family. We’ll be back in Melbourne this week looking forward to the next chapter of our life and catching up with everyone back home.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog (final entry below). Thanks for all your emails and calls along the way.

Stay in touch, Daniel and Sabina

FINAL CHAPTER

 Matterhorn
You might recognise this one from the packaging on the Swiss chocolate Toblerone. The Matterhorn is one of the most impressive peaks we have ever seen, standing in the clear at 4,478 m elevation. We stayed in Zermatt, a picturesque village under the Matterhorn for only a few days, but again we got lucky with the weather and scored this bluebird day with plenty of fresh snow. It made for some great shots.

 Hangover Cure
Time fast running out, we headed for Geneva visiting the United Nations, Red Cross Museum and exploring the city for a few days. Then we traveled to Altdorf to visit Roger and Myriam, who happened to be working in the local bar that night. We were treated to tasty caparinias and some good laughs (photo). From there it was back to Niki and Fabi’s place, a final night out with Daniel’s cousins and dinner with some friends that we'd met in Mexico, before we were off to Japan.

 100cm in 3 Days
We were beginning to wonder if it ever stopped snowing in the Japanese Alps. The first 3 days we spent in Hakuba (near Nagano where they had the 1998 Winter Olympics). It dumped over a meter of snow and showed no sign of letting up. We pretty much rode fresh power runs the whole week, the perfect way to finish up our snowboarding for the trip. And after a hard day on the slopes, it was off to the outdoor hot springs to soak our ailing muscles and sip on green tea.

 Tokyo
Neon signs, cutting edge fashion, super express trains, millions of people, sushi and great hospitality. Tokyo had us dazzled. We stayed with Kai and Wakka near Tokyo central and caught up with some old friends of Daniels who are working in the thick of it. The Japanese are packed into this city like sardines but it all seems to work with such efficiency and precision, I guess tribute to why they are the 3rd largest economy in the world.

 Kyoto and Hiroshima
Kyoto (the ancient capital of Japan) escaped much of the bombing during the 2nd World War and as a result was left with many of its temples and palaces intact. We picked off over a dozen of these sites by bike, however the conditions were pretty tough as it was snowing again. As impressive as the temples were the gardens, manicured bonzi trees, and zen-style rock patches. There was a real sense of peace and connection to nature in these places, which was in stark contrast to the castles of Europe.

Hiroshima didn’t escape the World War II bombing and was the site for the first ever use of an A-bomb, dropped by the Americans in 1945. A day at the Hiroshima Peace Museum and the site of ‘Ground-Zero’, left us with a new appreciation of the devastation that can be inflicted by these weapons. Following 1945, Japan has become a world leader in the advocacy of nuclear deproliferation.

EUROPEAN ALPS

Arriving in Switzerland
Arriving in Switzerland was like a breath of fresh air, the country just seems so organized and together it gives you space to relax. No wonder Zurich has been voted most livable city in the world so many times. We crashed at Niki (Daniel’s cousin) and Fabi’s place for a few days (thanks!), before heading to Germany for Christmas. Even with only a few days we managed to sneak a day on the slopes at Engelberg (which has previously hosted the world downhill skiing championships) and sample the raclette, a Swiss specialty involving a lot of cheese.

 White Christmas in Germany
We celebrated a white Christmas European style (photo from the Christmas dinner table) in a small Bavarian town (Kempten) in southern Germany with Sabina’s family. Here Christmas is celebrated on the night of 24 December with presents, dinner and wine and finally attendance of midnight mass at the local church (quite different from the backyard BBQ lunch back in Australia). It was a special night as Sabina’s parents and her sister and husband joined us, all the way from Australia.
 
We also had a chance to visit the Christmas market in Nurmberg, renowned as one of the world’s best (photo of us with Sabina’s family trying to stay warm with glühwein – warm spiced wine).

Walking the hills of Bavaria
We had some great days hiking the foothills of the Germany Alps (photo from one of the walks), stumbling across small mountain huts which served up large portions of bratwurst, sauerkraut and steins of Bavarian beer. In between all the eating and drinking, we also had a chance to pick up a bit of culture at the famous Richard Wagner opera hall, King Ludwig II’s fairytale castle, Schloss Neuschwanstein, and the German Science Museum.

