Palin and Simple

Anchorage has been pretty good to us so far. The place we're staying in (despite being about 5 times the price of our most expensive night in Central America) is pretty good and has free internet which is always a plus. It's also unpronounceable. Well, how would you pronounce QUPQUGIAQ?

So we happen to be in Anchorage when one of the (4) Alaska State fairs is happening so we booked a train package with entry into the fair. We awoke that morning to find that John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Needless to say everyone at the fair was pretty excited about it and it wound up cropping up in almost every event we attended. There was a real buzz about the place and it was really quite special to be there at that time. The fair is supposed to be a real celebration of Alaska and its culture and to have an Alaskan on the White House ticket just added another dimension to the atmosphere.


At the fair we took in a few diverse acts such as a magic show, a girls singing quartet and a dog stunt show, almost bought a moose that had been carved from a block of wood by an incredibly skillful chap with a chainsaw, viewed the customary giant vegetables and sampled some food of the fair like jacket potatoes and tamales - but the real highlights of the day came at the end. First up, we took our seats for a Tom Petty tribute band, "Petty Theft". They played many of the classics as well as a few less well known numbers (ones I didn't recognise anyway) - they even threw in a Travelling Willburys song too. All in all they were a very good representation - in fact they may have been even better than the real Tom Petty because they seemed to remember all the words.


During the intermission, we decided to stop by the nearby beer tent (OK, I decided we should stop by the beer tent) to sample some of the delicious Alaskan Amber (OK, again, so I could sample the aforementioned brew) when we ran right into a raucous performance by Alaska's "Hobo" Jim - the state balladeer of the 49th state. The atmosphere was a prefect blend of booze, patriotism and frenetic folk music. The crowd and "Hobo" Jim were feeding off each other's emotions and the earlier news about the Governor only made matters worse (or better? Either way, more intense). People were getting up to dance (some with more style than others) and at one point he hopped off the stage and joined them on the dance floor.


Anyway, the atmosphere was great and although not normally fans of the folk music we found ourselves carried away in the moment and ended up chatting to Mrs "Hobo" Jim who gave us his latest CD "Woodsmoke". We wound up buying his first CD: "Thunderfoot" and all in all it makes a good soundtrack for exploring the state.

We ended up getting back after midnight. We only just squeaked the return train having been caught up watching the fireworks display at the end of the night. All in all we were glad to have experienced a little slice of the unique culture of Alaska.

Alaska Highway

So we decided to hightail it up to Anchorage; there's loads to see and do there and thereabouts. But getting there from Skagway isn't a piece of a cake. It's 900 miles, much of which is through Canada's Yukon Territory. We looked into a combination of the historic train journey from Skagway and then a couple buses, but that option costs $330 each! Mental. We definitely weren't going to cave in and fly, though, so we needed to explore other options.

We consider renting a car our second-to-last option (flying being the last). We always prefer public transportation or walking, all the better for the environment. But we found out that Avis needed to get some cars up to Anchorage. They'd only charge us $45 a day, and they'd drop their usual $300 fee for a one-way rental. That was a deal we couldn't resist!

We got our white Toyota Corolla, dodging the crazy cruise goers and stocking up on snacks on our way out of town. It was 11am, and I'd drive for 9 hours that first day. It was AMAZING. We drove past gorgeous scenery: snow or ice capped mountains draped in clouds, other mountains blanketed in trees, huge valleys, rivers, continuously lovely sights.


We were delighted when we had our first wildlife spotting: a tiny mouse running across the road! He was so cute. Luckily there was never much traffic; the wee mouse made it safely to the other side. A little while later, we saw a smallish bear running along the shoulder of the road. Iff reckons it was a brown-coloured black bear. I was too busy squealing my head off with excitement.

We got through the border into the Yukon Territory for more and more glorious scenery, as well as a switch to kilometres and a time change. It was lovely to be back in Canada for a while. We didn't stop often, just to take pictures occasionally and get some petrol. We finally stopped for the night in Beaver Creak, the last town before leaving Canada. We'd read in a guidebook that everything was expensive there, but we were delighted to find that the most expensive hotel in Beaver Creek has some hostel rooms. Our room was lovely and warm and cheap! And the restaurant even had veggie burgers. Genius!!!

