Travel garisha

Crossing the border Costa Rica-Nicaragua with new Serbian passport

garisha — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:21:00 GMT

Crossing the border Costa Rica-Nicaragua with new Serbian passport

A group of four boys was suddenly decided to visit Nicaragua.
We went from Playa del Coco to our first destination of San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.The group was happy boys of various nationalities, ages and origin.
Indian guy born in Tanzania with USA passports, Tico with USA passport, a Serb with old blue passport and Me,Myself&I; , Serb with a new red passports.
The first challenge was crossing the border Penas Blancas.
There are plenty of money changers on either side of the border, along with hordes of "tour guides" that offer to lead you through the crossing, as well as carry your luggage for a small fee.
After some negotiation, we decided to accept the best offer.
The offer was 30 USD per person including car.
Later I found out at the border that U.S. citizens pay 7 USD, the car is 22 USD.For Serbian citizens, I didn`t found tariff.Although I tried!
When we crossed the border was the actual swine flu. (I'm writing a year later).
Of course we had to go to the doctor.

Here's how it seemed.
On the border there is a bus station.It was a big crowd because there was a holiday and Nicos were returning home from Costa Rica.

After a while our" travel guide" came back and said:"We have a problem"!
"Customs officers can not find Serbia.".
I immediately remembered the story about a girl who had a problem with passport in Dubai.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naslovi.net%2F2008-10-11%2Fb92%2Fproblemi-sa-novim-pasosem%2F860924&sl=sr&tl=enHa ha ha party begins!
My friend Issa came up with a newspaper headline:"Indian, Tico and two Serbian terrorists arrested in Nicaragua"
"Travel guide" said:
"Customs officers just called Manaqua to get an official report.
Yugoslavia was on the list but Serbia doesn`t exist!"
Funniest thing is that my friend Louie, had old passport which is valid for officials from Nicaragua.

Photo taken from the Serbian newspaper,in right hand new one-Serbia and in left hand old one-Yugoslavia.

The tourist guide is removed and promised to return soon with new information.
We continue to make joke and we expect to hear a new story of our " guide".
We did not have long waiting.Here he comes!
"Everything is fine but you have to add 40 USD more, for non USA citizens."-he said.
And we paid.
Again Americans fared better!
Poor Serbian guys...
No more obstacles-Nicaragua here we comes!

Photos: Bisbee,AZ

garisha — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:11:00 GMT

Bisbee

God created the Grand Canyon, but he lives in Sedona!

garisha — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 04:52:00 GMT

God created the Grand Canyon, but he lives in Sedona!

The sentence from the title is 100% correct!
It originated from the Indians but now it's widely used by locals and tourists.

interesting house

Sedona is located 120 miles from Phoenix. It is residency of 11,000 people on about 50 square kilometers. 51% is privately owned and the rest belongs to the Coconino National Forest!http://www.fs.fed .us/r3/coconino /

The average altitude is about 1330 meters. The highest point is Coffee Pot Rock, located about 1,700 meters above sea level . Average age of population is 50 and it is mostly high income households.There are number of famous residents who currently live or have lived here in the past and among them is a former president candidate John McCain http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/John_McCain It is easy for him - he has a good retirement !

About 3 mliona tourists visit Sedona each year. Among them was myself - twice!

Sedona also known as Red Rock Country.
Here's why.

Myself on the red rocks

As I said , I visited Sedona twice. In my first visit, I went by car . Second time - by plain .

One thing that you must do in Sedona is a Jeep Tour . We had our own car so we visited a destination called Broken Arrow that made Sedona famous . It is named by famous 1950 western movie with James Stewart http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042286/

Stewart was crousing there on his horse and we drove our Toyota Tacuma.

Our car

They do not know what happened to them ....

- tourists in the Pink Jeep

parked

Garisha in front of our pride car

no turning back

Truly a wonderful experience for me . My travel buddy Adža is a great driver !

Learning how to drive in Serbia , one gets a great experience of "cross country" - so cruising on the rocky Sedona roads was a peace of cake !

What else one has to see in Sedona?

One of the most popular attractions is the Chapel of the Holy Cross http://www.chapeloftheholycross.com

I'm not an expert on architecture or a religion but I must give credit to the person who designed it. At the entrance it is written that they welcome people of any race and religion and I like that !

Here are some photos of the church.

Sedona is famous for art galleries . Here is some of the work displayed outside

Thanks to my buddy Mich , the second time I visited Sedona was plane.

Did I enjoy ? Hmmmm - what do you think ?

I loved it !

Inside Mitch's plain

Me at the airport

taking off

Where is the airport?

One can see the official website of the airport.http://sedonaairport.org/

What else to see and to do?

