Chapter III: Footloose in Hawaii

Aloha

I am arriving at Hilo (Hawaii, Big Island) at 2:20 pm on Monday November 29th. The view of Hawaii from the sky is amazing, I’m excited!! I’m landing in Hawaii!!

At the airport, Robert is waiting for me. Robert is my Couchsurfing host in Hilo. There are not too many couchsurfing hosts in Hilo and Robert has always room for couchsurfers.

After a walk in downtown Hilo in the afternoon, I went back to the Robert´s house and I met other 5 couchsurfers. Connor and Tena have been one month hitchhiking and couchsurfing in Hawaii. They are leaving Hawaii in December 2^nd and they have decided to rent a car for the last three days and go to the best spots on the island. I´m going to a HelpX place in December 2^nd and until then, I want to explore the island. We were talking about our travels and drinking beers in Robert´s house and I’m joining them in their three days trip.

The next three days

It’s Nov. 30^th, Connor, Tena and me start driving north, the first stop is the Akaka Falls, it’s a beautiful place, a big waterfall in a green wall. We walk a little trail until the overlook, crossing a lot of peculiar trees and big bamboos. 

The second stop is in Pololu Valley, in Hamakua Coast. There is a gorgeous black sand beach where there are people bodysurfing, forest in the valley and more waterfalls. Connor and Tena were in this valley before and they met a man who is living in the valley since 10 weeks ago, he is still in there and we go to visit him. He is okay, but there are a lot of centipedes in the forest, he has already killed some of them.

After the visit to Pololu Valley we continue on the north to north and west, looking for the white sands beaches. We make a stop in Hawi in the last Connor and Tena’s HelpX place to pick up some stuff that their left there. The hosts are very friendly and they give us a delicious fruit drink.

When we arrive to the west of Mauna Loa, leaving the green mountain fields, the view changes radically, it’s all flat and there are only dried lava seas. At the coast there are some threes, palms and resorts, and the beaches are the most beautiful on the Island. We arrive late in the afternoon to Kiholo Bay and we camp there beside the sea.

The second day at the morning, Connor and Tena go to see the petroglyphs driving back north east and I stay in Kiholo Bay, exploring. I start the morning swimming in the Queen’s bath, spring water in a lava tube, wonderful and cool. 

After that, I go to the beach to swim with green sea turtles and big fishes, it’s an incredible experience and I am alone, there is nobody else in the beach. Awesome!! One of the best moments in the island!

 

 

Around 10:00 am, I walk 20 minutes to the road crossing the lava desert and just when I arrive to the road, Connor and Tena are coming back from the petroglyphs and they pick me up again end we go south to Makalawena beach, a wonderful white sand beach. 

This is a more tourist beach, but there is not too much people today.

In the afternoon we drive all the west coast until south point (the southest point in USA) stopping in Kailua Kona, the second big city, and Hookena beach, a beautiful black sands beach with dolphins living in there.

In south point we go to Green Sands Beach, the sand is not totally green, is mixed with black sand, but is curious and beautiful.

We spend the night in a campground before the entrance to the Volcano National Park.

At the morning of the third day we visit the volcano, we can see craters, vents, lava tubes and petroglyphs, but there is not lava flowing.

In the afternoon we go to Puna, at the southeast. We visit and swim in the Champagne pools and Tide pools. These pools are natural pools of warm water and good for snorkeling.

We arrive around 5 at Robert’s house and I pick up my stuff and say good bye and thanks to Robert, Connor and Tena, then I go to the HelpX place with Rebecca.

Help Exchange in Puueo Mauka farms

The Rebecca’s place is amazing, is only 3 miles from Hilo, in the hills. The property is a Macadamia nuts farm and is 30 acres big. There is a river and waterfalls just beside my tent and the view from the viewpoint is spectacular, I can see the ocean, the airport and Hilo.

I’m working in a loop trail on the edge of the river, cleaning and making steps; planting palms around Rebecca’s house and other miscellaneous.

On Saturday 4^th arrives Dayva, she is Rebecca’s daughter and she has been traveling a lot too. She has been the last year in Korea and now she is coming back home. The next Saturday is her birthday and my last day in Hawaii and she is celebrating a party in the house.

