La Paz, Baja, Mexico

Hola amigo,

Been slowly traveling down the Baja peninsula by bus, stopping off in places that look interesting. Inland it is desert surrounded by dusty brown mountain ranges, which fall down into sweeping sandy bays that look out on to the Sea of Cortez or the rolling surf of the Pacific.

I amused the bus passengers when I gleefully ran across the highway and took a photo of my first cactus. You know the type, the ones you get in westerns where it looks like its holding its hands up, as for the round next corner was an endless desert filled with thousands of them.

It is quite here, you can get the beach to your self, even though its sunny and in the high 80`s. The Mexican people are very friendly, I dont get hassled and they are pleased to help with my Spanish. It`s also very cheap!

This nextbit might be a bit boring, but Ive included it so I dont forget.

To avoid paying for a hotel and traveling past yet more desert I planned for an overnight bus trip, so I waited in a local bus depot for the 23:30 bus. This was no more than a patch of gravel and two basic rooms with a tin roof. With time to kill , I translated the notices in the room with the dictionary I had bought that day, mainly as I could not find a bar locally. The girl behind the desk was pretty, so I smiled each time when she looked across. Unfortunately at that time the only phrase I knew was "please extinguish your cigarette before entering the building", which was odd as the sign was hung in side the building.

There was a heavy solid wooden desk in the office, which contained three draws. The front of the central draw had no handle and instead of being rectangular the top edge had worn down in a curve by a good inch. So how old and how many times must of it been opened and closed? This is typical of stuff here, things get used until they finally wear away.

Later an official chap arrived and made great play he was locking the front door , except adjacent to the entrance was the exit, which had a frame, but was completely missing the door itself.

That particular leg did not work out so well, as there was a crying baby and the driver was happily listening the stereo, while the bus felt like it was a boat in a storm. Peering through the (broken) front window all that was illuminated was a few feet of mountain road and then utter blackness. I kept my eyes shut after that. Thanks to the skills of the driver I got into the next destination way too early at 04:30 in the morning and spent another three hours till day break to work out where the hell I was.

I did some scuba diving off La Paz in the sea of Cortez, looking for hammerhead sharks, saw one possible at 100feet, but the viz at this time of year is a poor 10m. Swimming with sea lions was fun, bloody noisy things. No corel though, so it was not pretty as I expected.

On to the mainland next.

Photograph's

With thanks to Mark, for the hosting I have managed to upload some photograph's of the desert trip.

This will take you an another site, from which you can view some pictures

San Diego

I'm living in a Pacific beach house facing on to rolling surf, sounds good but there is one small problem, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain...

So you say why not go surfing? It has not rained here for the last 182 days and the accumulated detritus is now poring into the sea, so I can look at the perfect waves , but unless i want a visit to ER I can only watch (in the rain). Even inside the rain comes to say hello via little springs through the wall, ceiling, floor, etc, which fuses the wiring just to make it more fun. All the internet terminals blew up.

Went to a unintentionally spooky fun fair, entirely devoid of people, lights on, no staff, no customers and was playing Gary Jules's "Mad World" across the fair.
My friend decided she wanted to go on the classic 1922 built wooden roller coaster, to my mind that is a long time ago. Thankfully the caretaker did not let us on as it had been raining, why that should shut a roller coaster I dont know, but I made a quick exit from the death trap and saved face in front of my friend who seemed totally unaware of its short comings.

I wrote this in the local library, from which I noted, I can hold the whole travel section under my right arm. Compare this with the 22 shelves on food (not including diets), does that say something?

PS dont get you hair cut within ten miles of a marine base. I guess it will grow out.

Los Angeles

Seeing as I was having such fun, LA was a severe let down. This is supposed to be where the rich and famous hang out, Sunset strip, Hollywood Boulevard, the Viper room, etc, etc. I expected a pretty snazzy city. No its a sh*t hole, sorry for the profanity (The Greyhound drivers warn against profanity while traveling), but of all the cities I have seen this is the truly least rewarding.

