Skinwalkers

July 30th

The wifi isn’t working properly as we are crossing mountain ranges and national parks so I might post a couple of stories on the same day. I’m also not sure if I can add photos, which is a shame because we’ve seen some amazing things. We spend the night in Monument Valley, in a Navajo reserve, sleeping under the stars. Yesterday afternoon we were picked up by a Navajo guide in an open jeep which resembled the game drive vehicles we used in Africa. He took us on a tour

of the valley, showed us some of the most amazing places and told loads of stories about the Navajo legends and beliefs. A lot of movies are filmed in this region and I can see why, it truly looks like the wild west, we even saw a tumbleweed tumbling by. A couple weeks ago they were filming ‘Valley of the Gods’ out here but we also stopped at a location from Forrest Gump. We saw sand dunes, rock drawings and mountains in all shapes imaginable: elephants, dragons, eagles. After the tour we went to our ‘campsite’ for the night. A place in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains. We had a dinner the local people had prepared for us, some sort of round bread with beans and salad, after which they showed us some of the Navajo dances. They asked us all to pair up and join the dancing, it was great fun! After the dancing, the other two tourgroups went to a different campsite where they would sleep in a traditional Navajo house, the Hogun. We saw one of those Hoguns earlier. There are male and female Hoguns, the female one is shaped like a womb and has nine pillars on the inside, symbolizing the nine months of pregnancy. It also faces east to symbolize being re-born every morning. The men and women don’t live seperately in the Hoguns, the structures themselves are just defined as either male or female.

Anyway, we stayed behind, with our two tourguides, and got ready for bed. There were actual portable toilets there so no hole in the ground thankfully. We laid out our sleeping mats and bags and stared at the stars while one of the guides told us stories about the skinwalkers from Navajo legend. Skinwalkers are representations of people’s past demons that are drawn to spiritual gatherings. The skinwalkers look like shadows with clear white orbs for eyes. You can only see them from your peripheral vision, if you look straight at them, they disappear. They can also take the shape of animals. The guide’s voice was really soothing so after the story ended we had no trouble falling asleep. I woke up a couple of times but I slept quite well, especially compared to Jackson, one of our group leaders. Once we got back on our bus the next morning he told us he had the weirdest and scariest night ever. He woke up around 2AM because one of the Navajo guides accidentally stepped on him. He chose a spot a bit removed from the rest of the group to sleep, which the guide didn’t realize. Jackson then heard footsteps all around him but when he looked up, the guide was on the other side of the camp. He managed to fall asleep again but woke up a little while later when the guide was again walking around the camp. Apparantly he was building a wall of rocks around the rest of us. When Jackson asked what the wall was for, the guide said it was to protect us from ‘them’. In addition to the wall, Jackson also saw lights on the rock face next to us that couldn’t have been caused by flashlights (or so he said). The guide was really vague about it and told him not to worry about it, that it was taken care of. None of us noticed anything but he said it was the scariest night of his life..

We got up at 5.30 when it was still dark and drove to a different location to watch the sunrise. It was a truly amazing experience to watch the sun rise over the mountains, something I’ll remember forever. Monument Valley is so beautiful and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to see it and get to know a bit about the Navajo culture. We even saw wild horses! Our guide told us that he trains horses so if we were to ever come back here we should come and visit him. After breakfast we had to leave this impressive place and head back to our bus, but the day holds more amazing sights as we are now headed for the Grand Canyon!

No Mountain High Enough

July 29th

I can’t keep track of the days nor our schedule so I’m gonna try and see what I remember. We are currently on our way from Cortez to Monument Valley. We were supposed to visit Mesa Verde National Park but apparantly part of it collapsed a couple of weeks ago so we couldn’t go there. Instead we went rafting. The first thing my sister said when she heard was ‘are you sure that’s a good idea, seeing how clumsy you are?’ But it turned out the water level in the river was very low so it was an easy route. We did get shipwrecked on the rocks a couple of times in the beginning but after a while we figured it out and we weren’t half bad at it. It was actually pretty cool and I’d love to do it again, maybe on a river that’s a bit more challanging.

