6 days in the red, legs afire...

Since my last post I have spent most of my time watching the world go by from the inside of our car. We have covered about 1200 miles since leaving the states last Wednesday. The Subie has been an integral part of this journey, with out her we would be stuck taking the long ride on the bus, most likely with our faces in someone´s armpit or chicken. Instead we ride instyle, heat on full blast, temp gauge as hot as can be. We entered the country Wednesday through beautifull Juarez, Mexico. The welcome was most disapointing, there was no customs, no one to stamp our passports, no scary border police... Eventually we stopped at the Aduana on the outskirts of town and got our car permit and tourist visas. $400.00 pesos ($29ish american) to drive in Mexico for six months. Then onward, five hours through the arid northern mexican plain to la cuidada Chihuahua. We met up and stayed with our first couchsurfing.com contact- a lovley woman named Rosana and her daughter Rebecca. We woke early the next day and drove 9 hours south eastish to Saltillo, Coahuila. Nice place, good tacos. We are beginging to learn the drill: find place to sleep, park car somewhere it won´t get broken into, eat food, drink beer, sleep, drive more. Friday we decide to check out a little place, 28 km on a cobblestone road (2.2 of which were through the world´s sketchiest underground tunnel) to a creepy little ghost town called Real de Catorce. Its a town in a valley with steep hillsides, half in ruin, half inhabited, but with a gray area inbetween. We are anxious to get south, out of the desert, into the shade.

Desert Roses

Ahhh, to be out of southern California, there is nothing quite like it... After leaving Hollywood, we headed for Joshua tree Natl park and camped out for the night. We set up camp just as the full moon rose over the desert monoliths, coyotes sung us to sleep. The next day we headed out on a hike around the park and then on to Phoenix. Next stop: Aurora's dad's place, a house on the edge of town on a property shared with a motorcycle shop and a palm tree business run by her older brother. There are many mechanics here, many roosters, an alligator, a dog with enormous testicles, a dude named Red. We stay here for three days, getting the car worked on, getting things together. Durring this time Claudia realizes that she must return to San Francisco, so sadly we say good bye. On to Tuscon, our last stop where we will stay with people who aren't total strangers and who speak our language. Our hosts, Kevin and Amber graciously share their house and yard with us. We are having a blast exploring the desert and the city of Tuscon. Yesterday we hiked up Bear Canyon and caught the sunset on the way down. Kevin works on trail crews locally and is very knowledgable about desert ecology, so its awesome to have him around to explain everything we see. Today I am biking all around Tuscon on Amber's ride. Its about 75 degrees, I feel like I'm on the edge of too much sun for the day, so I'll head back to homebase soon.

Oh California...

The trip sucessfully kicked off, leaving Portland last Monday after a huge shin-dig in honor of our departure. We headed south (our direction of choice) and stayed a night at my mom's house; always fun, always tacos. Next stop: San Francisco to hang out for a few days, kick it in the city, eat a lot of really good food, frisbee golf in Golden gate park, avoid stepping in human poop... just the good stuff. Then on to beautiful southern California, got to love it- or do you? We have been staying with Aurora's cousin in north Hollywood, which is a trip... Aurora's cousin is an aspiring actress and very graciously took us out to her favorite club on Saturday night. Us three girls, Aurora, Claudia and myself, rolled up in old t-shirts and dirty socks- needless to say we were representing Oregon in a land of Barbie dolls. Yesterday I went and saw both of my Grandmas in their respective areas. This was my first experience driving on L.A. freeways, so I guess you could say I learned a lot, but also have a new ulcer. On the way into southern Cal Aurora drove, I sat in the passengers seat laughing as we topped the grapevine at 35mph in the truck lane. I think it is decided: we have the slowest car in California. Anyway, its been fun here, I can imagine how beautiful it must have been here before the masses arived... Its sunny today, about 65 degrees. Later today we are headed east to Joshua tree natl park to camp out and hike around. Then on to Arizona, chasing the sun...

Every day I am astounded by the generosity of people I barely know. Thank you to all and for all those to come.