In the morning, we got up bright and early for the rest of our journey. It was only 450 more miles to Anchorage, but it took ages due to road construction and many potholes along the way. But we had some great wildlife spotting. At one point, a gigantic moose wandered onto the road, right into our lane. I slammed on the brakes and swerved into the other lane to avoid her; we assume it was a female moose because she had no antlers. Who knows? Anyway, I was dumbstruck by the size of this animal...ginormous. My squeals lasted pretty long after that. Slightly smaller was the gofer that ran across the road another time, although he was substantially bigger than our first wildlife spotting! At one point, Chris noticed a bald eagle perched on a tree. We stopped to check him out. Another time, there was a huge eagle on the road, helping himself to what looked like roadkill as some crows stood near him. As we approached, he flew off with the poor animal dangling from his talons. We were shocked at the size of crows we saw along the way; they looked really menacing, but even they didn't challenge that eagle for his prey.


We had some pretty diverse scenery that second day. We saw lots of mountains but also glaciers, sandy areas, and more flat areas than during the first day. Much as we enjoyed all the sights, we were getting anxious to get to Anchorage. At least on that second day we had some radio reception sometimes. I was dismayed, though, to find a station calling some of my old favourite songs "classic rock". What??? About an hour away from Anchorage, we realised there was an old Smashing Pumpkins CD in the car, left by a previous renter, so we got to listen to that. Classic rock? Hpmh.

We got to Anchorage and had a mini adventure getting to the airport to return the car. I'd figured that there would be blatant signs for getting to the airport. Not so! We eventually found it and returned the car, just missing the hourly bus downtown. No worries, it was just nice not to be driving! And a very helpful local at the bus stop gave us directions to our hostel. Welcome to Anchorage...

Skagway

We were delighted with Skagway, and we didn't even get to do all the touristy stuff.

We stepped off the ferry and were happy to see a person from the hostel we'd tried to book. When we tried to book it, we were told they didn't like to take reservations by phone, so we weren't sure they'd have room for us. Lots of us piled into the hostel van, and a few minutes later we arrived at the hostel.

This was the homiest hostel we've been in. The owners were a bit surly at times, but we were treated like family. The hostel is the owners' actual home; they live there, but guests can use all parts of the house. We were delighted to get the one private room for guests and to find out there were a cat and dog living there too, and we enjoyed paying a bit extra to have dinner with the family. But we guests got yelled at for leaving the front door open or getting in the owners' way and were expected to sign up for a chore (as well as pay the usual fee for staying there). Because we took part in the dinner, we (plus a cool woman from Auckland) did all the dishes afterwards. That included all of the dishes the owner used when she made a couple big cakes for her sideline business earlier in the day. Afterwards, the owner had the cheek to insist we sign up for a chore each; I told her we'd already done that when we cleaned her cake dishes! I fled the scene before she could say otherwise. Frankly, the woman scared me. Yep, just like home! :)

We were intrigued by the town. It's only wee but has an interesting history. It started as a goldmining town and currently plays up those origins. The main part of town looks like the old west with lots of wooden storefronts and sidewalks. There's an old timey train and various touristy activities devoted to the olden days of prospecting. We liked just walking around. By day during the summer, literally thousands of people show up on cruise ships and hit the many jewelery and souvenir stores. The sidewalks were packed. I was thrilled to find that some of the stores give out freebies to bring in the punters. I took advantage of this, of course. (I won't divulge here what goodies we got, though, just in case we wind up giving them to people!) By evening, everyone was gone, and we couldn't believe how peaceful it was as we wandered around.



We only had time for one tourist activity, so we chose a long-running show about Soapy Smith, a legendary character in the town's history. Before the show, we got to do some gambling in the old-fashioned casino, with cheap poker chips spray-painted different colours and dealers dressed in old timey clothes...we're talking tight bodices and huge skirts, and that was just on the men! Chris wound up the big winner at blackjack, but another guy at a different table won a few more chips than Chris and took home the prize: a poster signed by the show's cast (and kissed by some of the female cast members). Unfortunately, we then found out that there weren't enough tickets sold for the show to go on that night. They hadn't achieved their minimum of 15 tickets sold! We were really disappointed to miss it.