We spent the night on the most beautiful campsite so far. It was surrounded by mountains and the sunset was amazing. Yesterday evening we didn’t do anything special, we just had a relaxed night at the campsite, playing games. Yesterday’s drive took us from Santa Fe to Cortez so we crossed another state line, from New Mexico to Colorado. Colorado apparently has some of the highest mountains in the US. I’ve spent most of the drive gazing out the window, the scenery was amazing! Every state we cross has me thinking I could live there but this was the prettiest part of the trip so far.

Santa Fe was really great as well. It’s the oldest town of the US and it was really pretty, the people were nice and the food was great. In the morning, we spent some time exploring the city and shopping for souvenirs. The nigth before we had already gone into the city to eat and one of the other girls and I listened to some music at a festival in a nearby park. Before coming to Santa Fe we explored the caves of Carlsbad. We went to see the bats fly out at dusk, there were hundreds of them, they just kept coming, it was a really cool thing to see. The caves were amazing as well. It was 750 feet deep (don’t really know how many metres that is?) and quite steep in some places. Thankfully we didn’t have to climb back up as there was an elevator. The cave system was massive. I think it took us about an hour to get down there and then almost another hour to walk around the big underground ‘rooms’. It was really cool and very pretty (as long as you don’t think about the amount of rock above you).

The campsite in Carlsbad was next to a highway (again, just like the one in Austin the day before) so I didn’t sleep much. But at least the restrooms were close. Our way of judging a campsite is basically this: toilets need to be close. We’ve had lots of different campsites, some on grassy fields, sometimes sand, one was in a desert like place and scattered with rocks (really comfortable..), next to highways, one was next to a train track, some had really big showers, one had a toilet that was basically a hole in the ground, most had a pool but last night’s one had the most amazing view. Althoug the one in Santa Fe was also really cool because you could see so many stars, and even the milky way.

I think I’m almost to the point where I ended my last blog, when we were on our way to Austin. It was really hot that day so we went tubing down a beautiful river. It was very relaxing and a great way to cool down. After the tubing we went into the city to explore a bit. We had bought spray paint so we went to test our skills at an outdoor ‘gallery’ but it suddenly started raining so we decided to grab some food and go back to the campsite.  

I think I mentioned before that we play games on the bus to pass the time (when people are not sleeping). One of those games is called ‘Horse´. Everytime you see a horse you scream ‘horse’ and the first to do that gets a point. If you see a horsebox you can ‘steal’ a horse from someone else but if we pass a cemetery everyone loses their horses. One of the girls was obsessed with winning and it was hilarious to hear her scream ‘horse’ all the time, because we saw loads of ranches yesterday. I’m really looking forward to my time in Wyoming after this bustour, all the horses made me realize I prefer riding through beautiful places like this over visiting cities after all.  

 We also went to Roswell, where they claim Aliens crash landed in 1947 :)

The Big Easy

July 24th

I had to ask someone what the date was ‘cause I was convinced it was the 22nd of July. Time flies when you’re having fun right? We’re spending a long day on the bus again today on our way from New Orleans to Austin (a 9hr drive). We just stopped at a burger place and I feel like I’ve had enough food for the next week, the portions are so big here. Earlier this morning we stopped at a gas station with billboards promoting their tiger. At first I thought they were joking but there was indeed a tiger there. The poor animal didn’t have a very big enclosure and it was really hot with barely any shade..

We spend two nights in the Big Easy, Crescent CIty New Orleans. We arrived in time to have dinner in the city and walk around Bourbon Street for a bit. I also enjoyed sleeping in a real bed in an airconditioned room for two nights. Our room was enourmous. We had eight beds between the six of us, a couch, a couple of comfy chairs, there was a tv and a big bathroom. Some of the other rooms even had a kitchen. The hotel was very cute as well, painted in bright colours.

