Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, Sedona

We arrived in Flagstaff on Friday, in the nice local train station. Our friend Chris was there waiting for us with his girlfriend, Laura. He drove the two dirty and hungry brazilians to his house (soon to be ex-house, he's moving to another condo at the end of the month) and cooked a delicious dinner for us (noodles & vegetables - we were craving for non-junk food, we forgot to buy food for the last train trip and had survived on snacks and chocolate for almost a whole day :) After filling our stomachs and taking a good bath, we chatted for a little bit and then went to sleep.

Saturday was Grand Canyon day. After a quick stop at the Northern Arizona University for e-mail check, report upload and battery charging, we headed north to the Canyon's south rim. We arrived there at noon, and after some sigthseeing at the Yavapai point, we began to hike down the canyon. I have to tell you, those huge rocks are certainly an amazing view. I've been warned that the canyon was big, but it is hard to imagine _how_ big it is! Chris told us that he'd been there many times and each time he discovered it was bigger than what he expected. Actually entering the canyon makes it feel more real, if you look at it from above it is so beautiful that you can think it's a painting or a Hollywood special effect. We hiked for one hour until we began to feel tired. Also, all the people passing by us on their way up seemed soooo tired that I began to be afraid... :) I would lie to you if I told you that coming back up was easy, but we managed to complete the journey back in only five minutes more than what took us to go down. It was a great experience! I wish I was in better shape so we could go to the Colorado river and pass the bridge to Phantom Ranch. Maybe next time.. :)

Back in Flagstaff, we has some delicious burritos downtown and then went to the movies. We saw Pi. It's a black and white movie about a mathematician trying to hack the stock market. I liked it very much. We tought about going to the Observatory, but the sky was clouded and we wouldn't be able to see much. Chris had told us that the planet Pluto was discovered in the Flagstaff Observatory.

Sunday we woke up to a rainy weather. We were supposed to do some hiking in Sedona (maybe visit one of the energy vortexes that are said to be there) but it is no fun to hike in the mud, so we just drove there and saw the city from inside our car. It is a really beatiful city, and the road from Flagstaff to Sedona is considered one of the 10 more beautiful roads in America. You go down the mountains and see the beautiful little rivers, forests, all the trees changing colors, the magnificent rock formations that turn more red as you approach Sedona... wow! We stopped by the road to do some sightseeing and also to visit the famous talking deer (see picture below - if you are interested about what the deer said, e-mail us ;) We had lunch at the Red Planet Diner. All the decoration is around the UFO theme. The waiters' t-shirts said "Welcome earthlings". You can read at the back of the bar's chairs things like: "aliens love milkshake". It's a very funny place. They have an UFO fountain and a cool template in the yard where you can stick your head into and take "I was abducted at Red Planet Diner" photographs. The sandwiches have names as "Vulcan Veggier Burger". I loved the place :) After lunch, we stopped at a mystical store (Sedona is one of the USA new age canters) and bought some gems stones. Ivana and I took photographs of our auras. The woman who took the photographs and interpreted our auras could tell what was going to appear in the pictures _before_ they were developed. Amazing!

We went to yet another movie in Flagstaff: Pleasantville. It is a cute comedy about a "perfect", pleasant city from a TV show wich is changed when two teenagers are transported to inside the show. After that we had sushi for dinner.

On Monday we woke up and found a big surprise: it was snowing outside! Almost the first snow of the year. We saw on the news the day before that the first snow had been on Sunday. We don't have pictures of the snow, tough, because the camera battery was with Chris, being charged at NAU. At noon the snow had already melted and the weather turned to a sunny day. We had luch at a natural food store: great, nutritious food. We bought some natural food to eat during the train trip too. We then walked downtown, saw some stores, and met a really kind woman at the candy store. Our friend Chris was moving his stuff out of the apartment, and we helped him alittle bit. We then had some pizza for dinner and left for the train staion. When we arrived thare we were told that the train was 5 hours late! The guy at the station showed us a telegram explaining the delay, with more than 7 different motives listed along with the amount of delay each one implied. I don't remember a single one, but I was truly amazed. We had no option but come back and stay at Laura's house (Chris home was furniturless) and wait for another 5 hours. We phoned the station and the train was another 2 hours late! We finally managed to get into the train at 6:00AM. Chris couldn't sleep properly and had to teach a class later in the morning. That was bad :(

To compensate for some of the delay, we were put into a bus in the middle of the journey to go straight to the north to Bakersfield. We then took the next train to San Francisco and are currently 3 hours and a half behind our schedule.

Pictures:

Flagstaff train station

Grand Canyon

We hiking the Canyon

Our host, Chris

Our own Grand Canyon Photo (of course, the postcards are prettier :)

The mountains and the clouds in the way to Sedona. Can you see the road below?

The famous talking deer. Can you hear it?

Red Planet Diner. It was very amusing to eat in such a "cosmic" place!

The attendants at the Center For The New Age. Aya (on the left) makes beautiful mandalas. Check them.

Sedona Vortexes

The incredible blowjob rock (click for close-up, but be warned: you may find this an offensible material. If you are under 18 years old, don't click! :)