Austrian Alps
Shacked up in a little village high in the Austrian Alps with a choice of ski resorts, there are definitely worse places to spend the first week of the New Year. Surrounded by snow capped peaks and glaciers at 3000+m we watched the sun setting after a magic day on the slopes (photo). Before long we realised it was past 5pm and we had to get back to 1000m where the car was parked before dark; a tough ask with more than a few Jäger teas under our belt!!

Fasnacht
Back in Switzerland we were persuaded to attend a Fasnacht Ball. Somewhat akin to the ‘Carnival’ in Brazil at the same time of year, the Swiss dress up in all types of costumes and party all night long, aided by dance beats blasted from amazing brass bands. Luckily Niki had a spare pig and frog outfit that we could borrow for the night and we joined her and her friends who were dressed as Christmas trees and stars in an eye opening night out.

Laax and Grindelwald
Escaping the Fasnacht festivities, we headed for the Alps again, to Flims/Laax where they we just wrapping up the Burton European Snowboard Championships. We had amazing luck with the weather, dumping half a meter of snow mid week and clearing to blue skies the next day. We finally had our first taste of champagne powder (photo), and we made sure we rode fresh tracks all day including some very memorable off-piste lines. This we followed up with a few days at Grindelwald (another resort near Luzern; photo) with Daniel’s cousins.


So now we’re staying in the Valais, near Geneva, planning the final stage of the trip, Japan before we finally decided to return home to Australia in March. It’s been an amazing way to see in the New Year and we’re looking forward to a great 2008 and to catching up with everyone back home soon!

CUBAN CIGARS, TIMES SQUARE & FINNISH SAUNAS

Back In Time To Cuba
We left Cuba with more questions than we arrived with. It was our first glimpse at a socialist-run country and it was definitely one of the most intersting countries we’ve had a chance to visit. The people are poor but well educated and they all have free housing (so there’s no homeless). But they don’t have freedom of speech (at least against the government), and the government makes it very hard for Cubans to leave/see other countries is the region. America is still increasing its trade embargos on Cuba, trying to strangle the country’s economy, but somehow they survive and carry on.

Politics aside, Cuba was a fasinating place to explore. The old Spanish architecture of Havana is slowly crumbling away from buildings which haven’t been renovated for over 50 years. And the old American Fords and Chevys dominate the streets, along with the more recent Russian model cars. We spent 5 days in Havana looking around, sampling the rum, coffee and cigars.

Despite what seemed like a large variety of agricultural land the food in Cuba was pretty bad. On the street we ate greasy cheesy pizza or ham and cheese rolls. A night out at a restaurant meant the selection of one of 5 types of pork dish or, if you were lucky fried chicken or even luckier still, fish. Our best meals were definitely eaten from the local kitchen of our 'casa', the local houses that we stayed in.

We spent a week outside Havana to see the countryside. There is an area in north western Cuba which has limestone mounds like in Vietnam and Thailand. Here we met an old tobacco farmer who offered us a make-shift cigar (he actually rolled it right in front of us from dried leaves). This had us coughing for while, but it was smoother than expected. We also ventured as far east as the town of Trinidad on the south coast, and checked out the monument to Che Guevara in Santa Clara. All in all it was a fascinating country to visit.

Cooling Off East Coast USA
Transitioning from Cuba to North America, we spent 3 days in Los Angeles with Justin and Amity (great to see them again!). It was a bit of a shock to be back in LA, but not as much as a shock as when we arrived in New York City, our next stop. This was our first taste of cold weather for a while and it was only getting colder from here. Based out of a small hotel room in Uptown Manhattan, we saw Time Square, strolled through Central Park (beautiful this time of year), caught a Broadway Show and even tried our balance at ice skating in a night time rink near Central Station.







Student Life In Boston
We ventured north to Boston for a week to see our friends Bec and Gaj who are studying for their PhD’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), just down the road from Harvard. Being surrounded by such distinguished universities, we deceided to catch a few of the public lectures at MIT, including some progressive stuff in the areas of climate change, alternate fuels and development policy in Asia. We saw our first snow of the season in Boston, when the temperature dipped down to minus 6 (this felt pretty fresh to us after Central America for the last 7 months).

Freezing In Finland
We arrived at 9:00am in Helsinki and it was still pitch-black dark. The sun gets up here at 9:30am this time of year, only to promptly fade to sunset again by 2pm. From Helsinki we headed further north to a small town called Jyväskylä to meet with Dave Balshaw (a good friend from Melbourne). At over 62 degrees north it’s getting pretty close to the end of the world up there. It seemed crazy to me, but bicycles were the preferred form of transport around town. So we check out the town and surrounding lakes by bike, with Dave as our tour guide. The only saving grace from the cold were the saunas (which the Finns are pretty keen on), and you actually get so hot that you have to get out and stand in the snow for 5 minutes between sessions to cool down. Invigorating.