We needed to move on, but we hope to get back to Skagway someday. We didn't get to make the historic train ride, walk any of the amazing sounding trails in the area, check out the national park visitor centre or visit the local museum. Next time...

Alaskan Sea

First stop in our "Alaskan Experience" was Bellingham ferry terminal - our gateway to Alaska's Inside passage! Unfortunately we didn't bring along directions and we took a few minutes to figure out where we were going - luckily we got there in the end. We waved farewell to Bart and Lauren who'd acted as our chauffeurs for the day and boarded our ferry.


We set sail with fair winds and a break in the clouds aboard the vehicle ferry Columbia. Her hearty crew and stout captain handled her with skill and determination as we made our way northwards towards the untold wonders of the Alaskan Inside Passage. As the day wore on, the weather closed in and visibility dropped to a mere hundred yards. A 'tent city' grew up on the rear decks as those who'd come prepared staked out their own little area on the deck. We set up camp under the glass roof of the solarium along with the other budget travelers - we didn't fancy spending the night in steerage - and huddled down for the night. The temperature plummeted as the night drew in and the cold fog was blown in from the sea. We managed to survive the night - although the bitter conditions didn't make sleeping easy.

We woke uneasily the next morning as we passed the northern tip of Vancouver Island. As we headed into open water, the good ship Columbia became slightly more unruly as she was buffeted by the swell coming in from the Gulf of Alaska. Tracy overcame the elements with the help of a sleep inducing travel sickness pill which seemed quite appealing after our sleepless night.


As the journey wore on, we availed ourselves of some of the shipboard entertainment - most notably the movie selection and the absorbing "Ranger Talks" led by the effervescent Brett Calhoun as well as the cafe which doled out serviceable coffee for $1.50 (free refill) and mini pizzas. Our next night we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed inside. We found ourselves an unclaimed patch of floor-space inside the seating area and bedded down for the night.


We made brief stops in Ketchikan, Petersburg (where we saw a wee deer), Wrangell, Juneau and Haines before we reached our destination of Skagway. It seems funny now, but I was rather reluctant to leave the Columbia - our home of 3 days. We'd seen some amazing scenery and gorgeous sunsets - especially after the low clouds had been left behind. We'd spotted whales, seals/sealions (not sure which) and a couple of bald eagles as well as a submarine! We'd also met some interesting and friendly people along the way - and avoided becoming another cruise-ship passenger statistic (apparently over 900,000 now show up every season). Ferrying the Inside Passage was such a great introduction to Alaska that we've now booked our return trip with the Alaska State ferry system as well. I can't think of a higher compliment!

Bus-ness as usual

How we all love Greyhound buses. Luckily we arrived alive after much Greyhound idiocy en route to Seattle. After spending three nights sleeping on buses, once we reached Bart and Lauren's house we crashed out.

We've spent a few days here in Seattle looking after Kirsten, getting organised and eating like pigs, but now it's time to leave. Our ferry leaves for Alaska this afternoon and we kinda need to be on it!

Photo links in the right hand menu bar have been updated for Chihuahua and the Cave of Crystals and a new map has been instigated - everything's in place for the start of a new adventure!

The Crystal Cave

Hola.

After a temporary hiatus, it's briefly back to blog business but because brevity befits a blogger, behold a brief bulletin below.

The Crystal Cave caused a certain correspondent to create confusing comparisons contrary to common convention.

Developments devoid of descriptions developed during the deep down delving.

Each expedient excavator eagerly examined the earthly environment eagerly.

Fantastic formations forever fixed for future factions.

Great guides generously gave guidance.

However, humans happen to have hunger hindering errrr... hinvestigation?

That's enough of that.

We were lucky enough to get a lift from Loly - the wonderful proprietress of the Casa Chihuahua hostel which we stayed the night in. Especially lucky because we would have had a real job making our way there on public transport. The cave is 2 hours away by car - a lot more by bus - which would have meant getting up much earlier than the 7:30am we managed.

We were lucky to have her along because she was able to guide us through the preliminary health check and took us for a look around the museum while we waited for some other tourists to show up.

Once we were up to full strength (19) we were equipped with hard hats and lights (except for me - I got my helmet last and obviously got the duff one without a light) and we boarded our minibus which would take us into the very bowels of the earth.