After a good day of work on Sunday Rebecca, Dayva and me go to the theater to watch a movie. I’m very happy to understand almost everything on the movie and I don’t think about the language until half movie, my English is really good!!

On Monday Rebecca gives me the day off and I decide to go to the beaches in Hilo. She gives me a ride to the beaches road and I walk until the last beach and come back in the afternoon. The beaches are wonderful, there is not too much sand and a lot of rocks, there is green turtles and big fishes too. In the afternoon I go the Coconut Island and I have a nice view of the Hilo coast.

On Tuesday I’m working alone in the trail and when I finish I swim in the river at the bottom of the falls. In the evening we go to a birthday party of a Rebecca’s friends in a beautiful house beside the beast surfing beach. The party is funny and interesting, and very American, eating BBQ burgers. I meet a lot of interesting people and we talk about Hawaii, travels and aloha. The party ends sitting around a fire under the stars.

On Thursday I made dinner for Rebecca and Dayva and we were dinning together and talking until late. 
I cooked Spanish omellette and some bread, and Rebecca put the wine.
Usually I cook and eat in my kitchen but this time I cooked in the Rebecca's kitchen and we ate toghether in her house.

On Friday and Saturday morning we prepared everything for the Dayva’s party and the party started around 1:00 of the afternoon. A lot of friends of Dayva came to the party, her father, and some Rebecca’s friends. We ate a lot of delicious food and drank beers. It was raining in the lunch time but then stopped and we went to swim to the river. The party ended aging sitting around a fire under the stars, drinking beers and talking until late. 

I was the last one who went to bed, sitting beside the fire, watching the stars and thinking about this incredible travel I’ve done and my next step. I will come back to Hawaii! Of that I’m sure!

See you later, aloha and mahalo!

On Sunday I fly back to home, to spent Christmas and prepare my next travel!

Rebecca drive me to the airport and we say good bye and see you later, ‘cause I will come back to visit them.

My time in Hawaii is ended; I’m sad but also glad for to have had a great time in this wonderful place with this wonderful people! I felt in love with Hawaii and the Aloha spirit and I’m thinking when and how to come back to this paradise.

To be continued…

Chapter II: Road Trip with Emilien

The next three weeks I’ll be traveling with Emilien. We spent a good time in McDonald Ranch and we decide to rent a car and travel together from Oct. 25 to Nov. 12. Our route starts in Los Angeles, we will take the Route 66 to the Mohave Desert and after to Las Vegas. Then we cross the Hoover Dam and we drive again in the Route 66 to Grand Canyon and we go north to Lake Powell and Zion. After Zion we have to drive a long road until Gran Teton and Yelowstone. Then we go east to Lake Tahoe and south to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. And the end of the trip is to go to the coast ant drive the Highway 1 from Monterrey to Los Angeles again.

Now we are going to San Francisco to spend the weekend and in Monday we are going to Los Angeles to pick up the rental car. We arrive in San Francisco and we walk 20 minutes from the bus stop to the hostel. The hostel owners are two brothers from India or Thailand, I don’t remember the name of the hostel, but there is a TV!!!! With signal!!! We can watch the Giants winning the World Series and all San Francisco celebrating the victory!! And we can watch movies with commercials (Now I prefer the dvd’s from McDonald Ranch). There are 10 times of commercial advertisings in the movie, its crazy! But we can watch two very good movies, Gladiator and Braveheart.

Lombard Street

We arrive Friday afternoon and we go to walk in downtown, the city is really beautiful and there are a lot of interesting things to see, but is late and we are tired, and we eat a burrito in a Mexican taqueria and we come back to the hostel. We are sharing the room with other 3 or 4 guys, nobody say anything in the room and two guys are in the laptop all the day.

Saturday and Sunday we explore San Francisco, but the weather is not friendly, it’s raining… Anyway, we buy a public transport passport and we go to Market Street and Fisherman’s Wharf, there are a lot of people, mostly tourists. In the piers we can see elephant seals sleeping under the sun. The rain doesn’t stop and we go to the Golden Gate, nice bridge, but it isn’t the most beautiful place in San Francisco. We take some pictures and we get wet and after we take a bus to anywhere, we just want to stay in the bus!

