A Kiwi View of the US & Mexico

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

A Kiwi View Our first night stop was in Taxco, the silver-mining capital of the world. Taxco was a D delightful town, embedded in the side of a hill, where the streets are paved with smooth river stones. For those who enjoy tramping within cities, here is the place - plenty of very narrow streets. climbed C and very steep We many streets and watched the children parading down the streets, enjoying their Catholic Christmas festival. This trip will always be one we remember, firstly as it was our first trip to North America, and Next stop Acapulco (we had had little sleep the secondly because we were visiting Geoff and night before, as the Mexicans were having an all Michelle Wood, who were living in Mexico. They night fiesta outside our hotel). Coming down were of great help. mainly because neither of us from low humidity and mountainous country, to spoke Spanish (but you learn quickly to say "No, the hot and muggy weather at sea level, was gracias"). almost too much. We gave up trying to keep dry and simply melted in the heat (it was around 38 We flew out of Auckland airport directly to Los degrees while we were there). Geoff found us an Angeles. Brad suffered from jet-lag and Colleen "El-cheapo" hotel, in the older part of the city. It slept for 14 hours upon arrival in Anaheim. We was interesting to see how the poor people live - spent 4 days in LA before departing for Mexico in mud huts on the hillside, and compare them to City. Delta airlines was a bit rough on our the Hilton-type accommodation on the other side luggage and one of the two bottles of marmalade, of the city. We were the only non-Mexicans in that we smuggled into Mexico, got smashed. our hotel. We think Geoff got the better deal here, as his air-conditioning worked partially and Our first impressions of Mexico were, masses of not too loudly. Ours didn't work at the start, and vehicles and mad drivers hurtling around in when Brad got it going, it was so loud and cranky things that belched black diesel fumes, and that we gave up on it. We spent 3 wonderful days stirring up the dust. It took us 2-3 days to get in Acapulco snorkeling and basking in the sun on used to this. After a while you don't notice it and the island (little rock) across the harbour, find out the delights of the city. For those of you shopping in the markets opposite our hotel and interested in geography, Mexico City is watching the divers dive off 30 metre cliffs into approximately 8,000 feet above sea level and not the sea. Of course, by the time you really get far off the equator (it was 30-35 degrees C during used to a place, it's time to move on. the winter). It is the largest city in the world, in a basin surrounded by hills/mountains, and Returning to Mexico City we lunched at a funny suffers from extensive pollution (caused by all the restaurant (in a small town) devoted to John vehicles). Out of the city, the countryside Lennon and/or "Hippidom". We then visited the of Cuernavaca, where Geoff and consists of green scrub covered hills (much like delightful city parts of New Zealand) and huge mono-cacti Michelle took us out dinner. The bill for 6 people, standing 10 feet tall. including drinks, $NZ120.00. And this at one of Mexico's finest restaurants! Our first stop was the great pyramids (the We then went for a short hike the volcanoes. temples of the sun and the moon), northeast of up the city. They were well worth the trip, but it's a We did quite well, despite having just come up pity that when they were reconstructed, they from sea level the day before. We drove down to didn't include the top part. Had they been the base of Mount Popocatepeti, first. "Popo" is reconstructed completely, they would have been the third highest mountain in Mexico. Its base taller than the pyramids of Egypt. road end is at over 13,000 feet above sea level and the summit approximately 17,000 feet. Geoff After a few more days in the city (shopping) we has since hiked up "Popo" and skied down. We headed southwest to the coast. We visited a didn't climb "Popo", but climbed its sister (a name swimming resort, where we went snorkeling. It we can't pronounce), the second highest was elite, costing 1200 pesos to get in. Pretty mountain in Mexico. As this was only a day trip, dear for the average Mexican. In $NZ, this is we didn't get to the top. We started off at a about 80 cents. Ironically, we had to go through reasonable pace but soon found we were too the very poor town of Lasistacus, to get there. ambitious. Consequently, after the first leg, we had to rest for almost as as we had hiked. area It This is known for its sugar cane and some long communities are built around sugar cane took us a while to find a pace suitable for the thin factories. We went through a town, later on, that air at that altitude. We returned to the road end centred around a "Pepsi" factory. In the local as the sun set. There was a beautiful orange store, Pepsi was cheaper than "Mineral water".) glow in the western horizon, caused by the smog of the US & Mexico Brad and Colleen Poulter over the city. On a good day you can see the ski-field would be the absence of really mountains from the city, on a bad day the challenging skiing, no waterfall, no great big building two blocks away is barely visible. jumps etc... We did a quick visit to the museum prior to our We passed through Sacramento (California's return to LA. This is a must for any traveller, as State capital) and on to San Francisco. Our the historical and artifact displays are excellent. activities included: strolling part way across the Unfortunately, we ran out of time, and had to Golden Gate Bridge, riding old trams, touring catch our flight, but we could've spent a whole around on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) day there. system, and visiting Alcatraz penitentiary. San Francisco, geographically, is much like The Delta flight was again rough on our luggage. Wellington, and yes "if you go to San Francisco, Brad had to pick up a whole lot of undies and you're bound to see some hippies and all kinds of socks out of the turnstile at the end when a interesting people.... suitcase had been dropped and fell open. The final leg of our journey involved travelling For the next two and a half weeks we struggled down the Californian coast back to LA. Then, on with that suitcase constantly falling open, whilst to Honolulu... in transit around the west coast of the United States. We travelled from LA down to San Diego Honolulu was a nice relaxing place. We went and nipped across the border to Tijuana (which is snorkeling, caught a boat out to Pearl Harbour, a joke really, if you've been further south). From and walked (in the midday sun, talk about mad there, we crossed to Phoenix, and then up to dogs and New Zealanders) around the old extinct Yavapai (in Grand Canyon National Park). The volcano, Diamond Head. Having gone the long Grand Canyon is indeed a spectacular sight and way round, we then walked through into the was one of the highlights of our trip, despite it crater and climbed up the gun-emplacement being a little commercialised. The Canyon is (1,000 ft), to the top of the inner rim. From there approximately 2 miles deep, and takes a good few you get a spectacular view of all of Honolulu and days to trek down and up again. It was snowing Waikiki. We rewarded our efforts with a shopping heavily the day we arrived (Christmas), but we spree and promptly ran out of money. Food, we were able to take a walk around the North Rim, found, is quite cheap in Waikiki, if you find the while the mist lifted. The morning we departed right places to go. The best steak we had, believe was beautiful, so took a quick helicopter ride it on not, was at the "Hard Rock Cafe" in through the canyon. Honolulu. From there we travelled to Las Vegas, which is We arrived back in New Zealand in mid-January, nothing more than a glorified gambling hall, in 1988. fact it looks rather yuck in the light of day. It was interesting travelling through the dry Arizona desert to Nevada, where there is nothing but sand for miles, after coming down from the snow clad hills. We did not stay in Vegas long, but did a lot of interesting things, including teaming up with a few crazy Australians, travelling with us on the bus. We got the most sleep that night, all 3 hours ofj it. Next stop Yosemite National Park, in the heart of the Californian rockies. This was another highlight of our trip. For those of you who are into photography, this is "Ansell Adams" country. We spent a day wandering through the park (not long enough really) taking photos, and got caught in a snowstorm on the way back to our chalet. The last snow we saw was at Lake Tahoe. We spent four days there, and spent a fortune skiing (and you think skiing New Zealand is expensive). To compensate for this, the skiing was spot on, powder snow, hard moguls and chair-lifts all over TUITOIONTY - the mountain. The weather managed to hold out while we were there. The only criticism of the ANYTHING TO DECLARE?