The Monument Valley is part of the Navajo Nation Reservation. It is known for its buttes, i.e. isolated stone hills with sheer cliffs, and was also part of our itinerary.

Unfortunately, we had (again) bad luck with the weather: Even though we could enjoy blue skies, we also had a lot of wind. This meant that in some places, we were literally sandblasted while driving along the stone formations.

Fortunately, however, we were protected from the wind during the final highlight of our tour: We were served some freshly made, delicious tacos by local indians.

The real challenge was still to come, though: Setting up the tents was already quite difficult due to the wind. Sleeping in them, however, turned out to be almost impossible. The sand just found its way through everything, including the fine insect mesh of our tents. This meant that with each gust, some sand was blown into the tents, and settled down on us. In the morning, I could almost have passed for a native american. Thankfully, our tour leader treated us to a breakfast in the nearby hotel, where we also cleaned up the worst of the sand. Still, this was possibly the worst night I ever had.