05/26/09 ~ VidsVision

These are the products I took on my trip . I'd like to think that I am very good at packing for trips. I think it through and carry as less as possible. Another reason to love multifunctional products. I knew I'd be camping and hiking which doesn't require me to look the least bit glamorous. All I'd need would be sunscreens and face mists to keep me cool. Everybody there had face mists. You'd see the girls whip it outta their bags and their friends taking their glasses off so the girl could spray it all over their faces. Cute !

Technically I did not need the lipstick but I was SO loving the orange poppy color on my lightly tanned skin that I kept using it. I took the foundation and eyeliner for just in case purpose but no case came up where I had to use it. The Biore Skin Preservation line was my pick because the packaging is awesome. The pumps can be closed easily and no product leaks out. The Aquafina Gel is awesome at taking all the dirt off without drying much - heavy duty stuff.

You know my love for the new Clinique Sunscreens. They continued to work their charm. The Coppertone Ultraguard SPF 50 is a great pick for these trips where its okay to look a little bit oily. I used this on my legs and hands. They sink in very well and does not leave a white film. This is important coz you will be clicking pictures nonstop.They are a bit oily sometimes but that's okay. The best part is that it holds up very well with all the sweat. The Clinique face Cream is a tad bit, not so great here. It sometimes runs off with the sweat. But I like that the Clinique one doesn't have any scent to it. They ask you not to carry any products with strong fragrance as it might attract the animals !

I carried all the products in one of those plastic zipped bags in which you get bed linens. They are a good size, strong and have a zip ! Save those form the next time you buy linens.

Bath & Beauty Products :
Aquafina Shower Gel
Biore Skin Preservation Face Wash Gel
Coppertone Ultraguard SPF 50 Sunscreen
Clinique SPF 30 Body Creme
Clinique SPF 30 Face Creme
Aquafina Face Mist
Biore Skin Preservation Hard Day's Overnight Face Moisturizer
Boscia Jujube Rejuvenist Whipped Body Creme
Alterna Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner sachets
Olivella Hand Wash sachets
Biore Facial Wipes
Hair ties and hair bands
Hair brush
Hand Sanitizers ( Purell/ Germ X)

Makeup Products:
Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss stick in Orange Poppy
Prescriptives Exhilarating Lip Color - Papaya
Snog Lip balm
Milani Eyebrow Pencil
Susan Posnick Mineral Foundation
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero

Dont forgte the insect repellents. Carry an umbrella. You'll probably get the same funny reaction from your fellow hikers but unlike them you wont feel the heat as much ! You need not over do it like I did. I wore a wide brimmed hat and carried an umbrella :p

Love,
Indian Girl
PS: I would have put up pics but I put all the products back in their places yesterday :(

Sorry I've been MIA for the past three days. If you follow me on twitter you'll know I was at The Big Bend National Park for the weekend. I wanna share my whole experience with you guys and give you a little glimpse into my vacation and hopefully get you excited about Big Bend NP !This post is not related to beauty in any way. I will have a post up soon on all the beauty / makeup products I took on this trip :)

I missed you guys. I really did. Every time I saw something great I kept making mental notes of telling you all about it. The Big Bend is something everyone has to experience to believe. The vast stretches of mammoth mountains, dry desserts, wild cacti tell the story of how small man is. No amount of technology or human intelligence can take over nature. Like I said you have to see it to believe it.

We started out on Friday night on our 10 hour journey to the Big bend. I did not know what to expect. The photos and all the material I read online did no justice to the beauty and strength of what I was about to experience. A little after a town called Ft. Stockton you'll catch the first sight of the mountains. I was SO excited I could not stop saying wow and stopped the car several times trying to take pictures. It totally skipped my mind that I was gonna go sit on those mountains in a few hours ! After several hundred of those wows and OMG's we finally reached the park.

Never ending empty roads

Roads inside Big Bend National Park

After a quick info gathering session with the rangers we set off to the camp grounds to pick a spot and a quick wash. After the wash we slathered ourselves in sunscreen and drove down to Boquillas Canyon. A small trek leads to some more mountain and Rio Grande river (now muddy) views. It is amazing to know that just behind these mountains is Mexico ! It is a heavily monitored area with Border Patrol everywhere. Apparently the Big bend NP also used to be a drug route (I love mafia /drug lord stories ). After Boquillas we made our way to the Hot Springs. The road to this place was narrow and muddy and a little scary. Once you reach the parking spot you walk around a few historic buildings and make your way to the hot springs. It was hot and the hot springs are at a temperature 105 F so no way I was gonna soak in it.

