wild wild west, finally! well, this title may be a little bit exagerated but the town of paonia deserves a little bit of emotions. after we have left aspen couple of days ago, we stayed some hours in the old snowmass. it's an old village just one valley from the snowmass village where we were staying but it's a different world and different time. there is no construction going on in there, they've got maybe two dozens houses in the whole valley, the views are gorgeous and the calm there is breathtaking. to make this description shorter, simply the first place where i could imagine living in the states, although being a city person in general. the few hours there were beautiful.

we were taken to the little town of paonia next. it's the smallest place we've been to so far and everybody has told us that this would be a very special place. some people would say us that th eplace is boring, others that it is damn conservative, still others that almost all the people are LDS (latter days saints - mormons), and still others that it's just rednecks living there. well, all of these were wrong. and by a lot. paonia was our best stop so far and we really enjoyed every single moment in there. the place is small. about 1.500 people there. but it was the first place with a real community i experienced here. the feeling that the people do care about what is going on around them was everpresent. my host family lady works as an aditor in a regional (10 western states) environmental and generally counterculture magazine high country news (www.hcn.org), was born in nyc and has got her digree from the columbia university. well, haven't seen that many rednecks around:) i managed to play a game of soccer in a local mixed mexican-american team and became an instant fan of the local high school football team paonia eagles. well, paonia has been a highlight of out tour so far, no doubt about that.

www.paonia.com