Camille in Nevada

This weekend, my friend Marine ( french ), Christina ( chinese ) and I decided to go to Las Vegas by bus. The girls wanted to go shopping and I decided to go see the Grand Canyon by myself. But first, let me tell you about Vegas, the « cheeziest » city in the world. As you guys know, Vegas is in the desert and surronded by mountains, so the temperature is usually hot, but this weekend Las Vegas has never been hotter ( except for : July 24, 1942 according to the washington post). Wile we were driving, dozens of cars needed to stop on the edge of the highway to cool their motors. Even our bus needed to stop 15 minutes, otherwise we would'nt have been able to climb up a mountain. The temperature was 125 fahrenheit ( 51 c ). Just so you can get how hot it was ; my Canon camera stopped working after 5 minutes in my bag in the sun ( I was freaking out), you can't feel the A.C., our jewelery was starting to mealt after 5 minutes in the sun, and even my shoes were mealting!! Mexico during summer is cold compared to it!

When we arrived in Las Vegas I was shocked to realized that the city is as bad as I thought it would be. Las Vegas represents the total opposite of ALL my strongest values. I belive that if hell exists, it must be Las Vegas (LOL) !! It's a beautiful mix of visual pollution, lack of class, gambling, overexposition of sex, party like there is no tomorrow and no day or night. Decadence is at it's finest. Let's say that I won't be sad to not go back ever again! But yes, it's probably a good place if you want to get wasted... The only thing I can say that I enjoyed is the garden inside of the Bellagio Hotel wic has a beautiful botanical garden and art of Chihuly ( a great artist that I saw at Musé des Beaux Arts in Montreal, last month and loved).

Thank God we had a pool in our hotel!

Now that I'm done with the «clever» city of Las Vegas I can start writing about the good things! First of all the path from L.A. to Vegas is breathtaking, I had never seen the desert ; I loved the dryness of the landscape...
Saturday morning I went to the Grand Canyon, on an hour-long bus ride, and then a thirty minutes ride in a little 8 places plane. It was very scary since the weather was so hot. I learned that the helicopters couldn't even fly due to the hot weather ; pilot reassured me by saying that it was not dangerous, only uncomfortable! I finally got to one of the greatest spots in the world : the splendid Grand Canyon. And yes you have to see it once in your life. It was beyond my expectations! I made an excellent decision to take the plane, because I could see the amazing Colorado River crossing the desert.
 

 

I have to tell you about a very funny and awkward thing that happened at the Grand Canyon. As I told you I was alone, so I had to ask someone to take pictures of me for memories. I asked a Chinese couple to take my picture, the reaction of this couple amused me:
-« Yes, sure but can I take a picture with you after?» he said.
-« Euh why? » I responded.
-« Because he found you so pretty!» his wife explained.

I guess I was representing America for them... (strange)