In Sunday the rain stops in the morning and we take the historic cable car to the Lombard Street. After that we walk around North Beach and we come back to the hostel.

Los Angeles

Yatch Harbour in Santa Monica

It’s around 8 o’clock in the morning in Tuesday. We wake up in the car in a summer parking in Santa Monica, beside the Yatch Harbour. We put the shoes on and we go to run 1 hour and to de some exercises in the gym-on-the-beach! It’s a really nice morning, and we finish swimming in the cold Pacific Ocean! Santa Monica is cool! The most beautiful urban beach I have seen. At the end of the morning we drive to Beverly Hills and Hollywood and we do a typical tourist tour looking for the houses of the famous and walking the Hollywood Boulevard. In the afternoon we drive away, far away from the big city and all the people, the Road Trip starts!

On the Road

In these three weeks we drive thousands miles, around 4200, and we sleep in the car every day, with no shower and trying to park in dark places for to sleep better. The mornings are cold and we eat always the same: cookies, bread with jam, juice and fruit for breakfast, and sandwiches and chips for lunch and dinner, but sometimes we stop in a taqueria to eat a burrito or in an Italian restaurant for a pizza or pasta. It looks hard but it’s not too bad, and we bought a mattress in the Goodwill and we can sleep pretty well. When we look for a place to sleep, the priority is to find a shower, but it is not easy. In Santa Monica we can have a shower in the public showers on the beach; in Grand Canyon we can have another shower paying 2 dollars for 8 minutes, and after that we don’t find another shower until Yosemite. More than one week with no shower, that’s hard!

Me hitchhiking in Route 66

Driving in the US roads we have amazing views. The roads are straights very longs. From LA to Las Vegas we have amazing views in the Mohave Desert driving the Route 66, and we cross a lot of small towns in the desert, towns of one or two houses and they are in the map!

When the sun comes down we stop in the road for to see the sunset and to take a good picture, it’s not easy to find a good place, the bests sunsets are in the desert from the Route 66 and in the beach from the Highway 1.

Sin City Las Vegas

In the middle of nothing, in the Nevada deserts, suddenly appears a fantasy city. It’s like a Lego City, everything is like big toys and all the buildings are casinos or they have something were to waste your money. Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!

In Las Vegas we went first to the visitor center and parked the car there. The man of the visitor center give us a map from Las Vegas, a lot of information about Grand Canyon, a lot of postcards, posters and playing cards. We didn’t need the map from Las Vegas because all the casinos and resorts are concentrated in The Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard. We walked and visit some casinos, everything was very quiet and not too much crazy, but when the night comes the city change. A lot of lights, a lot of people selling ‘hot girls private party’, Elvis in the street, Jack Sparrow and Superman, all the casinos full, etc.

We went to a bar to drink some beers watching a baseball match of the Giants and the waiter invited us to a chupito of tequila. Later, a little bit drunk, we went to eat a pizza and after to a casino. Playing in the casino we had free drinks and~~~~……              ZzZzZz pip pip, pip pip (the alarm clock) time to wake up! Let’s go to the road again!

National Parks

Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks!! Mohave National Preserve! Lake Powell and Lake Tahoe National Recreation Areas!

7 national parks and 10 amazing places. Driving in 6 States (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho).

Only a small part of this great country, but a perfect trip, with a lot of different places, animals and views.

Emilien in Teutonia Peak

 In the deserts it’s all flat, with no trees, only a lot of small bushes and a dry air. In the Mohave National Preserve there is an impressive contrast, we find dunes like the African deserts in the middle of the American deserts and huge granite mountains with big holes like emental cheese because of the wind erosion. And the Joshua trees, a big forest of Joshua trees in the middle of the desert.

My friend Joshua The Tree

The canyons are beautiful, with giant cliffs and gorgeous rivers down the canyon. In Zion the falls and the emerald pools are awesome! The Lake Powell is spectacular, a big lake in the middle of the desert, with beautiful rocks in the edges and the Navajo mountains at the end of the view. In Grand Teton it’s all different, in the north of the country is colder, with snow and big mountains, beautiful lakes and forests, moose, bison, elks and dears.