Let's say there are many healers, psychotherapists and energy healers. There are even tours named : Sedona Vortex tour, Authentic Psyhic Spiritual Healer, Wisdom, etc. Psyhic Sedona.
I did not visit any ....we have enough of them in Serbia.
I am just not in to that at this point of my life, next time maybe...

And surely I will return because:

"God created the Grand Canyon but he lives in Sedona"

Just to check if he is still there ....

Jerome,najsiveci avetinjski grad u Americi

garisha — Thu, 6 May 2010 22:55:00 GMT

Jerome,najsiveci avetinjski grad u Americi

Za Jerome u Arizoni kazu da je jedan od najsivisi (misli se na nadmorsku visinu)i najsiveci avetinjskih gradova u Americi.(Ghost Town).Takodje kazu da je grad s pogledom od bilion dolara(The Town with Billion Dollar View).
Obisao sam malo gradova u USA ali od te manjine,ovaj je stvarno bio najsivisi i najsiveci.Za pogled od milion dolara ne znam,mozda?Ali ipak ajde da im verujemo.
Jerome je imao zanimljivu istoriju ,koja kao da se poklapa sa trenutnom situacijom u USA.
Dakle neverovatni uspon i strmoglavi pad.U svakom pogledu.

Јеrome, nazvan jos najsijedinstveni grad u Americi, imao je svoje skromne pocetke davne 1876 godine kada su pocela prva iskopavanja rude.Porastao je od male zajednice sa satorima i barakama veoma brzo do modernog grada od 15.000 stanovnika.
Na svom vrhuncu 1920, Jerome je peti po velicini grad u Arizoni i dom za vise od 2500 rudara.Za to doba moderan grad sa bolnicama,pozoristem,operom,restoranima i naravno "crvenim fenjerima",koja ide uz rudarska mesta zar ne?

Prva kompanija za preradu ruda bila je United Verde Copper Company(UVCC) osnovana 1882 godine ciji je vlasnik bio izvesni Morris Ruffner.

Grad je dobio ime po investitoru iz New Yorka,Eugen Murray Jerome.

Karakteristicno za njega je da nikada nije posetio grad,nego je ceo posao vodio iz New York-a.

Bas me zanima koliko dana jahanja je bilo potrebno od New York-a do Jeroma?Nije ni cudo sto je sedeo u kacelariji,daleko je bre!!

Zvanicno je grad dobio ime Jerome 1899 godine.

Ipak covek koji je najzasluzniji za njegov procvat je Williams Anderws Clark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Andrews_Clark ,industrijalac i senator iz Montane.

Clark-ovo znanje iz rudarstva i preduzeticke sposobnosti vremenom su od United Verde Copper Company (UVCC) stvoroili jednu od najvecih kompanija za preradu rude u svetu.

Izmedju 1897 1899 Јеrome je goreo nekoliko puta. Јеdan pozar unistio je 24 saloona i 4 kineska restorana.
Da dobro ste procitali,bilo je tada kineskih restorana!Bilo je i srba ali nemam podatke da li su prodavali pljeskavice i cevapcici.Posle svakog pozara tanovnici su uspeli da vrlo brzo obnove grad.
Sreca je pocela da napusta Jerome kada je cena bakra pocela naglo da pada a totalni kolaps se desio padom berze 1929 godine kada je grad dramticno poceo da gubi stanovnike.
1953 godine i poslednji rudnik je zatvoren.
1955 broj stanovnika je bio manji od 100.

Током 1970-ih grupa umetnika preselila se i prazne zgrade i avetinjski grad jer obnovljen kao zajednica umetnosti.
Polako Jerome je postao ono sto je danas ,miks zgrada iz 19 i 20 veka sa restoranima,hotelima,galerijama i svakojakimprodavnica suvenira.

Treba izdvojiti

Jerome Grand Hotel koji je prethodno bio najveca i najmodernija bolnica u Arizoni.

lift iz 1926 godine u Grand Hotelu

Meni u Grand Hotel Jerome i nije bas neki.Mislim da je u opticaju bilo samo 5 vrsta jela.

Iz ocaja smo se odlucili za lignje.Uobicajena klopa u Arizoni zar ne?

Takodje treba videti i Gold King Mine i Ghost Town.

zaista originalno

Ghost Town je u stvari jedna brvnara u kojoj se prodaju suverniri.Sav novac navodno ide u dobrotvorne shrhe.Ih koliko sam puta to cuo!Nema veze "otvorio"sam se za kesicu sitnih kamencica.

Probao sam jos i da posetim lokalnu vinariju ali zamislite rade dvakratno,bas kad sam ja dolazio oni ne rade?

Neodoljivo me podseca na radno vreme u Trstu ranih 80-tih.

Sve u svemu Jerome je zanimljivo mesto i svakako ga treba posetiti.