A beautiful sunset, but unfortunately nothing more…

We are slowly experiencing a world every time more vivacious and colored. Traveling along the border, a desolate but nice place where we observed desert dunes, cactus and sleepy hills, we feel a high tension. Every night many people coming from Latin America and China try to cross the border as clandestine. A lot of small frontier towns have risen along the Mexican border, to receive in remote places those who want to try that exploit. On the way we found a lot of roadblocks and our documents and baggages were checked repeatedly. All this could disappear when a wall, which is in construction on the border between united states and Mexico, will be finished. It will divide two worlds, that probably don’t need this further tension factor.

We arrived in Hermosillo (Estado de Sonora) before the sunrise, but when the sun began to shine, the temperature rose too: 35, 45, maybe 50ºC. It became impossible to do anything. During the night, when it got warmer, we went out to take a look: as we expected we met a nice old man, who gave us the directions to reach our next destination, the pacific ocean.

Everything we did and saw in almost two months of traveling, has been blown away in a single day: it is impossible to understand the tremendous change we are experiencing, without being here… and we have just crossed a little bridge over a river without water. This is the border between United States and Mexico, between north and south, between the order and the natural disorder, between a head which always wants to lead and a body that hardly tries to quit obeying. We found us in a world suddenly colored, vivacious, frenzied. Streets full of food and goods, music everywhere, ramshackle buses, but above all people, many people. Young men, elderly and children, people who come and people who run away. A little bit of sadness… at last we are in Latin America.

We have not yet completely understood the actual condition of the native people, or “American Indian” as we usually call them. In the region we are traveling, the tribes of the Navajo (The delight song of tsoai-talee, N. Momaday), Apache, Ute and many other small groups were leading a nomadic life. Crossing their territories, we understand from where comes their deep respect for nature and all beings: those are semi-desertic lands with a continuous scarcity of resources and full of risks, where only the strongest horses (the splendid Mustangs) can survive. We understand why they were nomadic peoples, continuously moving and why their music is so melancholy and full of echoes from the past. It hurts us to see that they are almost obliged to exchange their amazing culture with small amounts of money, in order to go on. On the contrary, it is fascinating what we are learning in New Mexico, where the ancient pueblos (indianpueblo.org) are helped in the attempt to keep alive their culture and traditions.

We love thinking about us as beings coming from the underworld, the Mother Earth, to begin an endless travel through the South, in peace with nature and ourselves… a nomadic travel which we are following too, someway.

During the travel through Albuquerque, we discovered a landscape characterized by arid bushes, red clay and rough canyons: we are in the torrid New Mexico, where the Anglo-Saxon spirit meets the Latin soul… where many dreams begin and many other are inevitably disappointed.

Walking in the city suburbs, we feel like embedded by a warm and quiet atmosphere. The adobe flat homes become colored of rainbow. Maybe a Mexican heart begins to beat in our chest, drawing us insistently… or maybe it is just a mirage of sand and sun.

We were already planning to leave Durango, when the luck helped us: we lost the bus to our next destination, so we were obliged to stay here one more day… It has been an amazing day, warmed by a shining sun and full of sport activities. To begin, a strong but unforgettable bike trip on the Trails 2000. It is to be noticed the aggressive spirit of Cicci! Well, we admit that we lost the way at least twice. Not satisfied, after lunching with rice and beans, we went to the swimming pool for some hours. Tomorrow we will try to loose our bus another time, destination New Mexico…

Yesterday we traveled along an amazing road, which led us to Durango, at the extreme south-western corner of Colorado… after crossing the Rocky Mountains, we came to Grand Junction by night. The following day we discovered a nice and unexpected landscape, a semi-desertic valley surrounded by red soil mountains and interrupted by sudden canyons. We were thinking of coming to the desert yet, when we found us in the middle of green meadows and woods. The road began to rise, climbing through amazing canyons covered by conifers: we crossed small towns of gold miners and we reached the snowed peaks. Finally a long descent took us to Durango, where our travel knows a break, for the moment…

The only way we have to participate to the fiest is to say: Italy, world cup champion!! We are continuously watching at the images coming from Italian places, which are full of people, flags and fireworks. We would like to be there with you…

We will remember the week spent on the Rocky Mountains near Breckenridge for a long time. Not only because it was a beautiful place, but also because we met a lot of nice people there… and we were so lucky to know a young couple from Denver, who offered us a passage to the city by car. We travelled along a scenic road, climbing the mountains through the Continental Divide. There, we reached the highest altitude in our travel along the Americas (11990 feet).

The day before yesterday, it was the Independence Day, one of the most important celebrations in the United States: even if it was raining, we saw some fireworks and some people on the road. Probably, we were the happiest ones, because Italy (the soccer team) gained the final in the World Cup!

Finally we are on the mountains, and it is like being at home. From Denver the road rises strongly, climbing on a red soil… suddenly the landscape colors of a green unknown by our mountains in the Alps: the meadows and the trees appear almost silvery colored. Soon we have overcome the 3000 meters of altitude and we could even see some snow. Here the valleys are so large that the mountains peaks (up to 4000 meters), seem just hills. Our trip ended in Breckenridge, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains: our accommodation is a picturesque hostel, owned by a nice and funny couple from England and their dog Gaspode (Fireside Inn). Here we have come in contact with one more face of America: we could define it the “other America”, but we prefer to think about it as another piece of a complex puzzle… this is the America which loves and respects its land and environment, the America of the endless natural parks and the free public transportation, powered by renewable energy (bio-diesel and hybrid electric). It is the America which tries to find out and remember the road traced by the native peoples, so much neglected in the past.

The days are so amazing here: we are exploring the beautiful woods both by walking and cycling, the sun is always shining, even if there are frequent and short thundershowers. Today is our first month of nomadic travel, it could not begin better!