We flew into Cancun but didn’t stay to look round, immediately heading south past the all inclusive resort hotels to make our first stop at Puerto Morelos, a fishing village with a few small hotels and apartment blocks attracting visitors who like the quiet life. We are staying at the Amar Inn, family run by Luis and Miguel with rooms and cabanas set in a small but beautifully kept garden. Our room is up a flight of rickety looking spiral stairs and is large and airy with a sea view.
We are just a few steps from the beach so we went to look at the Caribbean and to walk off the flight. The first thing we noticed were all the magnificent frigatebirds, frigata magnificens in fact, keeping watch from above, soaring high on the air currents. They have the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird and virtually live in the air, staying aloft for over a week, snatching prey from the sea in their hooked beaks and landing only to roost or breed.
The sand is like icing sugar and air and water are warm. We watched a group of sanderlings, like us here for the winter, although they come from the arctic. They rushed madly backwards and forwards in the surf, moving almost as a wave themselves, plunging their beaks into the sand looking for tasty morsels.
For our first meal in Mexico, we were drawn to El Sabor de Mexico, a colourful restaurant with lights in sombreros hanging above the outside tables where you can watch the people pass by. I had a Margarita and chicken enchiladas with green chile while Chris had a Mojito and stuffed pueblo peppers with roasted vegetables, all delicious.
There was even entertainment on the way home …
Every meal has been great here. We’ve had wonderful breakfasts including a different local dish each day. The first morning we saw people with what looked like stuffed pancakes in chocolate sauce, so were surprised to find they were tacos filled with chicken or cheese with the famous Mexican mole sauce containing bitter chocolate – delicious and completely savoury. Other days we had a crispy tortilla topped with bean paste, ham and spicy fried potatoes, squash and corn in tomato sauce with black beans and tortilla crisps with green chile.
One lunchtime we came across a vegan cafe called Siempre Sano – Always Healthy – where Coco and her helpers were cooking up a fixed price lunch of soup, 3 vegan veggie stews with beans, rice and tortillas, dessert and juice all for 60 pesos each … about £3 and amazing … five a day all in one meal! The mushroom and chilli was our favourite.
There is a good breeze here all the time, and in the morning there are kitesurfers sweeping backwards and forwards along the water, sometimes doing somersaults on the turns.
We continued along the beach to town, passing boats offering snorkelling trips and the old lighthouse which still stands, despite being tilted by Hurricane Beulah in 1967.
We watched pelicans grooming their feathers and showing off, stopped for a coffee and watched the people, then looked round the shops with their beachwear and souvenirs.
We came across an amazing exhibition space called Casa del Viento, or House of Wind where a Gaudi-esque organic styled building was decorated with a mixture of Indian and Mexican wood carving and squeezed between two regular apartment blocks. To continue the fusion, you could sign up for anything from yoga and meditation to art or a guitar classes. We looked at the art and sculpture on display, while a blues duet played guitar.
The coast here faces the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, some 700km long. The stretch at Puerto Morelos has been a national park since 2000, and restrictions help preserve the reef from overfishing and tourism, although nothing can prevent the damage from hurricanes. We took a boat out to the reef and snorkelled with a guide. We saw lots of fish, some quite big and many brightly coloured, mainly blues and yellows, swimming among the coral.
We’ve also spent time soaking up the rays on the beach, had a massage at Violetas and a walk round Yaax Che botanic garden, where we came across some wild spider monkeys as well as our first Mayan ruin, a small altar … I’m looking forward to bigger and better!
Just as we left, a black spiny-backed iguana crossed our path … in fact we’ve also had several encounters with iguanas in the garden at Amar Inn, but they don’t stop long for a photo and move pretty fast!
Having got used to the heat and the time difference, we now off inland to Valladolid.
We wanted to escape from the British winter to warmer climes, but after the liver abscess Chris brought back from India and the broken ankle I brought back from Utah, we also wanted somewhere which hopefully wouldn’t endanger our health!
… and saw Mystere, the original Cirque du Soeil show in Las Vegas, which was excellent – a mixture of acrobatics and dance with great music and lighting complete with comedy interludes. We had also hoped to see the free Sirens show, but like the National Parks, this was also closed.
Afterwards, the limo dropped us at Paris, where we had a champagne lunch in the Eiffel Tower Restaurant overlooking the Bellagio lake.
As we left, we saw the Bellagio fountains perform, and the amount of water and the height and power of the jets is amazing.
Not all is sunny in Vegasland however – maybe the $75 fee for a personal (electric powered) 13 minute gondola trip was the reason the gondoliers were twiddling their thumbs, and somehow St Marks was missing completely from the square!
Ultimately Vegas is one elaborate stage set, with holidaymakers taking the starring roles while ex-vets, beggars and Mexicans handing out call girl cards take the walk-on parts.
We organised a stop here in Flagstaff to break the journey back to Vegas, but actually with the replan, we’ve only had an hour’s drive from Sedona. First we visited the Riordan Mansion, built in 1904 and an impressive reminder of gracious living in a small, territorial logging town. Built in the Arts and Crafts style, it has a rustic exterior of log-slab siding, volcanic stone arches, and hand-split wooden shingles and contains some forty rooms.
