Sightseeing in Alaska
Alaskan salsa people are amazing! Once the organisers of the festival, Michelle and Chris, found out we were from England they invited us to go sightseeing with them on Monday after the congress. They had organised a day for the instructors and performers who had flown in from all over America to visit various places of interest in the local area and we got to join them!! We walked into town for midday and met at the hotel most people were staying at while Michelle organised lifts for us all. We were to travel in Mario's truck (a cool old guy who's danced since he could walk, flew helicopters in Vietnam and got posted to Alaska because of misdemeaners with the commanding officer's daughter!!) along with Dj Ceelos from LA (finally someone who knows about kizomba!) Jorge Contreras from Tijuana (bachata king!!) Was a fascinating drive as we all had different things to say about dancing and life in the different places we lived. Mario was shocked to discover neither me or Andy like football as he is a coach for professional teams in Alaska and had to go to London to train with the FA, he's also working with the olympic squad...amazing guy, u'd never think to look at him that he does all this stuff!! Our hours journey ended at a very upmarket ski resort called Alyeska, where Mario gave us a quick tour while the others arrived and we went to a private room for refreshments...coffee and nibbles!! Then it was back in the vehicles for a drive to and around the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre where we saw bears, moose, bald eagles, bison, elk, reindeer, buffalo and even a porcupine!! The bears are pretty bloody impressive...defo wouldn't want to meet one in the wild...the claws!!!! From here we drove on to Portage Glacier, one of the only acessable by road 'blue' glaciers in the world!! And it really is blue!! Where the visitor centre is built is where the glacier used to be, you could literally touch it from there only 30 years ago...now its receded 1.5 miles!! We took a ferry ride out to the face of the glacier and it was just incredible...soo beautiful and so vast!! The lake has chunks of ice floating in it where bits of glacier have broken off (we waited hopefully but in vain to see this happen) and is sooo cold!! The minerals within the glacier are what gives it the blue colour and this also affects the lake it melts into, giving it a beautiful colour. After floating up and down in front of the glacier for a while we were getting cold so in typical salsa style, the group of us started dancing on the deck to someones ipod to keep warm!! a few odd looks but who cares..we'll dance anywhere especially in such prestigious company lol!! We headed back to the visiter centre and from there back to Alyeska for some food. They laid on the most delicious pizzas for us and more than we could possibly eat, tho Andy gave it a good try lol!! There was also wine and as neither of us was driving....! Before leaving Alyeska we took a lift on their cable car up to the top of the mountain where there is '7 Glaciers' restaurant (obviously because you can see 7 different Glaciers from this point) which was closed but the views were outstanding...most of the day had been grey and cloudy but as we went up the mountainside the sun came out and we could see for mile in the crystal clear air!! Sharing our cable car were some japanese film people who seemed to take great delight in filming our antics...salsa people are just like big kids when we get together...more dancing on the top of the mountain!! :) As the clouds started to close in again we travelled back down and back to the cars to head back to Anchorage, a slightly quieter drive home as most were quite tired by this point, we pulled over at one point to look at a moose picking its way among the trees at the side of the road! Once back in Anchorage mario took us to the Captain Cook monument and we had a few minutes to look across the bay to the distant Mount McKinley or Denali (Koyukon Athabaskan for "The High One", Dghelaayce'e in Ahtna) in Alaska, United States is the highest mountain peak in North America and the United States, with a summit elevation of 20,320 feet (6,194 m) above sea level!! From there it was a regroup at Simon's Bar for drinks...mmm cranberry mojito for me and pomegranate margarita for andy!! Got a chance to talk with Manny and Cory from Phoenix, lovely couple who run Tropical Vibes dance school, they loved what we're doing and said they'd give us some contacts for New York. In fact all the teachers, Dj's and performers were really friendly and think our salsa world tour is awesome!! Hope to meet some of them again as we travel through where they live...already thinking of lessons lol!!
I have to say this day was one of the best ever and bless her, Michelle wouldn't take a penny (sorry cent!) off us for any of it!! I hope the rest of Americans are as kind as the people of Alaska...they've made our travel so far absolutely amazing!!