Meteor Crater, Winslow/Holbroke, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert

The next aim on our trip was Petrified Forest N.P. Before we reached it, we drove East on I-40 along the former Highway 66. James' friend Bill had asked us to visit Meteor Crater since we would be passing it anyway. On the Interstate we already saw big billboards advertising for the Crater and asking us to tune in to AM 1670. It seems that the meteor crashed a few thousand years on what is now private property. The owner had built an 8 miles road toe a big parking lot at the edge of the crater. He/she/they had built a big visitor center and wanted to collect $ 15,00 per person for access to the crater's rim (going into the crater is not possible) and a spectacular movie about the meteor impact. Goes without saying that we didn't want to take our chances and did not go and see the the crater (one four corners experience is enough for one vacation).
So we went on to Winslow, where we stood on the corner and made some great pictures of and in the Posada Hotel. Holbrook showed us some of the faded glory of former Route 66 before we headed on to Pertified Forest N.P. Here we admired all the petrified wood that just lay there and looked so real. At a certain spot it looked like someone was chopping wood and all the wood chips were left behind. Of course everything was just stone.

Wupatki/Sunset Crater and Walnut Canyon

We left Grand Canyon a little on the late side. We had planned to do visit an other park on that day: Wupatki N.P. In fact we were unfortunately a little bit too late when we arrived at Wupatki (just North-East of Flagstaff). The good thing about that late hour was, that the first ruins we saw lit up in an unearthly wonderful warm light. The bad thing was that the visitor center was closed and that we ran out of light in no time. We could barely see the Wupatki ruins at the visitor center en it made no sense to drive up to the Wukoki ruins since it was dark by then. Through Sunset Crater Volcano (which of course we couldn't see either) we went to Flagstaff where we spent the night.
The next morning after one of those wonderful American breakfasts, we went to Walnut Canyon National Monument. We walked there in the footsteps of people who lived at Walnut Canyon more than 700 years ago, and who built their cliff dwellings deep within canyon walls. We saw of course only a small part of the canyon: the so called Island. The Island Trail descends 185 feet (56m) into the canyon providing access to some cliff dwellings. We were exhausted after the 240 steps we had to climb back up.

Grand Canyon

Yesterday we spent nearly all day on the South rim of the Grand Canyon. James had never seen the Grand Canyon though he had lived pretty much around it in the last few years (Las Vegas, Grand Junction and Phoenix). I myself had visited the North rim 11 years ago and as far as I remember it was not as spectacular as the what I have seen yesterday.

Spectacular, let me go on with that word, because Grand Canyon is unimaginable BIG: 15 to 20 km wide and 1600 m deep must be called spectacular. On the other hand it is more then I can comprehend. A cliff that is only 300 m high in Canyon de Chelly, has a deeper impact on me since the canyon is narrower. I know it shouldn't make any sense but that's how it feels for me the second time in my live. Don't get me wrong I really liked what I have seen yesterday, I just wanted to describe how my eyes and brains can play tricks with me.

Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly

Keep in mind what I wrote below under "Indian Friendly" when you read this, since both sites are within the Navajo Nation.

Monument Valley, who doesn't see images of old Westerns before his eyes when he hears this two words. In fact quite a few Westerns especially in the 30's and 40's were really shot here. But as everything in the movies reality is different. My high expectations didn't meet the real landscape. Don't get me wrong the buttes and cliffs and canyons were spectacular, I just had expected them to more isolated from each other in a more outstretched landscape.

Since the valley is on Indian territory, we of course had to pay $ 15,00 for fuzzy map and the use of a crappy unpaved dirt loop road through the valley.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the other hand was very spectacular even though it also is Navajo land, that is maintained by the National Park Service. There is no entrance fee and camping is free as well. Accessible without a Navajo guide, on the other hand, are only the two roads that lead along the rim of the canyon(s) and one hike into the canyon to an ancient ruin. Of course we did the hike: it was very nice. We regretted the fact that we were not able to explore the canyon bottoms on our own.

"Indian friendly"

The last two days I am absolutely amazed, that a country that has turned kindness into an art form, houses so many unfriendly Native Americans. For three days now we are either in the Navajo or Hopi Indian Nation, and in restaurants, motels, shops or even on roads or trails a numerous number of people have a very unpleasant way of treating us.

As a European I feel free to comment on this subject, while James sees the same things I see, but maybe for historical reasons keeps a distant from any judgement.

