It’s been a long time since our last blog, primarily because internet cafes don’t really seem to exist in America any more, and public libraries chuck you out after 30 minutes.
But, now we have some time, here’s an update! We flew from Costa Rica via Florida into Las Vegas and crazy night-heat, and an airport full of slot machines. We got picked up by our friends Danny and Cat in their crazily cool Chrysler rental-car, and headed over to see ‘downtown Vegas’ and the old Fremont strip, which has a bit of a different vibe to the ‘modern’ Strip. It’s a bit of a feast for the senses (well, some of them), and stuffed full of things to experience. It’s incredibly fake, but fun too!
It’s also home to the “Heart Attack Grill”, where we did not eat…
The next morning we experienced our first American meal, and were still full about 24 hours later. (It was called a skillet, and was like a normal breakfast except with far more fried potatoes and cheese and various kinds of meat). After stocking up with huge amounts of water, we set out for Death Valley, home of the hottest temperature ever recorded on earth.
We headed up to a glorious viewpoint from where you can see both the lowest and highest points in mainland America from the same spot. As usual with these things, photos don’t really do it justice, but here’s a few anyway.
Then we headed to another spot, full of weird rock formations.
We stayed at a great ranch-hotel, virtually the only place that’s open in the valley in summer, when most people find it a touch too hot!
The next day we took a short hike around Red Rock Canyon near Vegas, with more insane examples of what nature and geology are capable of.
As an early birthday present, Cat and Danny took us out to see Evil Dead The Musical, which was really fun…here’s us with some of the cast:
Then a night out at some bars and clubs, including Coyote Ugly, and just genereally had a great time experiencing the excesses and over-the-topness of a night out Vegas style, complete with its pyramid, castles, mini Statue of Liberty, totally standard stuff to find on a night out yeah?…
The next day, Sam and Cat headed to the shops, while Danny and I went to a ‘Ninja Warrior’ gym he’d found, full of crazy obstacles. I could barely do any of them! But still so fun.
Then a proper American barbecue place – it was well away from the Strip, in a bit of a rundown area, and therefore both cheap and deliciously delicious.
On Sunday, we took an early bus-tour out to the Grand Canyon…it meant spending most of the day in the bus, but it was worth it! We swung by Hoover Dam on the way:
And the canyon was what everybody says it was (or, as one TripAdvisor reviewer put it, “just a big hole in the ground”). We had about 3 hours there, during which we walked along the rim for a few miles just enjoying the scenery and trying to spot the bottom…
After another overly-large breakfast the next morning, we said a massive bye to Cat and Danny, and jumped on a Greyhound bus to LA. While less comfortable than the buses in Chile and Peru, it did have wi-fi, a bathroom and air conditioning, and was only about £8 for a five-hour journey…pretty good really! More on LA in our next blog. Which will be coming very soon!
Backpacking About 