We are staying at the Weatherford Hotel, a historic hotel opened in 1900 and host to many famous people including Roosevelt, Wyatt Earp and the author Zane Grey who wrote loads of western stories, including ‘Call of the Canyon’ while actually guest. I’m up to chapter 4 and the hotel already has a mention! The bar was relocated here from Tombstone.
We ate in the hotel, and there was a band on in the bar and also a wedding in the Zane Grey Ballroom, so the place was lively, but we slept ok and are heading out, having finally had a short stack for breakfast!
Next stop is our final trail stop … Las Vegas!
We approached Sedona on the Scenic Byway 179 snd entered Coconino National Forest and stopped off at the visitor centre where we bumped into Smokey again and were told there were 89 trails to hike in the Sedona area … where to start … 2 days was obviously not going to be long enough!
Maybe it was only a matter of time, and we were lucky it hadn’t happened sooner to one of us … I turned an ankle! I hobbled a mile or so back to the car and after an evening of ICE, the swelling had reduced by the morning sufficiently for some sightseeing, if not hiking.
Lured by a giant chicken, we couldn’t resist a little retail therapy and happy snapping round the Son Silver West Gallery, a treasure trove of southwestern trinkets.
A few days ago, we didn’t know that the the Grand Canyon would be reopened, and the last part of our trip could actually go according to plan. We didn’t want to take the chance of Glen Canyon not being open to take a trip on the Colorado River on our wedding anniversary, or that we would be twiddling our thumbs instead of hiking South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We couldn’t resist a stop at Goldfield Ghost Town, an old mining town, ‘Gateway to the Legendary Superstition Mountains’ for lunch and a couple of snaps, then returned to ZenYard and had a dip in the pool. In the evening we celebrated with cocktails and enchiladas at Ticoz Restaurant.
An unexpected bonus of visiting Phoenix is that we were able to visit Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home for not just his family, but also his business and architectural school, summers being spent in Wisconsin.
On leaving Cortez, we drove along the McElmo Canyon, where we found Sutcliffe Vineyards. We met Joe the winemaker, and David the nephew of the owner who told us about the winery and how the canyon has been used for growing produce since the Navajo grew peach trees there. He let us sample a couple of wines … only a sip of each as it was barely 11am … and we ended up choosing to give a home to a bottle of Merlot.
We drove on towards Mexican Hat, and stopped off at Gooseneck State Park which has one of the most striking and impressive examples of an entrenched river meander in the USA. The San Juan river twists and turns below, while higher up there are steps in the canyon wall as softer layers erode. We even saw some rafts floating by … they enter the water at Mexican Hat then take 5 or 6 days to cover 50 or so miles to Lake Powell, camping on sandy spits along the way.
Chris got up in the saddle for a photo opportunity he couldn’t miss at John Ford Point!
The original plan was to visit Mesa Verde NP, but it is too far from Cortez to even photograph the sign! Instead we had an early start and made our way to the Ute Mountain Tribal Park. A bit chilly here in Cortez, at some 6,200ft, and will probably be the coldest day of our trip. We had a nice chat on the bus with Faith and Nancy who come from Sante Fe and were staying next door to us in the motel.
We took a quick look at Four Corners Monument, as it was quite close, and is the only place in the USA where four states meet … Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico … so now our tally of visited states is up to 5!
Breakfast was at the Silver Bean, an Airstream which was bought from a pawn shop and converted 14 years ago into a coffee shop. The girls are known locally as The Bean Girls, and we had marvellous coffee and breakfast burritos.
Well here we are in Moab for 4 nights, the home of Arches National Park (the park we most wanted to see) and Canyonlands National Park. There is no chance of a drive-by, a glimpse or a sneaky peak here … this is the best we could do!
Day 2 we hiked just over 4 miles round trip to see Fisher Towers, an amazing rock formation popular with climbers. It was the most demanding hike so far with an elevation gain of 670ft, and the highest peak being the Titan, a thousand feet above, but it also rates as one of our best ever hikes.
Day 3 we awoke to the first overcast day of our trip, but the sky cleared as we hiked to Corona Arch. On the way, we crossed a railway line which only has a couple of trains a week carrying potash for making into fertiliser … and Yuki and her friends stopped for a snap!
Corona Arch is 140 by 105 feet and several people have said it is at least as impressive as the arches in the National Park. So here it is from each side, even with people to show scale …
The rain had fallen as snow on the La Sal mountains.
We reached Torrey, checked into the Austin Chuckwagon Motel and had a fabulous meal at Cafe Diablo, where we made friends with Glen and Susan from California. We then walked back, which was tough as the temperature had fallen to zero over dinner!
On our way down, we met Dan, who had parked his truck and was getting ready to go hunting on the first day of the elk hunting season in his hi-vis jacket to ensure he wasn’t the target for another hunter, and carrying his 300 Winchester Grand Magnum rifle.
He was hoping for a 200lb elk. The hunting permit system is complicated, involving a state draw and it appears Dan has only a 12 day season to bag his elk, he is only allowed one animal in this time, and if successful, may have to wait a couple of years before he can apply again … which is probably ok as 200lb of elk meat will last him that long!
We saw several formations from the road such as Twin Rocks, Chimney Rock and the Castle …
Next stop was Goblin Valley State Park which was first called Mushroom Valley which seems rather more appropriate. We were free to wander round the valley as we pleased, in and out of the formations … every view a photo opportunity! incidentally, the yellow flowering bush that keeps popping up in pics is rabbitbrush.
Off Travelling Together 