Las Vegas...or is it New York?

Anything goes on the strip, New York as seen here, or Camelot as seen in the extra photo, and at night it bustles with life and colour. We took a walk up the strip last night and it was so difficult to find a spot for the tripod due to the number of people crowding the pavements.

Las Vegas leaves me gasping for fresh air. It is too hot to be outside, and everywhere inside is air conditioned and therefore not fresh air. Adam read somewhere that the gambling areas are constantly topped up with oxygen so that the gamblers stay awake and continue gambling all through the night. With no windows and oxygen keeping the brain alert it is no wonder that they have no idea what time of day it is. This whole place is designed to take money off you. Even staying in our lovely hotel everything costs extra. We had the idea of booking a cabana (a sort of tented gazebo) at the pool today so we could stay out of the sun, but at $400 per cabana.....I don't think so. There was a waiting list for umbrellas....but we got one eventually. There are at least 20 restaurants in our hotel, and yet we have battled to get bookings for supper and even for breakfast....we queued to get a table at the breakfast buffet as the a la carte breakfast venues were all booked up. You get the idea, it is busy and despite the vast size of this hotel it seems as if it can't quite cope with all the guests in summer. Somehow the resorts in Europe don't seem to have this problem, well not the ones we have ever been to.

I was very disappointed with my photos taken at Grand Canyon. There are actually very few areas in which to take photos. The skywalk forbids the use of cameras as it is made of 6 layers of glass, 5 of which are bonded together but the top one can get replaced when it gets too scratched. Apparently too many people were 'dropping cameras' and scratching the surface so cameras were banned. I think in truth it has more to do with the photographers employed to stand there and take your photo as you walk through and then you can buy the photos as you leave. There is a very small area overlooking Eagle Rock where you can take photos of the Canyon, with no safety rail at all (British health and safety would freak out over that) and it is so full of people trying to get photos that I could not even get one of the five of us without someone else being in the scene. At the bottom of the gorge you are not free to wander around as it is a private reserve land belonging to the Hualapai, so you are very restricted in opportunities to take photos. The best ones I took were through the helicopter window and then you are dealing with reflections and dirty marks on the windows. I am now concerned that Yosemite is also going to be rammed with people and I will be frustrated in getting decent photos there. There is no restaurant, cafe or anywhere to relax at the Grand Canyon to take in that view. The boys said this was good or else it become too commercial, but at 3000 visitors per day in the summer, isn't that already commercial?There are planes and helicopters constantly buzzing in and out and so many people but very limited facilities there.The entire area in in the 10th year of a severe drought. It is quite worrying to hear that the Hoover Dam, which mainly supplies the Los Angeles area with water, is dropping by 10 meters per year. The area is very dry and arid. Apparently not many mammals live out in the desert as it just too hot to survive, although coyotes are seen close to settlements. Our pilot told us that in the desert there are plenty of rattle snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas as they survive anything! I think perhaps other areas in the canyon are less commercial, where one can hike and take in the beauty of the area, but that is not where they take you when you book a trip from Las Vegas.

This morning Gavin and I ran in the gym (a bit of a queue for the treadmills at 8am in the morning) but it was stifling in that stuffy air conditioned air I could not wait to get out of there. We were then very lazy and lay in the shade around the pool for most of the day, and later had a short walk along the strip to see the various hotels and their crazy architecture.