Hola

:I hope that I got everybody on my list. I seem to be having a little trouble organizing the emails of people who might be interested in reading of our travels under one list. I was going to do a travel blog but somehow this is easier and I'm not on my own computer. I had been writing a lot of "dispatches" in my head but was finding it hard to actually make them happen. I was in the throes of some existential inertia if one can be in the throes of something basically inert. The use of "dispatches" is done in jest since Mexico or at least the area where we are is not a war zone although things are happening elsewhere but more on that later.We left B.C. with beautiful, sunny weather and that has remained constant throughout. Both Oregon and Washington State were experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures and we only had to wear our coats early in the morning and late at night for about two days. Getting to Mexico was not a problem. The roads we took, toll free were beautifully well maintained and often devoid of any "mechanical" life. Entire stretches with nothing but us and the highway not a single car in sight, either coming or going so much so that it got a little creepy at times. We did a stretch in Washington, then crossed into Oregon, a bit of Nevada then California and finished with Arizona. Most of what we crossed was thinly populated except when approaching big cities or valleys where most of the population appears to be concentrated. There are countless little towns in California with populations of 500 max. with one store and one gas station or the two combined. The tracts of land for farming are huge. Surprisingly we didn't see that many signs in reference to the presidential elections but when we did see some McCain always beat out Obama. That rural urban divide is the same one that we're experiencing in British Colombia. It's hard to fathom the American electoral process. Their ballot is gigantic and that's not an exaggeration. Senate, Congress, Councilors, Mayors, Governors, individual state propositions, it's all in there. How could they possibly know who and what to vote for unless they really keep up to date with their reading it's almost impossible. Obama won yesterday so we can all heave a sigh of relief, let's hope it's change that we can see but enough about Politics. In California we dipped our toes in the Salton Sea which is really a big salty lake, pretty cool. There's a movie with Val Kilmer called The Salton Sea. It's very run down as a travel destination, many people who live there, live way off the grid, in grubby little trailers rusty with salt. We crossed parts of the Mojave and Sonora deserts. The Mojave has cool cactus like trees called Joshua trees. The name Joshua was given to the trees (really Yucca plant) by Mormon settlers in the 19th. Century because it reminded them of a Biblical story featuring Joshua with hands held high. This little bit of trivia comes courtesy of Google, not because I'm a fount of encyclopedic knowledge although I suspected the biblical origin but then who wouldn't???After 3 days we arrived in Nogales, Arizona. There are two Nogales, one is in Arizona and the other is in Mexico. Both are sad, little towns but one is sadder than the other, care to guess which one? Nogales, Arizona has a lot of plump Mexicans living there already, they are leaner on the other side. We crossed the border the next day and it was an interesting experience. We arrived at the Mexican border crossing and halted, it's what you usually do at a border crossing right?? Wrong. The guard roused himself from his slumber and proceeded to ask US what WE WANTED, a little mystified we told him we wanted to show our passports but he waved us on uninterested. Apparently the real border crossing was to happen a few kilometres down the road - 26 kilometres to be exact.That was our first introduction to driving in Mexico and I will end it here for now.Hasta Luego amgos,Josiane - Maman, Tatie
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Win a trip with your 3 best buddies. Enter today. Hola:I hope that I got everybody on my list. I seem to be having a little trouble organizing the emails of people who might be interested in reading of our travels under one list. I was going to do a travel blog but somehow this is easier and I'm not on my own computer. I had been writing a lot of "dispatches" in my head but was finding it hard to actually make them happen. I was in the throes of some existential inertia if one can be in the throes of something basically inert. The use of "dispatches" is done in jest since Mexico or at least the area where we are is not a war zone although things are happening elsewhere but more on that later.We left B.C. with beautiful, sunny weather and that has remained constant throughout. Both Oregon and Washington State were experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures and we only had to wear our coats early in the morning and late at night for about two days. Getting to Mexico was not a problem. The roads we took, toll free were beautifully well maintained and often devoid of any "mechanical" life. Entire stretches with nothing but us and the highway not a single car in sight, either coming or going so much so that it got a little creepy at times. We did a stretch in Washington, then crossed into Oregon, a bit of Nevada then California and finished with Arizona. Most of what we crossed was thinly populated except when approaching big cities or valleys where most of the population appears to be concentrated. There are countless little towns in California with populations of 500 max. with one store and one gas station or the two combined. The tracts of land for farming are huge. Surprisingly we didn't see that many signs in reference to the presidential elections but when we did see some McCain always beat out Obama. That rural urban divide is the same one that we're experiencing in British Colombia. It's hard to fathom the American electoral process. Their ballot is gigantic and that's not an exaggeration. Senate, Congress, Councilors, Mayors, Governors, individual state propositions, it's all in there. How could they possibly know who and what to vote for unless they really keep up to date with their reading it's almost impossible. Obama won yesterday so we can all heave a sigh of relief, let's hope it's change that we can see but enough about Politics. In California we dipped our toes in the Salton Sea which is really a big salty lake, pretty cool. There's a movie with Val Kilmer called The Salton Sea. It's very run down as a travel destination, many people who live there, live way off the grid, in grubby little trailers rusty with salt. We crossed parts of the Mojave and Sonora deserts. The Mojave has cool cactus like trees called Joshua trees. The name Joshua was given to the trees (really Yucca plant) by Mormon settlers in the 19th. Century because it reminded them of a Biblical story featuring Joshua with hands held high. This little bit of trivia comes courtesy of Google, not because I'm a fount of encyclopedic knowledge although I suspected the biblical origin but then who wouldn't???After 3 days we arrived in Nogales, Arizona. There are two Nogales, one is in Arizona and the other is in Mexico. Both are sad, little towns but one is sadder than the other, care to guess which one? Nogales, Arizona has a lot of plump Mexicans living there already, they are leaner on the other side. We crossed the border the next day and it was an interesting experience. We arrived at the Mexican border crossing and halted, it's what you usually do at a border crossing right?? Wrong. The guard roused himself from his slumber and proceeded to ask US what WE WANTED, a little mystified we told him we wanted to show our passports but he waved us on uninterested. Apparently the real border crossing was to happen a few kilometres down the road - 26 kilometres to be exact.That was our first introduction to driving in Mexico and I will end it here for now.Hasta Luego amigos,
Josiane -