Lots more views and lots more ooh's and aah's later we drove back to our camp site and set up the tent. By then few more people had come to the site and had their tents up. We bought a lot of camping food so we could cook em over the coal and I got working on it. I love camping. I love camp food. I love eating out in the wild. I love I love I love. So we ate lots of kebabs ( well we did what best we could) canned chili, potatoes. Yumm fest - just plain food with salt cooked over fire. I could eat like that everyday. After learning that this 800,000 acres of land was home to several bears and mountain lions I'd been having nightmares of being attacked. But trust me its safe. The camping grounds are maintained very well and though not as many people visit Big Bend, the few you see there, will make you feel better. The days are long and hot with sun setting at around 8:30. The nights are so very pleasant and cool.

So after food we got to out tents and decided to do a early morning (5 AM) trek along Lost Mine trail or The Window trail. That was the plan of course. But our tents were so cozy and the weather so good that we woke up only at about 8:30 AM. So much for early morning. By then everybody had left. Only about two other tents were still up. Hilarious. After a quick wash and a bread & cheese breakfast we drove down to Chisos Basin Lodge , had some coffee and set out to climb along the Lost Mine Trail. Young and old get on this trail. Some do the one mile hike, some go all the way. We went all the way along the 5 mile hike (1100 ft) . It took us about 3 1/2 hours up and down. The trail is of moderate difficulty but is pretty steep. My glutes were killing me towards the end but making small stops in between helps recuperate. Don't forget to take lots of water and gatorade to avoid dehydration. The sun is brutal so don't forget sunscreen and face mist. I also took an umbrella and almost every climber would stop and make a cute comment asking me if it was raining. Some others who found the sun too strong thought it was a great idea. I personally would have died without my umbrella. With it I felt like I was walking in the shade through out the trek . Of course its narrow so I had to keep closing it when people had to walk by but that's no biggie at all.

The temperature gets remarkably cooler as you make your way up the mountain. You will hear the winds howling through the mountain ranges. AMAZING , I tell ya . We made several stops just to stand and take the view in. Every angle makes for something beautiful. Its a photographers paradise. From the lost mine trail you have a great view of Casa Grande Mountain (7325 ft) , several other peaks of the Chisos Mountain range and many canyons. Once on top of the trail you get an exhilarating feeling looking at all the enchanting beauty that surrounds you. By now you'd have seen so much that you are out of words to describe them. You just stand still and look at it. Take in as much as you can. Tell you brain to click a mental picture of it and make it your default screensaver. There were a bunch of brats on top who kept yelling and spoiling the silence. But to each his own. I was happy I completed the trail and got to see all this.

We got down pretty fast but its so steep I needed all the concentration in the world to avoid slipping on the rocks. Plus there was a fear of running into a bear. Unfortunately I dint see any :(
After the trail, we did another round of slathering sunscreen all over and left for the most beautiful Santa Elena Canyon. You drive along the Ross Maxwell scenic drive ( 30 miles) to reach it. Along the drive you get a great view of the Chihuahuan Desert. Santa Elena is majestic. Its beyond beautiful. Except I had a severe headache and could not concentrate much on what I was seeing. But if you do go to Big Bend make it a point to see this. The long drive is SO worth it.

After seeing Santa Elena Canyon, we made our way back to visitors center, took a quick shower at the Rio Grande Village Complex and started on our way back to the city. It was sad leaving all this behind. The raw, undisturbed, nature here is like nothing I have experienced before. I feel terrible that in my early 20's I thought I wasn't a nature person. I take it back - I AM A NATURE PERSON.

On our way back, we had to keep to a speed of 40miles/hr because the roads were full of deers and rabbits. You never know when one of them would want to cross the road and land right in front of your car ! So to avoid any accidents we moved slowly and saw several several deers and rabbits. And yes, at Fort Stockton you'll see a heavily advertised IHOP that says its open 24 hours but closes at 12 midnight on weekends. We ate there on our way to Big Bend and thought of stopping there for dinner on our return trip. But then at 1 AM on that hungry night, we got to to know that the 24 hour claim was wrong. So, instead we went to a small Mexican joint. Bad food, but food nonetheless. Got back on the road and got back home.

Reflecting back on the trip I think I'd say I've seen a life time's worth of :

Mountains
Desert
Cacti
Roadrunner birds
Roads
Texas Ranches
Oil wells
Deers
Rabbits

The ranches are huge. There are SO MANY of them ! Makes me wanna buy one too. Buy a huge piece of land, call it "Moneymaker Ranch" and hope to find oil and rare minerals in it. Then I'll become a oil millionaire and life will be settled. I will not have to think twice about buying another Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge or for that matter anything. I will sit in my ranch surrounded by natural beauty, have loads of horses and blog all day long....

Few more pictures from the trip for y'all !