As drove though the mouth of the San Francisco tunnel I was reminded of the phrase that one google search later I know is from Dante's 'Divine Comedy': "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". As we descended into the mine the bright sunshine gradually faded and the temperature rose accordingly as we passed descending miners, abandoned equipment and piles of rubble.

We worked our way down and down until we came to a rather incongruous Alice-in-Wonderland-esque door in the middle of a tunnel. We stepped out of the minibus into an oven-like atmosphere: 95F and 90% humidity. As we passed through the mysterious portal, we it was like stepping inside a sauna it was so hot! The cave itself was illuminated with strip lights so we gradually stepped into the lit area - it was like approaching some kind of shrine.

The cave itself was awe-inspiring. Massive crystals criss-crossed the cavern piercing the opposite wall of the cave like giant needles. There was a viewing platform behind sheeted glass which protects the crystals from clumsy - or inconsiderate - tourists giving the impression of standing in a small greenhouse. Up against the glass, the temperature was a whopping 130F - almost as hot as a sauna!

It was difficult to stay any more than a couple of minutes because of the intense heat but the view was incredible. Stepping out of the enclosed area into the 95 degree heat again was strangely refreshing. As the rest of the group emerged I managed to get back in to snap a few pictures. The ones from right in front of the glass didn't really come out as anything more than blurs due to the humidity - but the ones from further back seemed a little better. There are quite a few better pictures on the internet anyway, so I figure it's better to steal those.

Loly drove us back to Chihuahua so we could catch a bus up to El Paso. Unfortunately we just missed one at 2:30 so we got the next bus to Ciudad Juarez and thence to Seattle.

Chihuahua Otra Vez

Ah, back in Chihuahua. We've waited nearly six months for this. We arrived yesterday after about 17 hours on a bus from San Antonio, our first time to cross the border at Ciudad Juarez. Upon arriving at the Chihuahua bus terminal, we checked out our options for getting up north after our visit to the Cave of Crystals.

We then made our way to the Casa Chihuahua, the hostel whose wonderful owner Loly arranged our visit to the cave. Her husband Philip was outside when we arrived, and he welcomed us back. He showed us his latest project; he's fixed together two bicycles with a bench in between so that parents can take their disabled children for a bike ride. He let us be the first people to test it in the street, and I was so touched that he's doing such a thing. He and Loly are incredibly nice people.

We wound up sleeping for 12 hours that night, a welcome return to form! We had such a comfortable bed in a room with no windows (no pesky sunlight to wake us up) and a strong fan, and it's a very peaceful hostel. It was heaven. Today we revisited the town itself, walking around for ages and managing to visit two museums which were closed during our last visit. El Museo de Pancho Villa was really interesting and educational. El Museo de Mamut wowed us from the start; in the very first room we saw the reconstructed skeleton of a Columbian Mammoth. This guy is HUGE. There were some really cool fossils but also some rather random other things scattered throughout the rooms. In the same room as the mammoth skeleton, there was an old car with no explanation of its significance. Iff seemed more charmed by the random stuff than the fossils! We spent a bit more time there than intended; we had to wait out a torrential downpour.

Now we're just waiting until our cave visit tomorrow morning. Loly has very kindly offered to drive us the 1.5 hours to the cave and given us lots of information about our visit. It turns out that with the high heat and humidity, it feels like 130 degrees in the cave. Wonderful! We have to pass a quick medical check before they'll let us descend, and then it'll take us 30 minutes to get down to the cave. I'm rather anxious about getting through this without passing out. Then we'll have to high-tail it back to the Chihuahua bus terminal in hopes of getting the 2:30pm bus to Los Angeles (for a connection to Seattle). No rest for the wicked!

Back again.

So finally we made it back to Texas.

This time around Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico were all a bit of a blur and we finally wound up in Nuevo Laredo border crossing from Mexico into the USA. Although it wasn't the 8-hour epic of the Costa Rican crossing, it still took us 5 hours to clear the border making a grand total of 24 hours in the same seat which even for me must be some sort of a record...