The examples are lots: holding up only a slip of paper with figures when you inquire about the rates of a motel, not greeting us when we wait to be seated in a restaurant or not acknowledge you when you meet them on a hiking trail. The only way they will greet you however along a hiking trail is, if they want to sell something. Vending stuff is very popular around (pre)historic sites (even in a National Monument).

What really pissed me off was an incident today. We were driving up a hill top and a thunderstorm was in the valley. I thought it would be nice to stop for a moment en take some pictures. So I stopped the car and we climbed on a little dirt hill along the way side. No harm was done. Eventually a pick up truck with seven Indians stopped under the hill and the driver gave us a lesson that it was absolutely forbidden to walk on any Indian lands. Keep in mind that there was no sign to tell us, that there was absolutely nothing but dirt and a few bushes around us, and that the only thing we left there were foot prints. While many Indians pollute their own environment with heaps of trash and junk around their spread out trailer dwellings.

I must say that I really had it now. I look forward to tomorrow when we leave the reservations behind us.

Mesa Verde N.P.

For the second time in my life I visited Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The first time was about 11 years ago, when I came together with Bob to the 4 corners area. Mesa Verde N.P. is a lot like Bandelier, it only has much more prehistoric sites and more impressive cliff dwellings. Although the rangers tell us every time, that the cliff dwellings are only of minor importance in the history of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made Mesa Verde their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300, the cliff dwellings speak the most to our imagination since they are so well preserved.

James and I took a few self guided and two ranger guided tours throughout the park. I visited areas that I hadn't visited the first time I was here. What struck us both was, how devastating the wild fires had been in the last years. Nearly all the trees in the park were burnt. The dead remains of them can be seen over hundreds of acres all over the park.

Last night we reached Kayenta in the middle of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. We had a quick and disappointing stop at the four corners monument. (We had to pay $ 3,00 each to see the place where UT, CO, NM and AZ meet and there was a Navajo market with T-shirts and pottery around it. It was so NOT worth paying the entrence fee!!!) We spend a wonderful night in the luxerious Hampton Inn (after we checked out the other two hotels in town: Best Western and Holiday Inn where we were treated rather unfriendly) and are on our way to Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly N.P. now.

Bandelier NP and Los Alamos

Right now we are in Durango, Colorado, ready to see the Mesa Verde National Park.

The two days before we visited Bandelier National Park and the town that never was: Los Alamos.

At Bandelier we visited the evidence of the Ancestral Pueblo people that can be found in the whole South West. There is no written history about those people. All we know now is by the evidence they left in their dwellings, artifacts, and petroglyphs. It is believed that the ancient culture is continuing in the culture of the modern pueblos in the South West. Bandelier hosts a few cliff dwellings and Tyuonyi Pueblo. That "big house" had 400 rooms but only 100 people lived there. Many of the rooms were used mostly for storage of food and pens for turkeys.

James was not so fond of all the ladders we had to climb up and later down at the Alcove House. He later said the he had to face dead when he was climbing the ladders. I thought that it was not so bad. The altitude was more that got me there. At more then 2200 m one can be short of breath very easy.

We camped at the campground in Bandelier after we had done a bit of scienic byway over the wooded mountains on NM-4. The next day we visited Los Alamos. During the second world war the town did not even exist, because the team of Robert Oppenheimer developed the first atomic bomb there. Even today the Los Alomos Laboratoreis still exist and most of the land around Los Alamos is off limits for the public. Of course we visited the science museum there where we learned everything about the bomb.

On our way to Durango, Colorado I got sick. I think it was a combination of food poisoning from the burger we in Los Alamos and the altitude. Anyway James took all responsibility and checked us in into a very nice Super 8. Thank you my wonderful man, for what you did to me!

After a good rest I feel ready now to face more adventures.

Santa Fe Trail

From Las Vegas (NM) we went North West to Montezuma. There a former hotel of the Santa Fe Railroad has been transformed into an international college (Armand Hammer Foundation). Most parts of the school are closed for public, but the Dawn Light Sanctuary, a building designed as a place of contemplation and reflection was open. It's a new round building with 12 large prisms built in the windows. The prisms break the sun light shining through the windows and project rainbow colors at the white walls of the room.

The reason why the Santa Fe Railroad Company built the hotel there at that particular spot at the Gallinas River were the hot springs. Of course James and I soaked our feet in the hot water for some time.

