Travel garisha

                                                                                            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 crusing 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 …. 

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!

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