And Yellowstone is amazing, the main park! Snow, fog, rivers canyons, waterfalls, geysers and thermal areas. A lot of animals, thousands of bison, elks, a lot of birds and bears!

In Yosemite there are big fantastic mountains with more waterfalls and perfect places for climbing. And in Kings Canyon and Sequoia we saw the biggest sequoias of the world, until 12 meters of diameter and around 100 meters of high. A lot of different places and environments, with a lot of different things to see, all gorgeous and spectacular.

Hiking

You can park in the village of the park and see a lot of beautiful places closed to the car, but the best experiences are lived in the trails, hiking inside the parks and exploring the Mother Nature. And that is what we did.

The first trail was in Mohave, it was a short trail of 3 miles to the Teutonia Peak, crossing the Joshua tree forest and climbing the last part. From the top of the peak we can see the desert, a lot of granite hills and the dunes.

 In Grand Canyon we made a trail in the top of the canyon the first day. The firsts 15 minutes are impressive, the canyon is really big and beautiful, and after that the view is always the same. But the second day we made a big trail in the south rim, we started at 6:30 am hiking in the Kaibab trail and we arrived around 8:30 to the river, the place is beautiful and you can see the big walls of the canyon from down the river. We arrived down very early and we decided to go up following the Bright Angel trail, a longer trail that goes following a creek and it’s beautiful, with a lot of vegetation and gorgeous views of the canyon. The last part of the trail is very strenuous; it’s 4 or 5 miles going up in ziga-zaga. We arrived to the village at noon, it was around 15 miles in five hours. We were very tired and we went to the lodge to eat a big pizza and a fresh beer watching a college football match!

Colorado River in Grand Canyon

Me going to the narrows in Zion

In Zion we made two trails. The first was in the emerald pools, the place is beautiful, with waterfalls and natural pools. The other trail was going up to the Angels Landing, a mountain in the middle of the canyon with spectacular views from the peak. We had lunch in the top with some friends, the squirrels, who came asking food. After this trail we went down to the river and we walked into the cold water to the narrows, but the water was too cold and we didn’t go too far.

Grand Teton Mountains and Jackson Lake

The Gran Teton N.P. was almost closed and was very cold, but we made another trail into the forest until the Jackson Lake and we found footprints of a bear in the snow. When we were leaving, we met a group of bison crossing the road and more ahead some moose beside the road, was exciting.

In Yellowstone, the first morning was very foggy and cold and we didn’t see the sun until the afternoon. In the morning we saw a lot of geysers and thermal pools and we find a giant geyser, where we were waiting 2 hours for an eruption but the Great Fountain Geyser didn’t erupt! L But later we could see the eruption of the Old Faithful in the visitor center. In the afternoon we made one of the top 3 trails of the trip. We hiked in the south rim of the Yellowstone River and we saw two gorgeous and hug waterfalls. We continued thru the forest and we find some small lakes, one of them was frozen and I run in the ice, carefully! After, we arrived to a big plain and we found a bear about 60 meters ahead.

Our friend the Black Bear watching us

Imperial Geyser

At the first moment, we stopped and came back to the forest, but then we approached to the bear and the bear saw us, stand in two feet watching us and after he run away and we run following him for to get a good picture, but he escaped!! It was an awesome experience!!! After the bear, we met some bison in the trail but we didn’t run! When we arrived to the parking we met a French couple and we went together to a campground and we have dinner together and we were talking about our travels and drinking wine that Emilien shared for the occasion. They are traveling from Alaska to Argentina! It’s a very long and interesting travel.

The hot spring terraces

The second day in Yellowstone we went to the terraces, it’s like a spring hill with a lot of boiling pools with a lot of colors and it’s really gorgeous. After that, we made another trail to see the Fairy falls and the Imperial Geyser. The Geyser was erupting when we arrived and was very impressive!!

Me on the top of the Yosemite Falls

In Yosemite we made other two great trails! The first day we hike until the top of the Yosemite Falls, the falls were spectacular and the view from the Yosemite point was amazing.

