It was a very beautiful scenario, nonetheless. Once we got away from the fuss near the port, we could enjoy silence and perfect connection with these monumental black – or red? – rock walls. We paddled upstream for a few hours, always alone, chatting and thinking about our future trip, saying “once we should do the whole Colorado River”. We turned back shortly before
sunset, glad to be finally in the shadow and to witness the incredible colours and reflections that the river was offering to us only. We got off the water well after sunset, the sky was pretty dark already. We were hungry and tired but we decided to drive a little further East into Arizona’s desert plain.
At this point in our story is where we accidentally ran into a rodeo, just at the side of the road, where we got to know our cowboy friend we mentioned earlier. We were lucky to see first hand the traditional cowboy ways and how they handle wild horses and cows. Their gestures and braveness made us think about those early days when USA was still a largely rural country and people had to rely only on themselves for mostly everything. Europe passed that point in history much earlier than the United States, which is still closely tied to it. The USA differs from Europe by its relationship with the wilderness. I talked a lot with my girlfriend about this topic during our trip. As Europeans we got really impressed by the scale and by the degree of intactness that most American landscapes display. There’s rarely anything like that in Europe. Nevertheless the way nature is tamed and controlled up to the highest degree in the urban environment clashes with the idea we have of USA – the country of the great outdoors. Somehow we understood the reason behind the motto “Keep the country country”. And we agree with it. America is a beautiful country. Better to keep it country.