Next stop is Switzerland and then Germany for Christmas.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN CONCLUSION

 Escaping the Paperwork
We never intended to stay in the small town of David for 3 weeks. Crossing the board into Panama, David was the first town we encountered. For what ever reason, we decided to look into selling our car in this town, which spiraled into 3 weeks of paperwork, dealings with customs brokers and lawyers.

To escape from the madness of car related paperwork we spent a few days on a nearby island called Boca Brava. Also, we explored the coffee farming region of Boquete perched in the Panamanian highlands. This place claims to grow the best coffee in the whole of Central America. Either this is a lie or they just don’t know how to brew a good coffee, because we searched high and low but could only get a cup of an urn. However, it was interesting to see where all this coffee that we drink back home actually comes from.

 SOLD!
Panama law required us to import our car before we could sell it. With mixed support from our Customs Brokers who we hired to help us negotiate this process, we stumbled with our broken Spanish from one government department to another. As with any bureaucratic process it was frustratingly slow, but we came out the other side of it with Panamanian license plates on our van. In the meantime, we found a buyer. Saying goodbye to our van, we left the town of David by bus…


 End of the Road
Panama City is the biggest city we’ve seen since Mexico, and it has been good to get back to civilization somewhat. The obvious highlight here was the Canal. We had read a lot about the history of its construction, so it was especially interesting. We saw two massive ships pass through the Pacific locks, which raise the ships about 60 m above sea level so they can pass over a small mountain range and descent again into the Caribbean. All very impressive considering it was constructed 100 years ago.
So, our Central American adventures finish here. We fly to Cuba tonight.

FROM THE COAST TO THE JUNGLE

Nicaragua Dictatorships and Socialists
We were rudely welcomed to Nicaragua with the most pot-holed road we’ve ever experienced. Infrastructure in Nica is by far the worst in Central America, making it plainly obvious that this is the poorest country in the region. A long and violent history of dictatorships and socialist uprisings have slowed progress here, but it seems that things are on the up and up now. The city of Leon is scattered with political murals (see photo) of the past fighting. The people all seem very proud of this history and keen to tell their stories. An old man stopped us in the street of Leon to tell us his stories of murdered students and show us a photo of him firing a bazooka. Makes our Australian history seem pretty tame in comparison.




Shakin’ it in Nicaragua
The town of San Juan del Sur was our home for a week while we completed yet another week of Spanish language classes, including another home stay with a local family. For a week we ate like kings (mama was an awesome cook) and lived the life of the locals in San Juan. The photo shown is from the Central American Independence Day festival on 15 September, which we were lucky enough to be in San Jaun to see. The festival included this sassy display by the local high school, parading around town shaking their hips. This seemed to be quite a progressive show for such a strongly Christian community.


Volunteering Our Skills
Also in San Juan, we found a local program providing potable water filters to schools and the community, where we could volunteer our skills. The municipal water supply is generally not suitable for drinking without treatment, which is the same for most of Central America. For people that can’t afford to buy drinking water, the simple sand filters removed biological and mineral contaminants making the water safe to drink. We learnt first hand that they are constructed using concrete casts and filled with a sandy aggregate which acts as the filter (simple technology, but effective). We were able to help with the construction of the filters, but we only managed to make two of the 200 filters required by the program while we were there. It’s a slow process.



Plate of the Day
Our Spanish schooling was completed with a visit to a local pottery workshop, where we saw ceramic pieces made from scratch on a manual pottery wheel. After this we headed out to a traditional festival, where we gorged ourselves on the ‘plato del tipico’ (photo) and knocked back a few Flor de Cañas (the local rum) and coke while watching traditional dancing.

Welcome to Costa Rica
Crossing the border to Costa Rica, the roads improved (which was good because our van was sounding rough after Nicaragua). As luck would have it, we met up with Joe and Amy again by chance. It was great to see some familiar faces. We stopped in the surf town of Jaco for some waves and repairs on our van, and continued south to Manuel Antonio National Park. The birds and other wild life seem a lot more plentiful here, however we are still yet to see a sloth. Possibly in the national parks on the Osa Peninsula, which is where we were headed next.