We got to San Antonio and pretty much conked out at Ross's place for a good few hours. After which we got back to Houston with him to surprise Tracy's mother and Bart (her older brother for those unacquainted with the Thompson clan) who had no idea we'd be visiting. We also got to visit the new house - which has come together very nicely - and gather all the Thompson kids under the same roof at the same time without any major fallings out. Quite an achievement! Unfortunately though, this time was a very quick visit because we need to be back in Chihuahua on the 14th for the Cave of Crystals - more on this in a future post...


Anyway - a good time was had by all and we managed to equip ourselves as best we can for the drastically different weather we'll find up in the frozen north.

El Valle a Costa Rica

We had one day left in Panama after our canal excursion. We just had to catch an overnight bus to Costa Rica at 11pm. So we decided to have an afternoon in El Valle, a little town in the middle of an old, massive volcano crater.

We got a minibus to El Valle, through lots of gorgeous scenery. When we arrived, we found the market in full swing, torrential downpour in progress, and quite a few tourists completely unprepared for such weather. We spent a wee while in the market, and luckily Chris finally found a hat! Unlike the stereotypical Panama hats that the world knows, local Panama hats have cool stripes or spots worked into the fibre of the hat. We kept seeing locals wearing such hats, and Chris was determined to get himself one. He couldn't find a stripey one that fit his massive heed and quiff, but in the end he found a spotty one he preferred anyway. Job's a goodun!

We found a pizzeria that our guidebook raved about and which is only open on weekends, tick. Along the way, we delighted in walking through all the big puddles that other tourists were avoiding like the plague. We then got a bus to a hotel and tramped along a muddy trail to see some square trees which are local to the area. We some square trees, tick. They're not perfectly square, but they're square enough to notice. Pretty cool. Then on our way back, we found an alternate bit to the river we walked through on our way to the trees.

We walked back to the town, exchanging buenas with lots of locals on the way, to find a huge queue for buses to Panama City. We joined it and waited a while. It was getting late, and we were a bit worried about getting a bus back in time for our overnight bus leaving. Luckily a big coach showed up, and everyone in the queue not only got on but had a seat. Of course, in getting onto the bus, it was complete chaos when the queue disintegrated. Welcome to Central America!

We got back into Panama City and were able to get off the bus near our B&B, where we'd left our bags for the day. We got to the massive bus terminal (last taxi there only cost $2, woo-hoo!) and found the mall closed. That was our dinner plan scuppered, but no matter. The grocery store was still open, so we got some stuff and headed over to check in for our bus. An hour or so later, we were on the bus and on our way to San Jose, Costa Rica.

We were expecting this border crossing to be quick and easy. At about 5:30am, we were woken up for it. We got through the Panama side quickly and then walked over to enter the Costa Rica side. We then had to wait two hours for the damn migration office to open, and then it took an hour to get through that queue and then have our stuff searched. Now, three hours is definitely better than the eight hours it took us to get into Costa Rica from Nicaragua, but still. Get it together!

We drove through lots of rain and cloud forest and finally reached San Jose, where we'd booked a hostel just around the corner from the Tica Bus station. On the Lonely Planet map, that is, which is wrong per norm. Turns out that they moved to a new station earlier this year, so we arrived on the other side of the city from where we thought we'd arrive. Being stubborn, we refused all the taxis vying for our custom at the station. We walked around in the pouring rain trying to get our bearings and finally realised we were better off getting a taxi after all. Cue many, many attempts to hail a taxi and much frustration when they all drove right by. When we don't want a taxi, millions of them drive by and ask us if we want a lift. When we need one...

We finally got a taxi and eventually found the hostel we'd booked. We had some dinner and some Internet time and then crashed exhausted. Next up we've got a bus to Nicaragua, then to El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. It's weird to be making our way back up and so quickly!

Panama Canal

We wanted to sail down the Panama Canal to commemorate our anniversary but also to mark the end of our Central American travels (or at least forward progress). There's a little more of Panama to do, but we haven't time and some parts of Darien sound frankly scary - so maybe another time we'll get there.

Anyway, we were slightly put off initially because their courtesy bus didn't show up and we had a little to and fro on the phone while they decided what to do - eventually we just jumped in a taxi which got us there easily enough although we had to pay an extra $3. We made the 9:00 sailing with plenty of time to spare and joined the 150 or so other tourists on board the "Fantasia del Mar".