The next day I went to explore the city with one of the girls from Germany. We walked around the French Quarter for a bit and strolled down the Mississippi river. We visited Lafayette Cemetery, a place that was featured in a lot of different movies and tv shows. I also took a ghosttour of the quarter. It was really interesting as I learned a lot about the history of the quarter. Our guide was either really into playing her role or she actually believed in ghosts 'cause when someone asked if she had ever had an encounter on the tour she told him that she had a run in with a ghost a week ago. I really loved New Orleans, a nice atmoshpere, lots to see and friendly people!

Before heading to New Orleans we visited Memphis. It was really warm that day and at night it was still around 27 degrees, which lead to people opting to sleep in the bathrooms where there was aircon. I slept surprisingly well though. There was also a pool so we took some time to cool down and swim. Of course we couldn’t visiti Memphis and not visit Graceland. Thankfully our campsite was next to Elvis’ house so we didn’t have to go far in the heat. It was great to see the place Elvis lived for most of his live. The property was huge! The house was big in itself but then there was also some sort of annex which was more of a house in itself where Elvis could relax, a garage for all his cars and even a stable and pastures for horses. He was also burried on the property so it was really impressive to visit the place. The decoration in the house wasn’t my style though ;)

In the evening we went out for BBQ in Memphis and a couple of drinks afterward. We passed by the Civil Rights museum and saw the motel where Marthin Luther King was shot. We spent some time at an outdoor stage in the city listening to country music before heading back to the campsite to just sit and talk for a bit, as it was way too hot to sleep. The only reason I didn’t sleep outside my tent was because of all the musquitoes.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we also stopped in Nashville. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time there but we did go out for drinks in the evening. It was nice to walk around the busy streets for a bit. Every bar had its windows open and there was live music playing everywhere, really cool! We went to a couple of bars and listened to the bands there and we went dancing for a bit before heading back to camp around midnight as we were really tired from all the travelling.

Tonight we will set up our camp in Austin (I think it’s four more hours before we get there) and tomorrow we’ll go to a natural pool and have a day to relax.

On the road again

July 20th

I’m sorry for the silent treatment guys, but here’s another blog. We are currently cruising through Tenessee on our way to Nashville for the night. It is day five of the trip and we’ve already crossed six states. After we left New York on Sunday morning we headed to Washington where we arrived just before nightfall. We set up our camp in between all the camper vans that are bigger than most apartments I've seen. Our quarters for the comming nights are shared tents. We take turns cooking and doing dishes and stuff and my group had the night off so we got to relax around the campfire for a bit. After pasta and smores my tentmate Rachel and I headed to bed because we had a long day in DC the next day. Our goal was to see as many of the city as we could and I think we did pretty well: we went to the Air and Space museum, the Natural History museum, the Smithsonian Zoo and took a walk along the monuments at dusk. It was raining while we were at the zoo but at least it cooled down a bit and there was barely anyone else there. We wanted to see the pandas but they wouldn't come out, we did see a baby porcupine that was only three hours old though. I really loved Washington, for one, all the museums are free (and there are loads of musuems) but the city also felt less busy and stressed than New York, it was easy to navigate and the people were really nice.

I have to admit that most of my knowledge on American culture comes from tv shows and films but thankfully I’m not the only one so Rachel and I bonded over the movies the sights that we visited featured in. We got back to camp around 10 pm but I was so tired I headed straight to bed (boring, I know). Most of you probably know that I am not the biggest fan of camping, an opinion I’ve voiced on many occassions but I must admit it is not actually that bad. It gets a bit warm in the tents sometimes, there are some musquitos, it is annoying that you can’t stand up straight and the bathrooms aren’t very clean but I guess a cool roadtrip makes everything bearable because I don’t really care about all these things (although now that I’m listing them I don’t really know why anyone would ever go camping).