In Search Of Sloths...
No sloths identified unfortunately, but plenty of monkeys. We spent three rain drenched days in the national park of the Osa Peninsula, Southern Costa Rica. The area is known as the wettest part of the region and October, as it turns out, is the wettest month in this part of the world (which we can whole heartedly attest to). Rain aside, the peninsula was spectacular and full of wildlife. We saw heaps of howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, scarlet macaws and a coatis (a cat-like/bear creature). From here we are heading for Panama, sadly the last stop of our road trip.

INTO THE HEART OF CENTRAL AMERICA

 From Political Activists to Active Volcanos
Following a lead for a potential volunteer position with a local environmental firm we landed in Guatemala City. Things didn’t pan out with the volunteer position (we resolved to try again for a position in Nicaragua), however, we had a chance to explore the capital city. The city was alive with political campaigning, with the upcoming national election only a month away. Political parties lined the streets with flags, megaphones and firecrackers (which we often mistook for gun fire). They really get into their politics over here.

Within sight of the capital, stands Volcano Pacaya, which is currently well and truly active. We hired a local guide for the climb to the summit where we caught our first glimpse of molten lava pouring from the side of the mountain. Clambering over the old lava flows, we came close enough to feel the heat irradiating from the fresh flows. As a geologist, Daniel was pretty excited to be this close to newly forming rocks!

 Secluded Points & Friendly Locals – El Salvador
Hearing several conflicting stories about safety in El Salvador we were prepared for anything as we crossed the border on 6 August, heading for the coast. Pleasantly surprised, we found the El Salvadorians the friendliest people so far and the country more developed than expected. The surf was pretty good too, with several secluded righthand points (one such point pictured here). We found the best waves on the remote southeast coast. The area looks to be developing fast and already there were over 20 people in the water at one popular spot.

Artesian El Salvador
They love a good mural in Central America. Here in La Palma, in the highlands of northern El Salvador, we found what would have to be the winner of the ‘Most Murals in One Town’ award (if there were ever such a contest). Everything that could be decorated by the local’s artwork has been, including walls, poles and various paraphernalia for the tourists. We used La Palma as a base to scale El Salvador’s highest peak, El Petal, a brisk 2,730 m above sea level.

 Close Shave with Hurricane Dean
We managed to arrive at Utila, a small island just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, as Hurricane Dean was about to hit (see Weather Channel screen save). Almost upon arrival to the island, we were encouraged to prepare for the storm, buy extra supplies, batten down the hatches etc. Great timing! But luckily the hurricane passed to the north and we only experienced some rain and wind for half the night.

 Breathing Under Water
Clearing the next day we had the thumbs up to go scuba diving. Daniel’s first time scuba, and he loved it. Sabina did the advanced course, including a night dive and a deep wreck dive. While the coral wasn’t as impressive as back home at the Great Barrier Reef, the fish life was pretty spectacular.

Feel the Sting – Scorpion Cocktails in Utila
As expected, the last night on the island was a big one. Celebrating with Greg, Brendon and Jonathan, who had also just passed their PADI certification courses, we found ourselves at a special quiz night just for us at one of the local café/bars. Things started getting out of control when the prizes for the quiz arrived – 2 very large bowls full of some kind of rum cocktail, appropriately named Scorpion Bowls. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. However, Daniel did run into an old mate from Hobart, Courtney, who was working as a dive instructor on the island. The world really is a small place.

Southern Mexico and Guatemala

 Puerto Escondido and Further South
Surf continued to roll in over our week in Puerto. It's the kind of place you could stay for months, but months could turn in to years and before you know it you're selling jewellery on the streets for your next meal. With this in mind we decided we had to move on, but we only made it less than 100 km south to a secluded surf break, which turned out to be one of the best surf locations we've found so far. A perfect right hand point break nestled under a granite headland capped with coastal jungle. We stayed a week and scored some great waves.

 Volcano Tajamulco
Crossing the border to Guatemala we ascended the coastal range to the cool climates of a town named Quetzaltenango (aka Xela). Unprepared for the cold climate we stocked up on Guatemalan llama-style beanies, gloves and jumpers. Our new outfits we also for our planned hike to the top of one of the local Volcanos. With the help of a local guide we scaled Volcano Tajamulco over a 2 day hike. Ascending the peak at day break in the freezing cold was worth the magic views from the summit. We looked along the volcanic mountain range stretching far into southern Guatemala, with other prominent peaks highlighted by the morning sun. Magic!