The Half Dome view from Yosemite Falls

The second day we waked up early and we tried to go to the top of the Half Dome, the most emblematic dome from Yosemite. But when we arrived to the dome was raining and after snowing, ant the lasts 100 meters to the top it’s an almost vertical wall with a cable. The cable was frozen and the rock was very sliding and we didn’t arrive to the top, we tried to climb but we had to go down because was very dangerous. Going down we saw more waterfalls and beautiful rivers.

Me and the General Sherman Tree

In Kings Canyon we made a little trail for to see the third most voluminous sequoia of the world and the largest one. And in Sequoia N.P. we made saw more giant sequoias, the most voluminous one of the word, the General Sherman Tree and other spectacular trees.

  

 Highway 1

The end of this road trip is coming, but don’t before to drive in the highway one. When we were in McDonald Ranch went to Redwoods N.P. driving in the north coast in the Highway 1 and now we are driving the central coast, from Monterrey until LA. We spent the previous night to drive the highway in Salinas, in a parking beside the road. When we were going to sleep a police agent came and said that the parking is propriety of the church, and we thought the worst, but after he said if we were going to sleep there, he just wanted to be sure that we were all right! Wuau! The next day we start the drive in the Highway 1 or Pacific Coast Highway after 1 hour of running in the coast of Monterrey. We stopped in Carmel by-the-sea for to take a picture and touch the sand in the beach. The next 3 hours were a long drive with a lot of turns with cliffs and a beautiful ocean view at the right. We arrived to a beach where there were a lot of elephant seals sleeping in the sand and some of them were fighting. It was exciting. In San Luis Obispo we stopped for to take a picture of the sunset and in Guadalupe we went to the library for to use Internet. We slept in a rest area in the highway. The second day in the Highway 1 we arrive in Santa Barbara in the morning and we went to run in the beach again. In the afternoon we went to library and to a big shop, Macy’s, for to buy some cheap clothes, and later we went to the theater to watch a movie. We spent the night in a RV parking in the road, and at the morning one man came and tell us that we need to pay for to sleep there, but if we were leaving immediately it was okay, and we left immediately.

It’s the last day of the road trip, Nov 11, we arrived in Malibu early in the morning and we stopped for to eat something and see the beach. Then we went to LA and spent the day in Hollywood, we packed our stuff and cleaned the car. We ate the last burrito and at the afternoon we went to a theater to watch a great movie about a true story in the Glen Canyon, where is the Lake Powell.

Around 9:00 pm Emilien drive me to the Greyhound station for to take my bus to San Francisco again. Is the end of this great trip and it’s time to say goodbye! Nice to meet you Emilien and thanks for this 3 weeks! See you in Europe! Sure!

Emilien is going back to France and I am going to McDonald Ranch again for one week more. {SPOILER, do not continue reading if your don’t want to know about chapter III and IV} And after the next week, I am going to a new place as a volunteer in the 50^th state until my visa expire in Dec.22. Then, the next adventure will be in a cold territory called Canada.

Chapter I: Wwoofing in McDonald Ranch

A new wwoofer arrives to McDonald Ranch. The wwoofer is the person who helps in a farm or similar and the host brings accommodation and food to the woofer. The name is for the organization WWOOF (World Wide Organization of Organic Farms). I used another organization about this kind of volunteer jobs, HELPX (Help Exchange). Is a good way for to travel saving money, meeting people from around the world and from the country where you are traveling and their lifestyle.

I’m lucky to meet a lot of nice people in McDonald Ranch. The owners, Linda and Richard, they are very kind people and the ranch is a non-profit organization that take care of homeless animals, and teach children about the wildlife and horse riding. Linda B is working on the ranch as well, she lives in front of the kitchen, in a small house with Gipsy, the dog, and some cats. Robert is the Linda’s son and he lives with Alexa in downstairs. 

The animals

The ranch is ‘‘a sanctuary for the animals and a university for the children’’. In here there are a lot of animals and the woofers take care of them. Up the hill are the 12 horses, 4 ponies and 2 goats. The lower animals are closed to the house; there are chickens, ducks, 2 goats, rabbits, dogs and cats, a lot of cats. Richard says that there are 60 cats and actually there are a lot of them. There are 4 dogs in the house and one more in the Linda B’s house, one of the dogs have only 3 legs and one eye, her name is Cassidy and she stay always with Linda.