Having set sail, we had to hang about for a pilot to turn up who would guide us through the canal transit - why we couldn't have picked him up on land I dunno but I guess they have these things worked out. Anyway, once the guide was safely on board, we set off underneath the Bridge of the Americas headed for the Miraflores locks - the ones we'd visited the day before. As we approached the two locks it was awe-inspiring to pass between the two 662 tonne lock doors into the locks themselves. Although the doors towered over us at first, as the lock slowly filled up to raise us up 31 feet to the next lock, the doors gradually disappeared from sight as they were covered by the rising water. As we were raised up to the level of Gatun lake - 85 feet above sea level - we passed through 3 locks (2 at Miraflores and 1 at Pedro Miguel) each locking procedure taking about 30-45 minutes to complete. Each time the locks are used to raise or lower a ship, 27 million US gallons of water have to be added to or drained from the lock chamber - most of it is provided by the massive, man-made Gatun Lake.


The Panama Canal is a statistician's dream. There are so many incredible feats of engineering, staggering sums of money, enormous quantities of water, huge volumes of shipping that it's almost impossible to take in. We were blasted with so many pieces of information that I can't really remember too many of them. Needless to say that just the spectacle of the canal itself and knowing that it is (mostly) man made is mind-blowing in itself.

The full transit wound up taking 10 hours from start to finish after which we had to take a bus back to Panama from the lovely seaside resort (or crime-ridden slum - depending on who you speak to) Colon.

Panama City

From the Golfo de Chiriqui, we wanted to go to Panama City. There were several other people wanting the same thing, so we all set off together.

From the island hotel, we got a boat back to the mainland. (Turned out that kid scammed us when we paid nearly $2 each. The return journey was only $1 each! Good on him!) We all piled into the same truck that got us there the day before; there were 11 of us in a small pickup. Fun!

Then the real fun began. There were 6 of us who wanted to get onto a bus to Panama City, and we were told that all the buses to Panama City would be packed due to a local holiday. Sure enough, when a bus to PC passed by, only 3 of our group could get on. Chris, a really nice Canadian named John, and I waited and waited in the heat. Finally a minibus passed by that was headed for Tole, on the way to PC, so we hopped on. We got to Tole and then got another minibus to Santiago (and got ripped off fare-wise, I'm convinced, but at least we got that far). Then it was a proper bus to PC. On our way there, we had to call a few hostels before we found a place with a room available.

We arrived in PC a bit earlier than expected and found ourselves in the absolutely massive bus terminal. We asked a security guard where we could find a taxi, and he very kindly lead us to a dodgy taxi driver mate of his who wound up charging us double what he should have. And then he couldn't find the place we'd booked. After consulting lots of people along the way, he found our placey. They couldn't find our reservation; of all the notes the receptionists had written to themselves, our names weren't up there. Luckily another receptionist passed through and remembered my phone call. We were in!

We then had a few very nice days in PC. We mostly explored the old bits, which have plenty of interesting stuff to look at, as well as the Panama Canal museum. We greatly enjoyed using the public city buses, not only because they're a LOT cheaper than taxis but also because the guidebook refers to them as red devils for good reason: they go really fast and excel at cutting off other drivers. We wound up spending a few evenings at the ginormous mall attached to the massive terminal...we found a movie theatre there with some English-language movies that are subtitled in Spanish rather than dubbed. Woo-hoo!!!

We spent one day around the canal. We visited a zoo/garden area in search of tapirs and harpy eagles. In the process, we got caught in a torrential downpour (without our jackets or panchos on us!), but at least we got to see a harpy eagle and a tapir in the closest we could get to their natural Central American habitats. We also spent a couple hours at a viewing station at the canal's Miraflores locks. By this time, we'd moved to a lovely B&B in a tranquil suburb of PC, and its owner advised us that if we went to the viewing station's restaurant, we could check out the passing boats while sipping drinks rather than paying the hefty admission fee for the viewing station itself. We took his advice and had a lovely time on the restaurant's terrace. The highlight for us was watching pelicans on and around the water.

We also had our 10-year wedding anniversary during our time in PC, a very lovely relaxing day. So we'll remember this place fondly indeed!