It's big, very big, and flattish in the middle. Air here is not the normal transparent stuff that I am used to, but un-attractively yellow. If you are foolish enough to travel to the look out point, high above the city you can truly see the panoramic vista of yellow fug that covers the city. Apart from the curiously coloured air, the city scenery has all the charm of a Lego brick, but porridge coloured. Its just an endless sprawl of low rise.

On the up side Universal Studios was my first US theme park and I can recommend the experience. You have to shout continuously, screaming preferably, shouting is necessary as there are hidden (v)loud speakers everywhere, bellowing high velocity music, and instructions on where to go and how quickly to do it. They are incredibly thorough in the placement of the speakers. That tree looks quite, no, one in the leaves, ok lets try the soda fountain shaped like a pumpkin, no again, there is a speaker in one of the ears (dont ask).

But it was good fun and no queuing. Water features heavily and repeatedly getting wet from various angles is fun, honest. Just as an example, the 3D cinema looks just like a regular cinema, except you put on funny specs. So as the 3D spiders appear to be falling into your lap, dry ice blows across the back of your legs, scaring you half to death (not me, of course). The seats which looked securely fixed to the floor suddenly pitch forward, towards the water fall that is now appearing to float in front of your face and the back of the chair in front sprays you with water, inventive, nice.

Venice beach is what you would expect, pumping iron on muscle beach, gangs playing basketball, rollerblading saxophonist, cop show being filmed, girls in thongs, life guards in orange shorts, incense burning, the constant buzz of tattoos being etched, juggling, Hell's Angels on choppers, no deck chairs though.

A group of us went out clubbing on Sunset strip; Manchester or Liverpool beats it hands down. Ended up having a great time playing an endless drunken game of "Killer" (darts), much to the confusion of the locals. Not quite the LA experience I was expecting.

The big desert trip

Met some of the most wonderful people and experienced the most outstandingly beautiful scenery that I can ever recollect.

Big old funky 60's bus called Max, going on its last trip. No conventional seats, but 38 of us sleep and live in it for the duration. We drive through the night, or park up in wild, share chores, chill out, talk long into the night,... some of the highlights.

The hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, bring your own water and sleep rough. Watched the full moon rise into the clearest sky. It gets over 100F in the day so i doze mid river lying on a rock cooling my feet, ahh bliss. Deer come to the waters edge to drink, while lizards skid across the pebbles. The route back out is torture, setting off at 5am to avoid the worst of the heat. Eighteen miles of sand and rock. The cheese sandwiches which are our main stay turn to fetid goo.

Sitting up front of the bus, with feet on the dash, stereo blasting, getting a full back and head massage while watching the big open desert un fold at 70 mph.

Monument valley on the back of a pick up truck driven by a crazy Indian. Up sand dunes, getting stuck axle deep in mud, crashing into another vehicle full of staid tourists. We go off the beaten track and he gives us all the indian stories, names of rocks and songs. We even learn some indian drum beats. This is a must visit place.

Watched the sun rise slowly at Bryce canyon, setting the terricota peaks alight with every huw. The ground was covered in ice and breath swirled in front of us, but we sat on the canyon rim snuggled together in a duvet, watching another day unfurl.

Sitting round a raging camp fire sharing the hard learnt drinking games of my biker days. This is something the British can excel at.

Scrambling and walking up and up an ever sharpening knife edge ridge. The ridge top a meter of so wide which drops either side for a vertical 600m straight down. Reassuringly grippy sand stone, with ropes for tricky bits, but climbing down is hard work when you are forced to look straight down and can see the bus parked in valley appearing only a few millimeters long. The nice thing is I climb this with my friend and we chill out on what seems the roof of the world.

Vegas bright lights are best seen drunk, as it makes very little sense. This is Blade runner meets Disney land. A vast empty desert and with a city that assaults every sense, random features appear around every corner, venician gondolas scooting across the road, every image is bigger, bolder and madder than the last. You come away wondering was it real or just some hallucigenic dream. Finding a shop that specialised in message chairs, an hour of utter relief from the numerous aches and pains that hiking and the alcohol tomfoolery seem to induce.

The post trip parties. Leaving here is the hardest thing I've done.

Some pictures of the desert
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