DEC 12, 2015 – Greyhound took me from San Antonio to the border city of Laredo, and from there straight to Monterrey, for a total of $13. It turns out even Mexican buses aren’t usually that cheap. The border crossing went without problems, except I received a tourist card that I apparently need to pay for, and can’t figure out how. I ended up spending five nights in Monterrey, four at the Yeccan hostel – which I recommend – and one with a CouchSurfer whom I met in the city. I was lucky enough to see a religious celebration relating around Immaculate Conception, where groups of people in costumes would dance and march into the church, and people lit thousands of candles outside. With Tian from Texas, I went hiking in the Chipinque area and we climbed Copete del Aguila (2200m) – which cost us a lot of money in the end since it required a permit we didn’t have. But the nighttime views of the city were great enough to be worth it. At the CouchSurfing party the last evening, I learned what a piñata is – with your eyes covered, you hit a papier-mâche object, taking turns until it bursts and sweets fall out. Apparently some piñatas depict public figures such as the Mexican president, or Donald Trump, who is very unpopular with Mexicans for obvious reasons.

First impressions of Mexico in general: Cheap and tasty street food, colorful houses, and very friendly and outgoing people. Many things remind me of Bulgaria, e.g. the bus transit system between cities, the abundance of little stores and market stalls, the relative poverty of rural areas, and the low prices for services compared to goods. But a lot is different, too – espresso is much harder to find and more expensive (but usually very good), the quality of new buildings is better, there seems to be much more public investment into roads, buildings and other infrastructure (Bulgaria has almost none if you don’t count EU projects), more traffic, much more police, and higher retirement pensions. So far, I really like the country.

DEC 7, 2015 – From Austin I continued south to San Antonio, where a hostel just recently opened its doors. It is called “Woodward Lumber” and will also be a shop for wooden furniture and gifts. The owner Max was a good host, and after returning my rental car and visiting the city center, I stayed an extra day to plan my Mexico trip. San Antonio itself is surprisingly touristy – it has a crowded riverwalk full of overpriced restaurants, a wax museum, a “Ripley’s Believe it or not” and generally a lot of things that made me feel like there wasn’t really anything to see here. Which is not true – there is the Alamo, where an important battle happened in 1836, and the Spanish Missions, which I didn’t end up visiting. Since I don’t have a lot of photos from here, I’m adding a little retrospective of my US travels – mostly phone pictures that I hadn’t copied yet, plus some from my camera that I forgot to include in earlier posts.

DEC 4, 2015 – Just like Portland, Austin is known as one of the most progressive and open-minded cities in the US. The slogan “Keep Portland weird” applies here as well – I saw several “Keep Austin weird” signs, although I believe the idea came from Portland. Of the day and a half I spent here, at least half a day went into sorting all the photos I took in the National Parks, writing blog posts, and catching up on news. I got a good impression of the city’s nightlife, learning two-step dance at the Broken Spoke the first night, and tasting local beers the second. Drifter Jack’s Hostel was a good home base in the city and  made it easy to connect with other travelers. For the famous bat flight under Congress Bridge, I was apparently one day too late. The street art was good, but the Graffiti Park was rather disappointing – it’s worth a visit you’re looking to spray your own graffiti, but it isn’t nice to look at.

DEC 2, 2015 – On the way to Austin, I stopped for lunch in Fredericksburg, which turned out to have a German heritage. The cute town was completely Germany-themed and had several museums to commemorate its history. I also liked the “Choo Choo Trolley patio shoppe”, which sold colorful metal sculptures of many indigenous animals.

DEC 1, 2015 – After visiting Carlsbad Caverns, I drove to the town of Carlsbad for some sightseeing and coffee. In the local art gallery, while looking for postcards of the caves, I found a postcard of The Flume, an aqueduct over Pecos River. The gallery’s owner recommended me to visit it, and I found that its geometry lent itself well to photography. That evening, I started driving towards Austin and arrived in Fort Stockton, only to find that the cheapest available motel would cost me $80 or more. Free campgrounds seemed to be inexistent in the area, so I continued for a few miles on Interstate 10 and exited onto an unpaved road. After almost getting stuck in the mud, I found a good spot to park overnight.

