WORLD OF WILL

Having left Roswell, we spent an uneventful couple of days in Albuquerque searching fruitlessly for a new skylight to replace the one that had been annihilated during that unprovoked attack by a tree. Undeterred by our lack of success, I managed, through my experiences in Europe of mending a broken van with gaffer tape, to lash the carcass of the old skylight together in such a way that at least it wouldn't liberate itself from the van entirely. With the RV all bandaged up we headed west, out into the desert wilderness, for a week of rock-based adventure. We drove through an old volcanic area called El Malpais – the badlands – in which we visited an extinct volcano called Bandera. While this was all very nice and, you know, volcano-shaped, the real surprise was what lay down below. Beneath the ancient lava flow was a cave and in that cave was a "lake of ice". The temperature down there never gets above 0°C so this ice has been there for centuries – scientists have dat...

This week we were in three different states. Four if you count 'dismay'. Firstly, from a cool and mountainous Colorado we went to a warmer and slightly flatter New Mexico. Almost immediately one of the things you notice change is the architecture, with lots of pueblo-style adobe buildings everywhere. In fact, in places like downtown Santa Fe there's a strict building code that means all buildings have to be in this style, whether it's McDonalds or a covered car park. It makes the whole place seem a little bit twee and a bit fake – like you're walking around a Mexican theme park or something. Santa Fe is also a very 'arty' city and there are vast amounts of naff paintings and weird sculpture awaiting any tourists that happen to have more money than taste. In terms of attractions, Santa Fe sticks with the construction theme. F or a start it boasts the "Miraculous Stairway", a spiral staircase in an old chapel that apparently shouldn't work as ...