 Lago de Atitlan
It hasn't all been carefree holidays... we returned to school for another week of Spanish in one of those 'postcard worthy' towns on the shores of Lake Atitlan (which has been described as possibly the most beautiful lake in the world - it was pretty nice). While studying Spanish we lived with local families, eating meals at the family table etc. This was an attempt to immerse ourselves in Guatemalan culture and Spanish. It helped, but we still have a long way to go before we could claim to 'speak Spanish'. After 5 tough days, school was out and we had time to explore the lake, including some classic cliff diving spots (photo) into super deep (up to 320m) crystal clear water.

 Antigua
The old capital of Guatemala, Antigua is as close to the perfect Spanish Colonial town that we've found, with pastel coloured buildings lining cobbled stone streets. Daniel has been roped into salsa dance classes and its proving to be yet another difficult Latin American skill to learn. Also, we have seen many volunteer possibilities here, but we're still looking for a good match to our skills and interests. If not here, we'll look again in Nicaragua.

MEXICO CONTINUES...

Margaritas in Mainland Mexico
Over a couple of weeks we traveled south with Joe and Amy, saying goodbye to Chris at Sayulita with a night of many magaritas (see above). Our tracks passed from San Blas, on northern mainland Mexico, to Acapulco, a touristy town famous for high cliff diving. The waves were plentiful, from long left-hand point breaks to spitting beach break barrels.
One place that stood out was Rio Nexpa, a 200m long left point break, where we stayed for a week. Here we enjoyed a delicious curry, cooked from scratch (not by us) with fresh coconuts we (mostly Joe) pulled from the tree.

Mexico City
From Acapulco we headed inland a days drive to Mexico City, leaving Joe and Amy on the coast. The city sits at over 2000m above sea level, sprawled across a valley bound by volcanoes, although these can’t be seen from town, thanks to the terrible air pollution. We spent 4 glorious nights out of the van, in a comfortable hotel (ahhhh!!!). Sightseeing included the flag lowering ceremony (pictured, and yes, those guns are real), the National Palace, Metropolitan Cathedral, Aztec and Mayan temples and the Museum of Anthropology.

Who Knew There Was Snow in Mexico?
Planning to climb the highest peak in every Central American country, we headed to Popocatépetl (Popo), 5,452 m elevation just outside Mexico City. It is actually second highest mountain in Mexico, the highest required expensive local guides to reach the top. Upon approach a covering of snow crowned Popo.
Our plans to summit this peak went up in smoke when we discovered that Popo was actually still active and extremely dangerous. Our persistence was met with postcards depicting the massive eruption of 2000 where surrounding towns were evacuated. Considering this, we decided against Popo and did a day walk to 4,500 m on the neighboring (dormant) volcano instead.





Back on the Coast
From the mountains we traveled through the town of Oaxaca (pronounced wa-Ha-ka), the lively culture rich center of southern Mexico, to Puerto Escondido. This place is also known as Mexican Pipeline after its namesake in Hawaii, due to frequent big heavy barrels, which break very close to the shore.
Due to the size of the waves, Daniel acquired a big wave board (7’0”), which Puerto quickly took care of, snapping it three days later. It is currently being stuck back together, and should be back in action soon.
We have been greeted by the traveling professional surfers circus here at Puerto – with the X-Games, an extreme surfing contest, being held this week. While the contest makes for great watching, after hours, the surf is pretty crowded.
We’ve started Spanish classes, with a lovely lady, Elena who is a great teacher. Finally, we’re starting to make some headway into this language.

Goodbye USA. Hello Mexico.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
America’s first National Park, a glacial carved valley containing sheer granite cliffs and massive waterfalls, draining melting springtime snowcaps. We spent 2 nights in Yosemite Valley (well, 1 actually, as we were kicked out on the second night for camping in the carpark), managing to keep our food and toiletries safe from the car-jacking resident black bears. After conquering the Grand Canyon, our next challenge was to be the infamous Half Dome (a 2,500 metre granite monolith with one face a sheer vertical drop to the Valley below). Unaware of the steepness of the final ascent, we found ourselves clinging to a rusty wire cable with garden gloves (kindly provided by the National Park), on a near vertical rockface - this was the easy way up! Thoughts of our impressive achievements were shattered when two rock climbers popped their heads over the ‘front’ face of the Half Dome – it had been a 2-3 day journey for them up the exposed vertical face.