The horses are very tame and smart; they know their box in the stable, we open the gates and they go by their self to their own box. It’s surprising! The horses names are Pilot, Star, Sundance, Romey, Pepsi, Naja, Torez, Zippy, Prince, Sunny and the big horses, Brandy and Down. Romey is the oldest horse, she is 29 years old, incredible!

Another animal who lives around here, but not in the ranch is the ''mountain lion'', ''puma'' in Europe. I haven't seen anyone yet, but Richard saw one in the road last week. There are dears also, I've seen them two or three times.

With the woofers

When I arrived there were other woofers in the ranch. Young is the Korean boy, he left the ranch my first Monday. Matt and Alisha are from New Zeland, I think they left the next Wednesday. Leah is from Seattle and Faye is from Quebec, they stayed more time and they left on my third week as Ulla, she is from Denmark and she arrived two days later than me. Emilien arrived the same day than Alisha and Matt left, he is from France and we are leaving the same day and together, we are going to rent a car and make a road travel around California. Chris is another woofer who arrived and he left two or three days later, he was not able to work in the Ranch and was very hard for Linda to say him it. The last woofer is Toby, he is from England and he arrived in October 16th, the Emilien’s birthday.

I am having very good and fun moments with the wwoofers, we learn about the others and we meet things from many places. We cook for all, one they cook someone and the next day other one, it’s funny and exiting. Ulla cooks very good bread and cakes, and Emilien and I learned how to cook and after Ulla left, we cook the bread and the cakes… mmmm! Thank you Ulla!! The Emilien’s French vinaigrette is very good with the salad and he put species in everywhere. Leah put Ketchup everywhere, and she cooked good cookies, she is vegetarian, but she is one or two levels under Faye. Faye is vegetarian and she cooked a vegetarian ‘pati xinoa’ with lentils instead of meat, she is crazy!!!! Where is the meat???  But the ‘pati xinoa’ was very good, surprising. My principal contribution about food is the ‘truita de patates’, all the people like it so much and I taught to cook it to them.

The kitchen is the place where we spent more time together, cooking very good food and also playing guitar and singing in the nights, very nice moments. Ulla plays the Leah’s guitar and all together we sing a lot of songs. Leah has a very good voice for singing and play the very better than me, many afternoons she plays in his room a weird song about the bathroom and I don’t know what else… 

In the kitchen we have the radio and we are always listening 92.9, a radio station from Santa Rosa that always play the sames country songs! It's funny and we are learning the songs.



In the pictures, Emilien and me cooking the Ulla Cake and Ulla Bread in our own way.

The first Saturday we had a play date and we go to an arena in Santa Rosa with some of the horses and children and the woofers participated in the play game ridding horses. It was very exiting and I won a fourth place ribbon on the big T, oh yeah… the Catalan cowboy rides so good!!! Leah is a very good rider too, better than me and she trains the horses and gives ridding lessons to the children. She won three ribbons in the play game.

The children are very nice, they know a lot about horses and Linda gives them lessons two or three times a week. Dana is the older, she is 13 or 14 and she is the leader, she rides very well and she also teaches the other girls and helps Linda.

The second Saturday we went to the Jesus camp ‘The Morton’s’ a very nice place, with a swimming pool and a very good place for ridding. We built a corral for the horses and spent the night under the stars beside the horses and a creek, with the children. We made a bonfire and Ulla made bread for all of us. We cooked the bread on the bonfire and put chocolate, hot dogs, and other things. When was dark, Ulla played the guitar and all the children and woofers were singing around the bonfire for many time. It was a very nice night. To sleep on the ground is not very comfortable but it was just one night and it wasn’t so bad.

