Nueva Entrada

quick note to say, I´ve made it to Spain. I´m completely exhausted, so I won´t write about the last days in Santa Fe or the misadventures (which, thankfully, were slight) of the trip, or how odd it is staying with strangers, lovely though they seem.

I´m here, all is well, I´m going to sleep!

Bandelier

Bandelier National Monument is my favourite nearby place to take visitors. It's the site of an ancient Anasazi community, with cliff-dwellings carved into the volcanic rockface. The formations themselves are beautiful, and it's one of my very favourite places. There's a cool stream and lots of Ponderosa pines nearby, so after climbing through the caves and cliff dwellings, you can walk back through the pines.
It'd on high mesa, near the San Idlefonso Pueblo, so it's high and dry and the sky is incredible. We watched a thunderstorm come in for hours. It caught us in Santa Fe, but when we drove to Albuquerque and took the tram up Sandia Mountain, we could watch it keep creeping across the state.

Fiestas! part 2

All weekend there are parades and other events for Fiestas. I took my friend Sarah, who was visiting from San Francisco, to the Hysterical Historical parade. Every year there is a Fiesta Court, featuring Don Diego De Vargas, his men, his monks, the Princesses, etc.
there's singing and dancibg and mariachis, who I really only like at this time of year... I kid you not, they thre Green Chiles to the crowd!





QUE VIVA LA FIESTA! QUE VIVA SANTA FE!

Fiestas! part 1

The burning Zozobra is the kick-off to our annual Fiestas, celebrating the founding of Santa Fe. My city pride never gets higher! Zozobra himsef is Old Man Gloom, and by burning him we burn all the gloom of the previous year.


What happened instead was that I ran ahead of my friends to try to get into the park where the burning happens, failed, and watched from the outside, meeting a woman who is usually a Fire Dancer in the event. We both felt like outsiders and watched Zozobra from the outside. We screamed and shouted as he burned and it was kind of wonderful. Afterwards, a whole bunch of old friends came to my house for ice cream, wine, and sparkling pomegranite juice.

Que Viva la Fiesta!

Scorpion??

Yes, folks, this is a "Sun Spider" or a "Wind Scorpion" and it was under my couch last night. Scared the bejeezus out of me. They bite but aren't poisonous. What the heck? We're too high up for these!

Guess it's time to go back to Europe...