Expedition South - Episode 10 - Route 66, welcome to the USA!

Welcome to episode 10. I'll be traversing the enormous and diverse country of the United States. I start in my hometown of El Paso, Texas. I'll head through New Mexico, through Arizona, make a pit stop in Phoenix with David's family, continue upward exploring the immense beauty of the Southwest, then make my way up to Alaska. First up is a stop at the largest array of radio telescopes in the world in Socorro, New Mexico, followed by a desolate road with my friend Laura from El Paso who tagged along for a few days as we made our way to Phoenix. So we are at the Petrified National Forest in Arizona and you see these 200 million year old pieces of wood that got buried along with the dinosaurs and they got resurfaced at some point and now they basically look and feel like a rock. You see the crystals and everything so it's quite unique. So here I am in my favorite place in the world, Walmart in Flagstaff, Arizona and I have officially decided to try to make it to Alaska and it's gonna be my first interview of the U.S. Sorry it took so long but I was deciding whether or not to do it. Welcome to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and it's pretty neat. Kind of big, kind of beautiful. Some people like to live conservatively, I like to live literally on the edge. That was corny, sorry. Thank you. The public thinks so too. This massive beauty comes at an enormous price as tourists from all over the world walk and crowd this area to the point of suffocation but you'll still be breathless from this incredible incredible view. Like any good tourist, jumping pictures had to be done. Sometimes it takes quite a few tries to get it right but when you do it's quite spectacular, interesting and sometimes creates an optical illusion. So you know you're in America when you see a bunch of Harleys and this huge little motorcycle game thing going on. Now it's a big difference between Latin America and the States. They have this weird little culture of Harleys and what it is to be on the road and Route 66 and all that good stuff. It's quite interesting. So we are in Flagstaff and I'm couch surfing with my two very gracious hosts Scott and Amanda and we met Pilar and we met Diego that were also couch surfing here and Laura is here too. And probably one of the coolest couch surfing places I've been to and you can see there's like a lake and the pond and everything. They were very nice so thank you guys, appreciate it. Scott and Amanda quite literally live in the woods with his man-made lake, outside kitchen and live as one with nature. My sleeping accommodations was this intriguing tree house which although had some friendly spiders was an amazing experience to sleep in. After some nice pictures with the bike, myself, the Spanish couple and Laura headed off to Sedona, Arizona where the old retired people flourish, where the view can be nice, weird and quite refreshing on a very hot and dry summer day. I then dropped Laura off in Phoenix where I visited with David's family and then headed further north through some fantastic desert scenery. So welcome to Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm on my way to Alaska and what I decided to do this trip is actually purchase Powerball or lottery tickets in every state as much as I can. So I'm gonna, you know, invest a hundred dollars to see if I win anything. So we'll see what happens. Oh yeah and if I win a big party at my house. Alrighty, welcome to the U.S. of A. where they speak English. The money is green. Smells funny. People are very diverse and obese. Here we are at the Colorado River and this is what the Grand Canyon area is. So probably one of the best things about traveling around the U.S. is that there's subways pretty much everywhere and you can't really can't miss them and it's probably the best, easiest travel food there is and probably the healthiest. So that's a travel tip for you is if you're around the U.S. and traveling around, subway is going to be your best friend. Welcome to Zion National Park and the reason you can hear me is because my engine is off because we've been going downhill for the past five or ten minutes. I still got a little bit more. So this park is actually really nice, pretty incredible and the views are absolutely magnificent. The scale of these mountains are quite huge and this park is quite popular among the people because it's traffic and traffic and traffic. So here we are in Zion National Park in Utah and I'm gonna go climb that cool looking thing that's about 6,000 feet. Right now we're about 3,000 feet so it's about 3,000 feet. So I'm gonna dedicate it to my dad because when I was about 13 we did a road trip with my dad and we saw this beautiful majestic area when we were so young and he got me hooked on traveling. So my dad's the reason why I'm doing these crazy things. So it's all your fault dad. When I was 12 years old my dad brought us to this place in Zion here and I used to sit over the edge like this or get very close to it and he would freak out because I was a little kid about 12 years old and imagine a little kid being on the edge of this death-defying edge and he was very worried about it. So don't freak out dad, I'm all right like I was when I was 12. So enjoying the view and enjoying the adventure so far. The worst part of any hike is the descent but I had some delightful company this time on the way down to pass the time quicker. I'm couch surfing and for those who don't know what couch surfing is, it's basically an online community of fellow travelers who host people who are driving by. If you have a couch or a parking lot I can camp in or a private room or something you can give me as a fellow traveler and in this case I am staying in probably one of the most interesting little houses I've seen in a while. Quite literally in the middle of nowhere Utah Arizona. The host is Annie and she's really nice and she even cooked me a chili bowl last night that I came in. Of course there's references to check on people. Other travelers stay and they leave references so you know how the people are. It's a great experience. I recommend everybody to get a chance to do it at some point in their life. You're gonna meet cool dogs like this that want to get pet. Yeah you smell. So passing through Arizona you pass through the American Indian Reservations and apparently here at this one we're near the Cuyahoga Pato Indians Pipe Spring National Monument and apparently the gas stations the government doesn't tax them so the gas here is cheap. Apparently it's like three dollars and fifty cents which compared to the area around here it's like four bucks so it's about 50 cents cheaper. Just because I guess the government subsidizes them for whatever reason maybe because they took their land and killed their people so many years ago. Who knows? That's a mystery. So gassing up in Arizona. And the byproduct of solo traveling is the compulsion to sing to yourself to keep yourself entertained the whole day which I do a lot unfortunately. So today I'm going to go visit the wave and the wave is in Arizona but you have to walk from Utah which is a long walk and what the wave is it's one of the most iconic things here in in the southwest especially Utah-ish Arizona area. It's kind of like a symbol or an icon of what the state is and what the whole region is all about and it's quite beautiful but the road the road to get here it's pretty tough you know sometimes I wish I had people with me on these journeys just so they could check out the amazing beauty and the sight that you know these places have especially here at the wave as you can see. And also sharing the difficult nature of the hike and stuff you know only 10 people are allowed to go to the wave a day. You gotta enter a lottery at the main station in Kanab. Everybody was pretty excited there and I got pretty lucky of one of 10 and I got one of the permits to hike up here today. So they give you this ridiculous map it has like 20 some pictures like 15 pictures but it's ridiculous you gotta follow this follow that don't get lost there. So for the past hour and a half I've been lost. I've been wondering why they only let 10 people a day hike this thing. It's an amazing amazing thing and I figured out because this poor sandstone is just so fragile just my thumb it can break off the edges so imagine hundreds and hundreds of people walking here every day the amount of wear and tear this poor place would take. Although lost I finally made it all the way to the wave which I cannot describe in words the immense beauty and experience it was to be in such a majestic and powerful place. Sometimes I get these moments of like deja vu like I've seen this before but I haven't. It's creepy maybe because I've been alone too long I don't know and that was the wave. That's what happens when you're hiking for five hours with alone with nobody. So I hope you enjoyed my terrible singing. Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for the next episode where I'll check out the Horseshoe Canyon. I'll visit some Navajo slot canyons. I'll hang with my couch host and other surfers. I drop in on Arches National Park. Do some creative and dangerous self-portraits. Camp in Yellowstone while checking out the awesome bison and I'll fight subarctic temperatures and snow blizzards all the way up to Alaska. Stay tuned.