Artesa Winery

Usually, we work four days on the ranch and we have 3 days off. On our days of we go to the town, Santa Rosa, or other places. Casually, closed to Santa Rosa, in Napa Valley, there is a winery that is propriety of the Catalan company Codorniu, his name is Artesa Winery, and it is one of the best wineries from Napa Valley. In one of our days off Faye, Leah, Emilien and I went to visit the winery. We went to Santa Helena in hitch-hiking and after we take the bus to Napa. I thought we can go walking from Napa to the winery, but it was impossible and I called to the winery and Rhona came to pick up us. When we arrived to the winery was amazing, the building is into the hill, the entrance is so beautiful and the view is spectacular, you can see the entire valley and sometimes the sea. We did a tour in the winery and later we tasted wines, but Leah couldn’t drink wine because she is 18. Then we finished the visit going to the shop. Faye bought a bottle and Emilien bought two boxes for to send to his family and friends. All of us liked so much the winery and we were surprised by the place and the views.

Redwood N.P. and Highway 1

The Avenue Of  Giants

View from Highway 1

View from Highway 1

Leah has already left the ranch and Faye and Ulla are the next. To profit our days off we decide to go to the Redwood National Park, which is around 5 hours driving from Santa Rosa. Emilien, Faye and I went to rent a car on Sunday but we arrived too late and the office was closed. But Monday morning we wake up earlier and Richard drive us to the office. We rent a car and start the road travel to north. We take the highway 101 until Cloverdale and then we go to the coast to take the highway 1, a beautiful road with amazing views to the ocean. We stop many times to take pictures; we stop in Trinidad, the Richard’s town, it is a small town with only 400 population, and is very nice.

When we arrive to the Redwood Park, we take again the 101 across the forest, and we can see huge trees during hours, we drive thru tree at the beginning of the park; the tree is really huge and has a hole where the cars can drive. Then we go to the visitor center and after we make a walk in the forest among the biggest trees of the world, really amazing. Later we continue driving some miles to north, while we are driving I say: ‘a the morning maybe we can see elks’, and suddenly we see elks at the left of the road. After that we drive back to south and we take the ‘Avenue of the Giants’, an incredible road across the forest, among very huge redwoods. The experience has been short (just one day) but surprising and spectacular. Is dark and we stop again in Trinidad, we buy something for dinner and some beers and we go to the beach, we eat and drink some beers under the moonlight and we can listen seals singing or screaming closed to the coast. Past 1 or 2 hours, the sheriff is coming and we have to go, we can’t park on the beach at night. Then we go to a small campsite and sleep in the car. At next day morning we come back to the ranch and Faye and Ulla leave at the afternoon.

Now only left two woofers, Emilien and I, but soon arrive Toby, and we spent the last week working, with just one day off for to go to the town because there is a lot of work on the ranch and we don’t have anything else to do. We enjoy cooking delicious food and watching a good movie every night. With the girls we watched the entire StarWars saga, the three first movies, the oldest, were in the ranch and we rented the episodes II, I and III. The DVD player doesn’t works very good and we have some problems with the DVD movies, but we can watch all the movies if we don’t fall sleep. Once, the DVD player wasn’t working and the led screen said ‘bad’ and was very funny, Robert lend us his PlayStation and we could watch Prince of Persia.

This is USA

Living in California, I am learning a lot about USA, the culture, the lifestyle and a lot of things. 

I am surprised because all the cars I have seen has automatic transmission; yes, it’s easier to drive, but is boring and all the cars are automatics. In the ranch there is the ‘Beast’, an old and huge Ford pick up, it’s maybe 20 or 30 years old and is automatic! it’s crazy! This is America!

Another interesting thing about the cars is that almost all the cars are good cars, news and expensive, a lot of RV's, mustang, cadillac... bfffff. And many beetles as well!!

One thing that is not surprising is how the american people eat! They put ketchup and butter in everything, they love ice-cream and mash-mellows, the peanut butter mmmm!!! it's amazing, I tasted it by the first time here in McDonald Ranch, was a funny moment, and Leah was very surprised because I never ate it before! The bread is not like the bread in Catalonia and there isn't llonganissa or pernil or fuet, ooh yes! I miss that!!

The cheapest transportation in USA is hitch-hiking! The american roads are very good for the hitch-hikers. In the city is difficult to find a ride, but in the hills or away from the town the people pick up you easily, in 15 minutes you can find a ride. If you are a girl or you go with girls is more easy, and when is dark the people stops easier, but there are less cars in the roads.