The next morning we packed up our camp and headed to Arlington Cemetery. It is a military cemetery where soldiers have been buried since the civil war. We got to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown solider. I have no idea how they survive in the heat with that military uniform but apparantly they even withstand storms to guard the monument. We also saw JFK’s gravesite. The cemetery was really impressive, really helps you put things in perspective. There are still so many wars being fought all around the world.. Nowadays it is not very common for soldiers to be buried there though, you have to do something really heroic.

After leaving Arlington we headed for the Appalachians. We visited Shenandoah national park where we went on a hike. Apparantly there were two paths you could take, a nice and easy one and a rocky path. My friends from South Africa probably remember that waterfall hike that I opted not to do because I was scared I would trip, slip or fall and break my neck? Well I figured I should probably not tempt faith so I should probably take the easy path. Unfortunately the people at the front of the group missed the sign and accidentally took the wrong path. And I was glad they did! The rock climbing was actually really cool (and I only got a minor scratch on my hand!) and the view was amazing. I love Virginia, it is so green, loads of trees, cute farms and the Appalachians are truly beautiful. I would love to come back in the fall and see the leaves change colour. We even saw a bear! Apparantly there are loads of black bears in the mountains. We only saw a glimpse as it was running away but I’m glad we saw some game ;) We saw some deer as well.

Another couple of hours on the bus later we arrived at our next campsite, it looked way prettier than the first one as it was surrounded by a forrest and there weren’t as many campers. We arrived pretty late though so after cooking (it was my group's turn) we spend the evening around the campfire eating smores and playing games. I went to bed around midnight but some people stayed up pretty late, I could still hear them yelling while playing never have I ever, I don’t think the families around us got much sleep that night.

We left early this morning and I think it’s another three hours before we reach Nashville. We just stopped at a liquour store where we got to do a moonshine tasting. It wasn’t as bad as I expected and some of it even tasted quite good. So that takes us to now, on the bus listening to the playlists we composed. The bus is quite comfortable with airco and wifi and good company of course. I’ll try to upload some pictures but I am not sure the wifi is good enough.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Memphis and on Friday we’ll arrive in New Orleans.

Manhattan from the sky

Maybe it’s my less than stellar map reading skills but I keep getting turned around here in New York. Not really in the streets but mostly in Central Park, that place is so confusing. Every time I try to cross it, I end up on the complete opposite side of where I intended to go. Saturday morning I was convinced I was going west and I had almost reached the other side of the park when somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going south. It took me crossing almost one third of the park before I realised my mistake. The exact same thing happened on Thursday, I'm hopeless.

It was a bit cooler today (yeej!). I moved my stuff from the B&B to the hostel in Brooklyn where I’d be meeting the rest of the group. Some construction work on the subway made it into a way longer trip than it should have been but eventually I reached the hostel, which is really one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. It’s got a bit of a hippie vibe but it’s really cool. I met my roommates for the night: a brother and sister from Germany. I quickly headed out again as we had to be back by 7pm for the meeting. I really wanted to see the Guggenheim and also went to Times Square, Rockefellar Center, Grand Central station, the Public Library and of course the Empire State Building (unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Mt. Olympus ;)). Even though it was cloudy by then, the view was amazing! All the skyscrapers looked like lego stones and all the people like little ants. It was really nice and cool up there as well. Obviously I took loads of pictures and I’ve now got that Kate Voegele song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Times square was okay but so busy that I really wanted to leave again as soon as I got there but the Public Library and Grand Central were really cool. I loved just sitting at the station for a bit watching everyone rush by. I especially love the zodiac signs they painted on the ceiling, there are even some ‘stars’ that are actually lit.

I went back to the hostel to meet the rest of the group. Apparantly there are two groups on this bus: one group is only coming to New Orleans, the rest is continuing to San Francisco. Everyone seemed really nice. There were a lot of people from Australia, some from England and New Zealand, a couple of Germans but no other Dutchies. Looking forward to getting to know them on the trip!

After a couple of days on my own I’m really glad to be sharing my experiences with others again. Tomorrow we’re off to Washington!