On I-25 we continued our way South to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. We first visited the state capitol. The building is different from all the other state capitols I have seen till now. We were actually able to see even the inside of the building with access to the Senate and the House of Representatives. The capitol houses a wonderful art collection from local artists. Santa Fe itself is a very art friendly city. Many museums and galleries can be found here.

We visited the Santa Fe Museum of New Mexican History, that had just opened the day before and therefor the admission was free. The museum was packed, but the exhibits were quite interesting. (So we learned everything how New Mexico became the 47th state of the union in 1912 just a few weeks before Arizona joined the union. For those curious to know which states followed: Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th))

Santa Fe gave name to the Santa Fe trail, one of the trails that the early settlers followed on their way west. (Oregon trail is an other well known trail.)

Santa Fe kind of blends in with the surrounding (spectacular) landscape: only low rise buildings mostly from adobe or at least built in the classic (Mexican) adobe style. The mountain tops around Santa Fe still are covered in snow while down here the temperature is a cozy 26ºC.

A night in Las Vegas

After visiting the UFO Research Center in Roswell we left the city not knowing what to think about the so called Roswell Incident. Fact is that in the night of July 4th in 1947 something had crashed in the desert near Corona, NM. Corona is by the way more then 100 km (to the NW) away from Roswell. Fact also seems to be that the army tried to cover something up. Personally I do have my doubts if that was an UFO crash in the desert. The eye-witness reports differ too much from each other for my taste. ...but you never know... My advise: always keep an eye in the sky!

We drove North through the deserts of New Mexico and saw only 7 cars in the last 65 km before we reached Fort Sumner where we payed a visit to the grave of Billy the Kid and the sheriff who shot him. On US 84 we headed further North to Santa Rosa and Las Vegas. Around Santa Rosa the scenery changed: evergreen trees (junipers and pine trees), rocks and hills appeared in the prairie.

We finally arrived in the charming little town of Las Vegas. Since the grass is green in other places as well, the Spanish settlers called other places then the famous one in Nevada “Las Vegas” (the meadows) as well. Not much gambling and shows are going on here. So we organized our own show, stayed the night in our nice Super 8 motel room and watched the last episode of Desperate Housewives. What a strange show was that...

Rosswell

James and I are back in the US. After visiting his parents for a few days in Fort Worth (later more about them), we hit the road yesterday morning and drove to Roswell, New Mexico.

Although James and I both believed that the circumstances were ideal for an other UFO experience (we observed animals behaving differently, ideal weather, nice landing strips and the fact that Atlantis was returning back to earth this very day) we didn't see any last night.You can imagine how disappointed we are right now... (James has a very valid addition to this paragraph: "Everybody knows that we could have been abducted last night, but the erased our memories when they brought us back. That's what they do."

Talking serious, we both found out that the so called Roswell incident is commercialized extensively here in this town. Everything is about UFOs and then of course there is the one and only Roswell International UFO Research Center. We'll see what we can do this morning to find out more about the aliens.

BLØF in ZWØLLE

Yes, the famous (well ok I admit, only in The Netherlands) Dutch band BLØF made it to Zwolle. Paul and Susanne couldn't make it to the concert because Susanne just had given birth to a healthy daughter. So they gave their tickets to James and me.

On a Monday evening James and I went to the new theater "De Spiegel" here in Zwolle. We knew we would have bad seats, but when we finally found our seats at a balcony I didn't know existed, we knew we had the best seats of the worst row in the whole theater (higest balcony, in the middle of last row). Altghough it was very steep we actually had a great view. The whole concert was incredible. I think that James enjoyed it very much and so did I ... thanks to the baby of Paul and Susanne.

Yummy Jamie Oliver recipe: Zalm met olijven en sperziebonen

Wat heb je nodig:
4 zalmmoten (zonder vel en graat)
200 gr. sperziebonen
15 kleine kerstomaatjes
20 zwarte olijven zonder pit
(ik neem meestal wel groene)
verse basilicumblaadjes
peper en zout

olijfolie

Recept:
Kook de sperziebonen beetgaar
Halveer de tomaatjes en de olijven
Meng in een schaal de gekookte sperziebonen met de tomaatjes, de olijven en een handje verse basilicumblaadjes. Besprenkel met olijfolie en breng op smaak met peper en zout
Verwarm de oven voor
Neem een grote braadslee
Leg aan de ene kant de stukken zalmmoot (besprenkel met olijfolie) en aan de andere kant het sperziebonen mengsel

Laat de zalm in ongeveer 15 min. garen in de oven

Ook een aanrader voor als je mensen te eten krijgt! Je maakt alles van tevoren klaar en schuift het op het laatste moment in de oven!