BACK IN LA
From Yosemite we headed south through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks toward LA. It was a 4 day stop back in the big smoke to finalise preparation of the van before heading on to Mexico. We managed to sneak in a day at the renowned Six Flags Rollercoaster Park with Justin and Amity our LA friends (Justin came begrudgingly – not a fan of rollercoasters, see photo!). We chose a seemingly tame ride to ease Justin into it which didn’t go upside down (Justin’s criteria #1). Not so tame, we all turned white. Justin and Am sat the next one out. We later found out it was the biggest rollercoaster in the park.

MEXICO - BORDER CROSSING
Mexico – we were in. We breezed through the boarder, picked up our first Mexican tacos and headed south. Everything seemed pretty normal traveling down the highway until we encountered a sandbag bunker containing a soldier, accompanied by a large automatic weapon. We later found out that these military checkpoints are periodically located along the highway – the soldiers check for drugs and weapons but generally leave you alone, thank goodness!

MEXICO – BAJA NORTE
A few tollbooths and military checkpoints down Highway 1, we stopped in San Miguel for the night. There we met Reno Abrillo (1978 surfing world champion) over a beer. He let us camp in front of his place down the beach and after breakfast together the next morning we headed on (despite his talent for storytelling – I think he really appreciated the fresh set of ears we provided). The highway follows the coast in northern Baja but then veers inland to cactus country, the dry and hot desert. We got our first surf about 600km down the peninsular at a place called The Wall. Surprisingly the water temp was not much over 20 deg C, a lot fresher than we had anticipated.

MEXICO – BAJA SUR
Frightened off my the cold water we headed south in search of warmer water, stopping on the east coast of Baja Peninsula, where we had an eventful night getting bogged on the beach, and then on to Cabo San Lucas. Cabo is the quintiscential Mexican Americanised town, containing all the large American chain stores, takeouts, marinas, golf courses and hotels. Definitely not what we came to see. However, the water was warm and the surf was good. Here we met Joe, Amy and Chris, fellow Australian travelers/surfers, who are on a similar adventure to us.

MAINLAND MEXICO
Our time in Baja was over. A 6 hr ferry ride later we arrived on the mainland, at a town called Topolombampo (Was a challenge just to pronounce it, let alone get there). We had been informed of a secret surf location to the south. The capabilities of our van were tested getting to the remote location (see picture), however the waves were definitely worth it.

ROAD TRIP USA

JOSHUA TREE
It took us 6 hrs to escape LA on the freeways in Friday night rush hour to Joshua Tree National Park, just 160 miles from the city. The park is famous for it's Doctor Suess-like trees (the 'Joshua Tree') and a hot spot for rock climbers.

GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon, a marvelous sight, here veiwed by one of the local critters ('mountain squirrel').
After some 'minor' car problems we finally got to the Grand Canyon, to celebrate DT's birthday. We appreciated the vertical mile decent into the Canyon firstly, and comfortably, from helicopter and the secondly, by foot.
Walking from Rim to Base return in one day was warned as risking heat stoke, cardiac arrest or even death. Pfff. It was a big days walk, departing at 5am, watching the sun rising slowly illuminate the colourful geological profile of the Canyon, as our knees started to quiver. After a very brief dip in the mighty Colorado River we laboured through the ascent, maintaining a steady pace to keep in front of the mule trains. Beer certainly tasted good back up at the Rim!

LAS VEGAS
Two nights in Vegas is all we could afford. Money practically evaporates out of your pockets as you walk down the street. But this didn't stop us drinking red-bull and vodkas from yard glasses, playing the pokies along side the grandmas and trying our luck on the roulette wheel. Amazingly we didn't strike it rich, but did manage to hang on to most of our holiday funds. It's a crazy place, considering the surrounding lands are uninhabitable deserts.

DEATH VALLEY
Death Valley is the ultimate university geology and geomorphology field trip destination. You can see how the landscape has been sculpted through millennia. Huge valleys eroded out and filled with alluvial sediments and flat big salt lakes, where the sun as evaporated the last drop of water away. This really is the bottom of the US, 282 metres below sea level. And damn, was it hot!

MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN
The land of extremes - from blazing hot desert to snowboarding atop Mammoth Mountain. Driving past the snow capped mountains of the Serria Nevada, we couldn't resist the temptation of slipping in a day snowboarding. Perfect spring conditions, plenty of snow left from an apparently great season (Mammoth receives over 10 m snow per year) and a smoothly groomed board park made for an action packed day on the mountain. We are very saw today.