The city that never sleeps

I'm on the road again! This year's travels take me around the USA so I decided that warranted another blog. My first stop is New York City!

July 14th

Wednesday was the longest day of my life. And I am not just saying that, it actually was 30 hours long. It feels weird to be in a different time zone, the time difference between New York and The Netherlands is 6 hours and once I arrive in San Francisco in three weeks, the time difference will be 9 hours. This results in me having a lot of conversations with myself on whatsapp since the people I’m messaging are asleep when I am awake. Besides waking up at 4 AM and getting hungry at weird hours I can’t say that the jetlag is bothering me much. I guess it will be worse when I return to the Netherlands. Alas, on to the important stuff. My first thought upon arriving at JFK: I’m gonna melt this summer’. It’s so warm here, between 30-35 degrees Celsius, what a difference with Holland. Especially the metro stations are unbearable, after taking one step outside I wanted to shower again. So I’m taking it slow (as I should since I’m on vacation) and sticking to the shadows (or the A/C). I spent my first day exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I spent the biggest part of my day. The museum is huge! After five hours I had seen only a fraction of the stuff on display (and read hardly any of the texts, you guys should be proud). It was an amazing museum though with wonderful art and sculptures. I even came face to face with a couple of the cypriot figureheads which featured in my bachelor thesis :) And of course I took a picture sitting on the steps of the Met! Eventually I dragged myself out of the museum and went on to stroll around central park. Unfortunately the heavens chose that moment to release a torrential downpour. I waited out the storm (there was lightning and thunder as well) underneath a passageway with another girl who was travelling solo. We got to talking and decided to explore the park together. So I spend the rest of my day lounging in central park with Tara.  

July 15th

Most of you probably know that I hate shorts, I never ever wear them in public in the Netherlands. You might see me in a dress but never in a pair of shorts (except at the stables, that one time was an exception Heleen!). However, New York has made me abandon my principles. It is so warm here that I wonder how people function properly in this city. I try to go from one airconditioned place to another or sit underneath trees in a park. This morming I spent a fair amount of time just sitting on a parkbench watching brooklyn bridge with a merciful breeze to cool me down. I walked around that park for a bit watching everyone around me. Apparantly it was a popular place for fotoshoots as I saw at least three groups of photographers, models and crew. One seemed like a fashion shoot for childrens clothes but the funniest and strangest one was a couple of ladies laying around dressed as mermaids, with actual tails! Fun fact: apparantly a tail is quite heavy as the models couldn’t even lift it themselves, one of the crew members had to hold it up for the pictures.

I was planning on meeting up with Tara again today but she sent me a message when I didn’t have wifi so we just missed each other. After relaxing in the Brooklyn Bridge park I decided to cross the bridge itself. It’s a very impressive structure and I was amazed by all the work it must have cost to build something like it. It is a really cool experience to witness all the things you see in movies and on tv in real life. In that spirit, I went on to take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. The boat ride was really nice with beautiful views and I met a nice family on the way who immidiately invited me to their home in Las Vegas! As I love parks I couldn’t not visit the High Line, so that’s where I went next. The High Line is a park on an abandoned railroad track. A couple meters above street level is this green oasis (I’m feeling a little poetic) between the skyscrapers. It’s the coolest venue for a park I’ve ever seen.

Tomorrow I’m going to move my luggage to the hostel where I’ll meet the group and spend the first night of the bustour so it’s gonna be my last full day in New York, think I might check out some more museums. For those of you who don’t know, starting Sunday I will be travelling from New York to San Francisco by bus. It’s an organised tour, don’t worry I’m not hitch-hiking or anything, with a group and it’ll take us three weeks to get to San Francisco. I’ll try to update as often as I can!

Ow and Joke, in case you read this, this might actually be the first vacation on which I’ll lose weight instead of gaining it (remember Rome?). Maybe it’s the jetlag or it could be the heat but I barely have an appetite.