America – Part 3 – Carlsbad, Roswell, Santa Fe, Monument Valley
America – Part 1 – New York, Washington, Tennessee, Nashville
America – Part 2 – Memphis, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Texas
America – Part 3 – Carlsbad, Roswell, Santa Fe, Monument Valley
America – Part 4 – Grand Canyon, Route 66, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles
Part 3
CARLSBAD
Just a small town in the midst of New Mexico we stayed in those lovely lodges again. Much nicer scenery though and no need to worry about alligators. We ventured to Carlsbad Cavins – I’d never heard of these before and completely forgot we were doing this trip. Turned out to be a gem of a evening.
These cavins were 750ft underground, it was just stunning how huge this place was and how it was still growing.
Later on we got to experience the more ‘typical’ American culture. Basically we got pizza, sat on top of the van and watched a film at a drive in cinema, which was awesome and cheap. $6 to be precise. The film ‘The Last Airbender’ was complete and utter rubbish, the night sky was more interesting to look at. I’ve never seen so many stars and we saw a shooting star!
ROSWELL
On the way to Santa Fe we stopped off in Roswell. Strange, strange little town. Even as we entered it there were black military aircraft’s flying near it. They don’t half take this alien nation seriously. This one main street we were down nearly every shop, restaurant, museum had some sort of wacky out of this world name and quite honestly, it was sad. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe we’re not the only life in the universe but the way they portrayed ‘movie’ looking aliens in every shop and all so cheesy was a little sad.
Even their street lamps have alien faces on them. If someone from there ever asks you “Do you believe?”, apparently say ‘you’re undecided’, otherwise they’ll never stop talking to you. Oh, and it’s to do with the government testing planes out there – they class them as UFOs.
Santa Fe
As soon as you hit Santa Fe you can tell the difference in the culture here. It doesn’t actually feel like you’re still in America because of the heavy Spanish influence. It’s all very arty and surrounded by mountains, plus they still like their cowboys here. But I’m pretty sure most in the south love their cowboys. This place felt like it’d probably a nice retreat away.
Our tour guide told us even buildings in the main ‘downtown’ have to abide to architecture rules, even the colours of the building are strict. It’s also home to the oldest church and oldest house in the world apparently. We saw the Church, it cost us $1 to go inside. Can’t say much for it, I’m an atheist.
We didn’t do much here, wonder around some shops, eat Mexican food, watch a storm. What I can advise is to be weary of the jewellery and odd items which are unnecessary over priced here.
MONUMENT VALLEY
This was one of the main highlights on the tour. It’s not often you get guided around Monument Valley by a Navajo in a jeep, bouncing here there and everywhere, wearing a scarf to protect you from dust, and learning about rock formations. Apart of Trek America we got taken to more private parts of the reserve to witness them playing their music (our guide played a flute). It was intensely relaxing whilst we were laying down on the rocks. They have a name for everything, in the cove where they played music, the slightest rock formation was name. The image below, there’s the head from a penny, a bear which represents courage and an eagles head which represents power and strength.
Then after that we got taken to eat their food (taco’s) and watch a Navajo in full gear dance around our only light source in the valley, a fire. In some parts of the reserve some Navajo’s still live in their huts (Hogans). But this was just something else to witness under the stars of Monument Valley.
They got us all up to do some dancing. The first song the guys chose partners to do the ‘friendship dance’ with. That wasn’t so bad because they were loads of us, fairly funny actually. The worst was a dance off… where we made a huge circle around the fire and you and the person opposite you would have to run into the middle and dance randomly for ten seconds and back again then onto the next two. Just so you know, I can’t dance, so to do that in front of a bunch of other trek groups was slightly terrifying.
Also near there was where Forest Gump ran in the film. We did some appalling ‘recreations’ for photos. (Oh, and in the panorama, one of those monuments is where Metallica, and a bunch of movies filmed on top of).