Met dank aan Sylvia's Kitchen!

Agenda/Termine/Dates

In the following week(end)s I am fully booked/terribly busy/out of the country:

Mar 29 (taxes)
Apr 2-4 (Paris)
Apr 12/13 (Pasen)
Apr 19 (eten met Italiaans)
Apr 22 (Ria S.)
??? (Rome)
??? (Sitges)
Apr 30 (Koninginnedag)
May 13 (Boekbespreking)
May 20 - June 9 (Texas)
May 21 (Hemelvaart)
May 31/Jun 1 (Pinksteren)

Besides that I am working on Monday evenings and going to Italian lessons every Tuesday evening.

I Love Paris...

On Valentine's Day (actually it was the day before) James and I gave each other a little present: we set off to visit Groningen. James wanted to know where the train ends, he takes every day from Rotterdam to Zwolle. After we explored the sights of the city we had dinner at Wagamama. It was of course great as always.

When we came back we thought we would love to train a little more through Europe so we bought two first class tickets to Paris in April and we made some reservations for Ibis as well. We will be there for 3 days and really look forward to that.

Slumdog Millionaire and Gomorrah

Outside of the IFFR I saw two memorable festival titles: Gomorrah and Slumdog Millionaire. I did not like Gomorrah and i really don't understand why all the screenings were sold out at the festival. Of course I am not in the position to judge about the reality factor of of Gomorra, but for me it seemed to be just one more movie about the maffia, while the pretentions of that movie were much higher.
Slumdog Millionaire on the other hand was the winner of the KPN audience award. The movies was nice the concept was interesting and as a feel-good-movie there is nothing to dislike about it, but I must say that I understand those who say that the movies is based on stereotypes and overhyped. It would not have been my personal number 1, but I understand why it got it's award.

Slumdog Millionaire (IN 110')
An uneducated Indian from the slums who becomes a national hero by winning millions of rupees in a TV quiz. ‘From rags to raja,’ according to the quizmaster with a superior grin. How did he do it? The film offers four options: he cheated, he was lucky, he's a genius, it's fate. The police are suspicious, and in between the two days in which the live broadcast takes place, Ja is subjected to a hard handed interrogation. In order to explain the right answers to the quiz questions, he describes to the officer his childhood, which we see passing in flashbacks.
As a child, Jamal was inseparable from his brother Salim in a huge violent slum district. Gradually the two brothers start to vie for attention as they grow up, fed by a shared and continual interest in beautiful Latika.
Boyle edited the two periods together beautifully and plays with tilted frames, depth of focus, close-ups and moving camera, thanks to cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle. The scenario refers regularly to Oliver Twist and is by Simon Beaufoy, based on Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A. The soundtrack is an encounter between East and West with songs by the English-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A. (Paper Planes) and a soundtrack by Bollywood master A.R. Rahman.

Gomorrah (IT 135')
Matteo Garrone has added a classic to the Mafia genre with his widely praised Gomorrah. He based his film on the non-fiction bestseller by Roberto Saviano (whose portrait of Mafia leaders necessitates him leading an underground existence) and primarily sketches the rough, unglamorous side of the Mafia. Gomorrah is not a star vehicle with a polished storyline, but a complex whole of crossing plot lines in which many relatively unknown actors and amateurs portray a very charged reality in Neapolitan dialect. The images are overwhelming in their authenticity and misleading beauty. The more these lines come together, the more we see that virtually the whole of social and political life in and around Naples is infiltrated by the Camorra. Corruption, settling up accounts and extortion are commonplace, and the families of imprisoned Mafiosi are maintained by colleagues. The most revealing and convincing thing about this hard-boiled film is the way in which young Neapolitans are recruited and how easily they fall for a Mafia life with its very uncertain future. Garrone allows two of them to get reckless and pay a heavy price. He focuses primarily on the broad foundation of an immense army of 'foot soldiers', filming their home base as one huge unpredictable pigeon coop, or rather a beehive divided rigidly into ranks filled with changing alliances.