DEC 1, 2015 – When I woke up, a group of cows had assembled around the fireplace where I had made a campfire the night before. I drove to nearby Carlsbad Caverns and stopped for coffee in White’s City, which I quickly regretted because the beverage was almost free of taste. The caverns were comparable to other places I had seen, such as the Magura cave in Bulgaria, the Postojna caves in Slovenia, or the Vallorbe caves in Switzerland. The most notable difference was that the Americans had not failed to equip their caves with flushed toilets, a gift shop, a restaurant, and an elevator. Conveniently the elevator was out of service, so I only had to share the caves with people capable of hiking the 1.2 miles long trail from the Natural Entrance to the big hall, and mastering the “strenuous climb” of 900 feet (240 meters) – with NO restrooms along the way – to get back up. The size of the natural rooms was very impressive, one of them being the largest in the Western hemisphere. The dim lights created a mysterious atmosphere, but made it hard to take good photos. I discovered that HDR creates an interesting if not very natural effect.

NOV 30, 2015 – After lunch in El Paso I drove on to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which is at the west tip of Texas and features the state’s highest mountain, Guadalupe Peak (2667m). I didn’t go up there, but instead spent the night at a backcountry campground called Pine Top and then did a long loop hike before descending through Bear Canyon. Along the way were Bush Mountain (2631m) and Hunter Peak (2550m), which had nice views into the flatlands on both sides of the mountain range. For the following night, I drove to a free campground on BLM land that I had found on a website. I had to follow a dirt road that was almost too uneven for my low-clearance car, and when I got to a herd of cows I felt like I had to be in the wrong place, but then there was a sign that left no doubt that I had reached an official campground.

NOV 28, 2015 – From Grand Canyon I drove straight into Tucson, where I visited my friend Alexandra for a few days. I happened to be there for Thanksgiving, so I got to participate in a turkey dinner (which started at 2pm) and to meet locals at a party afterwards. West of the city, there is the Sonoran desert museum, which has typical animals and plants of the area, and one part of Saguaro National Park. On the way out of town, I also visited the east half of the National Park and went for a two-hour run up a mountain there. I then drove to Las Cruces and spent a night on public land outside the city. The next morning, I hiked up a hill with a view on the city before driving on to El Paso and further east.

NOV 25, 2015 – I left my campsite around 9am on November 23rd to drive to nearby Grand Canyon. The scenic viewpoints along the way gave me a first impression of what the Grand Canyon was like. I think mostly its length is impressive – the depth and steepness is comparable to many canyons and valleys I have seen. The Desert View watchtower was one of the best places to see for how long the canyon continues in each direction: It is about the same length as Switzerland.
The area around the visitor center was very crowded despite rather cool weather. By the time I had obtained backcountry permits, prepared my baggage and made my way to the trailhead, it was almost 3pm. I spent the first night at Cremation Creek, which was a 2-hour hike, so I still had time to pitch my tent before sunset. The next day I hiked down to Bright Angel campground, set up my tent and left for a day hike to Ribbon Falls. My original plan was to make it to the North Rim and back, but I then realized that is about the distance of a marathon, and only about a quarter of it goes uphill or downhill. So I went back to the campground and ran up to a viewpoint to see the sunset in the canyon instead. On the third day, I left early and was back at the South Rim by 11am, early enough to drive all the way to Tucson that same day. I passed through Sedona with its spectacular red rocks.

NOV 22, 2015 – I spent a cold night camping on BLM land outside the park. My car’s thermometer showed 9°F, so I was glad to have bought an extra sleeping bag and some firewood the day before. In the morning, I went for a hike below the canyon rim. The diversity of the rock formations was impressive – behind every corner, a new spectacular view awaited me. In the afternoon, I drove to all the viewpoints along the rim and did another short hike. By 5pm it was almost dark, so I decided to use the evening to drive towards Grand Canyon. I found a nice spot for free camping in Kaibab National Forest, just a few miles from the park entrance.