Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Moab - 10th Aug - 20th Aug

Too many highlights this week! Monument Valley, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park and Moab.....our last day in Arizona was spent on the cliff overlooking Monument Valley,incredible view, on the Navajo Indian reservation. It is shocking what happened to the native Indians here and the land they were allocated is so barren and harsh but very dramatic. It brought back all the images of the Western movies we watched as a kid and now we are in that scenery. We passed on the 78 dollar each drive trip into the valley and opted to walk some of it instead. How can families afford that! We had the campfire going watching the sunset and u early to watch the sunrise.
Then on to Utah. We spent 2 days in Canyonlands NP, we rode our bikes on the scenic road to go for a 5 mile hike,
then the lock would not open so had to trudge miles back to campsite with little water...it's nearing 100 deg F at the moment. The park ranger went out with bolt cutters and eventually brought the bikes back. Wed 17 Aug arrived in Moab, really cute touristy bless morman town (Utah is Morman country), luckily the liquor laws have just been relaxed so that can serve beer without you having to buy a meal....there are 2 microbreweries here which we are going to try out. We camped next to the Colarado River and headed to Arches NP early morning for a 8 mile very demanding hike. The amount of people heading out at midday on this hike with hardly any water was madness, my face was bright red after....it was hard...but my leg is getting stronger.
We did get to camp in the Arches NP got in on a cancellation (school holidays, great time to be touring!). Staying in Moab at the moment, in private RV park so we can get Internet and watch a bit of Tv. It's our once a week treat.

ARIZONA STATE PARKS - 5th - 10th August ($16/£10 per night)

If any of our family and friends reading this like camping, hiking and the bush you would love the Arizona State Parks. Amazing scenery, no electricity so no excuse to not enjoy the sunsets,  open fire and cook on the fire and look at the stars. We managed to get in on a cancellation at the Grand Canyon (its school holiday...thats not good planning!) and ticked a box, to see the Grand Canyon in person, there are so many pictures of this and seeing it for yourself gives such a good panaroma that the pictures you take yourself just do not do it justice.We are ejoying all the other National Parks as well and the road journeys are very scenic.

ARIZONA - NOGALES- MOUNTAIN VIEW RV PARK (4th August 11)

We finally have torn ourselves away from Mexico and made the 800 mile trip up the West Coast via Huatahampito & San Carlos - the latter was very Greek island like but extremely hot, arid with dry heat. Over the border no problems, hid all the contraband in the settee storage and sat on the thing while the customs agents looked around. We were in Mexico exactly the amount of time allowed on a visitors VISA - 6 months. Now we start the Canyon tour of Utah and Arizona, Grand Canyon included. Back on American soil and taxes added on everything, paying $31 for a very cramped unintersting site....hope we haven't been too spoilt. Move on tomorrow to Flagstaff.

MAZATLAN - VILLA TRANQUILA

4th July - 11th July 11

After a very hard negoitiation the owner let us have the 2 bed 3 bathroom beach house for a third of the normal price. We did have to cook him a meal the one night though in return for him denoating some fish. This week has all been about cycling and spoiling Adele with some great food to celebrate her 45th birthday. We went to the workshop everyday to visit Thelma&Louise, a minimum of 15 miles, we have also been sorting out our teeth and found a very good dentist. We leave the Villa tomorrow and go back to the RV park, we have enjoyed being in a house for a little while but looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. No photos to show you yet as have "killed" my pc with a water spill, keeping everything crossed that drying it for a week is going to do the trick.

MAZATLAN - PUNTA CERRITOS RV PARK

21st June - 4th July 11

As soon as we pulled into Mazatlan we instantly liked it. It has an old colonial town, tourist strip, marina, the RV park is the other end of town on the point overlooking sea from two ways. Its a great spot, and have been socialsing with some of the longterm RVers at the campground. They are all older than us, US and Canadian they are intersting, friendly folk. Most have sold up assets and now live at the RV park permantely, what is great about this park is that they allow you to personalise your space, with palapas, outside kithens etc. We had few nights out with an interesting guy from Oregan, 75, Lyle, he really seemed impressed that 2 women were doing this trip, we have done almost 7000 miles since we bought the RV. Most of our days have been spent trying to get some local to quote to do some repairs on the RV and finally have a quote we are happy with. This will mean 7 days in the workshp so found a nice beach house to rent for a week.

Journey To Mazatan

21st June 2011

We left Lo De Marcos in a bit of  hurry, a hurricane was about to hit the West Coast. It was raining and have now learnt that a place normally safe to stop in the dry is certainly not the case in the wet. We pulled over and Thelma&Louise just sank in the red mud. 2 hours later, 2 tow trucks later we were finally out.We arrived in Mazatlan 6 hours later, a little red faced, and  caked in red mud.

Lo De Marcos, Mexico West Coast

Dear all, been some time since I last blogged due to poor connections. We are now on our last leg of Mexico trip and in a small resort on the West Coast, 50 miles from Puerto Vallarta. From Pie De La Cuesta we stayed a couple of nights at Ixtapa and then went inland to Lake Chapala, biggest lake in Mexico. On the way, hit a roadblock, burnt out cars and armed men which was our scariest moment so far driving. We turned around sharpish and found another route. Before leaving Pie De La Cuesta we went to the Paella Festival in Acapulco, we were on the British Consulate table, most couples were Brits with Mexican wifes who now have South Welsh accents and the like. It was great fun and toasted the Queen and the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, no singing of the National anthem though..... After we went to Kathy's place, what a magnificent home, overlooking the Acapulco bay, we rounded off a great day with champers in the pool with the best veiw.
We have just spent 3 nights in Guadalajara, old colonial city, very impressive and clean. The big city's here have been a very pleasant surprise. Then on the way to the coast we visited Tequila, well you have to..."when in Rome"!! There are agave plants everywhere and had a try at getting to the pineapple like "fruit" which they steam for the juices to create tequila. Everywhere you can taste different tequilas and we did a few, learnt the process and have started to gain some appreciation of the different tequilas. For the drink to be called tequila the agave plant has to be grown in the state of Jalisco. You never know pub quizers, that could be some useless information for you.