After the conference we went on an 2 day trip to see some of the geological wonders of Arizona We started by waking up really early and go on a long bus trip on our way to Flagstaff where we would stay the next two nights.

On our way there we stopped at some place which I don’t remember the name to see the sight of some mammoth and Pre-Historic human discoveries that weren’t there anymore so all we saw was a dry river bed..

After that we stopped at Walnut Canyon National Monument to see the ruins of the Sinagua people. They built their homes on the sharp cliffs of a beautiful canyon. Impressive!! They would have to climb down for water and had their crops at the rimtop. Again, as a geologist, I was impressed with the cliffs themselves and the fantastic cross bedding

Next stop was the much awaited Barringer Crater a.k.a. meteorite crater! Where the Canyon Diablo meteorite fell
Wow! It’s huge! This was very exciting. General public are only allowed to walk around therim but we were special so the Barringer Crater Company (which also gave me the travel grant-Thank you!) allowed us, members of the Meteoritical Society to go down to the bottom. It was also the first time in 30 years the the society went down there One in a life time!

It was a long way down and a long way up. But all worth it! Even with my fear of heights. We had an explanation about the processes of formation of the crater and te local geology and then back up again. Something to tell your grand children!

We finally came back up exhausted and filthy. Luckily the temperatures cooled down a bit that day so we managed to survive (remember it’s the desert).

Back at the museum the Barringer Crater Company offered us a BBQ. Lovely although I was too tired to eat.

Fantastic day!

Next day we left early again and headed to the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument were we walked on a lava flow.

Next stop the Wupatki National Monument, the ruins of a pueblo in the middle of the desert. Very clever houses, very hot and dry but a fantastic view

Finally we headed to the Grand Canyon!

Oh dear! Amazing!! You loose all sense of perspective! It’s huge!!!!! It’s beautiful! It’s a geologist’s dream come true! I have no other words to describe it. You have to be there!

After an afternoon at the Canyon we went back to Flagstaff to a restaurant where waiters disappeared and went to sing on a stage. Interesting…

Next back on the road and back to Tucson to the same hotel where we spent the afternoon in the pool.

Tuesday was the day we started our trip back home. The flight to Phoenix was short but horrible with lots of turbulence. At Phoenix I had the following comment from passport control: ‘ Portuguese? Awesome!’ I had several of those comments. No one called me Spanish and they all seemed to know where Portugal is. Nice

Then a long turbulent flight to London and we were home!

I forgot to tell in the previous post that we had a trip on Wednesday to Tombstone! Very good with the random cowboy on the street and original buildings. Nice museum at the saloon/brothel where Wyatt Earp met his love.

And that was it. A trip to remember! I’ve uploaded the remaining photos here or you can click on images at the top of the page and see all the albums and I’m sure Becca will soon upload hers here

And I’m back!

Well I arrived a few days ago but still a bit confused with time differences. But getting there!

What can I say?

Memorable to say the least!!!

The only bad thing was the stress of giving the talk that didn’t let me enjoy the place until the last day. But in the end it went well and lets not talk about it again

It all started with adventures at the airport. Our first plane from London to Phoenix was late. In fact it arrived a few minutes before the plane that would take us to Tucson was supposed to depart. And we still had to go through passport control (which as you may imagine is not an easy thing), collect our bags, go through security again, check in again and get on the plane (no, the bags didn’t go directly to the next flight). So after some stress, begging people to get in front of them in line, going through control with iris scan and finger print scan and a nice ‘hey you are Portuguesa’ with a perfect Portuguese accent (the first of a few good surprises about my Nationality), a series of phone call between workers to speed the process and hold the plane, we finally got running through security. I didn’t have time to put my shoes back on, so I ran bare feet through the airport, holding my belt in one hand and the open laptop bag in the other. We finally got to the gate and the flight was late because of bad weather !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flight took 22 min!! And we managed to see a lightning storm like you see on the Discovery Channel. Beautiful!!!

Long roads they have there! A grid system and roads as far as your eyes can see. No roundabouts like MK though

We got to the hotel after dark so only in the morning we could see the views. And what a view! The hotel is a Spa resort with pool and Jacuzzis and all can can ask for and a fantastic view of the desert and the city!

The following week was a mixture of watching some talks, working on mine, a scorpion as a companion on the curtains, a spa treatment, a tarantula in the car park and a bit of pool

Other things to say is that waiters are TOO nice, smiling and asking you so many times if everything is ok that you want to hit them! It really sounded fake as well. Someone even say I have a wonderful English accent (!!!) LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Shopping one day was also out of this world with everything so cheap! Being outside revealed to be very difficult with temperatures around 45 C(!) The banquet wasn’t the best. It was on an interesting site- the airplane bone-yard but it was so hot in the hangars we couldn’t stay there for long.

And then the trip after the conference…in part 2

When Becca told me that it’s one of the few albuns where she actually loves every song I didn’t pay much attention. Until I actually listened to it! It’s fabulous!

Music keeps you sane (but it doesn’t make miracles )

And every time I go to Portugal it gets more difficult to get back here… I feel more and more like an alien…

Eventually I will post something about the holiday and some pictures although I’ll be leaving on Friday to Arizona