Goodbye Albuquerque

Recorded at a Navajo Middle School today. It was already after the last day of school so it was pretty empty. However, the welcome sign was pretty nice: (the middle one is in Navajo language.)

After we were done, we made our way to the ICE Caves. It took forever to get there, but we wanted to actually do something nature related. It is New Mexico after all. 

It's amazing, after a small hike down into this volcano pit, you have to make your way down by walking down these wooden steps. You don't believe it, but you're walking down the steps and it's your regular New Mexico 80 degree weather and then a certain number of steps down, it's like 30 degrees cold. 

The ice part of the Ice cave. Unfortunately, you can't walk on it anymore, which would've been amazing. 

The view from the bottom:

The view back on our drive back to Albuquerque proper. 

Tomorrow, we head back to New York. In my next supervision I will be announcing my acceptance to Silberman School of Social Work and providing my notice. Here goes nothing.

Working from "home"

Only two recordings today, and they've happened at our hotel and so Rose and I got to have a nice day of working from "home." Our hotel has a most wonderful patio and I was able to spend most of my non-recording time out there, enjoying the New Mexico heat.

For lunch we just walked out of our hotel and found The Grove Cafe and Market, where I enjoyed the Farmer's Salad: mixed greens, golden beets, asparagus, yellow pepper, tomato, marcona almonds, goat cheese and a lemon basil vinaigrette.

It was really yummy, even though it was wet goat cheese, which is not my favorite. For dinner we went to a nearby pizzeria, but I didn't take a picture and the food wasn't that great and thus: they don't get to be here.

All in all, though, a good productive day in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Redux

In Albuquerque, NM for days of recording, this time with Rose, this time actually recording in a Middle School inside a Navajo reservation.
Today though, we recorded in Crownpoint, NM, at an elementary school. During lunch hour, I just crossed the street to get me some Navajo Fry Bread. Essentially just a bunch of food trucks (and they all sell the same things) park on this expanse. It's not like there's a lot of traffic, but there's just enough.

 

I felt a little out of place and "outsider-y" so I went for a truck that looked clean, but not too crowded. 

I went for your regular old fry bread, which looks a lot like my own Dominican yaniqueque: flour, eggs, water fried on oil. Sprinkle some salt. It tastes pretty similar, but it really is not quite the same. 

And because I don't know the next time I'll be around one of these trucks I had me what they call a veggie "Navajo Taco." On a bed of fry bread you get pinto beans, lettuce, cheese tomatoes. It was delicious, super delicious.

I also "got to" drive back from Crownpoint to Albuquerque, where we are spending the night.

Bandelier

We weren't going to start work until late in the day, so we decided to take in a little bit of New Mexico. Our B&B hostess pointed us to Bandelier, a National Monument and Park. We drove about an hour in the early morning cold, enjoying the beauty around us. Once at Bandelier, you have about a gazillion trails that you can choose from. But let me backtrack: the Bandelier area was once inhabited by the Ancestral Pueblo People. We chose to not check out the Cavate areas (caves that were excavated by the Ancestral Pueblo People) were they had more than 400 rooms built. Instead we chose one of the trails - a moderate one that would take about three hours and that would take us from the top of the mountain down to the Rio Grande: Falls Trail.

The hike began easily enough, specially since it's on the way down. Although the trail had sharp edges and you had to make sure you stayed on the path, the path was pretty big and even, with very few sharp drops between steps. You could hear the Frijoles River singing a good 60 or 70 feet down from the trail, next to us - we essentially walked around this huge crater, in search of some falls, and in search of the river.

On the way down, enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful sights, we crossed paths with a family of four (parents and two boys) who were already coming back from the hike. We all said hi to each other as we passed, and I quickly decided that I will have a hiking family. I want my children to love nature and to feel comfortable with walking around a tiny tiny piece of earth that allows you to see awesomeness around you. Plus it just sounds cool. We also later on ran into a family of three (parents and a boy) that were also on the way down, but had stopped a bit to enjoy one of the falls.

The little boy was very cute, and fearless, climbing to the very edges of the path to look down. He also informed me that the entire thing had once been a volcano that was bigger than... something. I drowned him out, because little know-it-alls are hella cute, but also hella annoying. I decided that my future children would love hiking and would be fearless, but would not be know-it-alls. And if they end up being know-it-alls, they'll be the cute only kind.

We quickly surpassed the family and kept making our way down. That's when the trail got a little steeper, but it was okay - we jumped the Frijoles river a couple of times (back and forth and back and forth) until we finally hit the valley. The most amazing part about the trail was that there was all kinds of foliage on our way down - it went from looking like we were walking down a mountain to areas that could've been somewhere in the Northeast, to the Valley, that was mostly dry and did have tumble weeds, but was caught in between all of these mountains and the most impossibly blue sky you could think of. The Rio Grande totally snuck up on me - the little sucker was huge, and very muddy, but incredibly quiet. You could tell that the current within it was strong, but the surface did not show it at all.

After relaxing by the Rio Grande for a bit and a couple of swigs of water, we headed back. It was high noon and the sun was squarely upon us. I wished that I had brought a hat with me.
Soon though, it became obvious that the way out was not going to be as easy as the way in - of course not. We had walked down into a crater, now we were hiking out of it. Holy Shit. I made it a good 25 minutes before I had to stop. By the time that we hit the second Falls and we stopped to let my heart slow down I had decided that a hiking family is for idiots that don't know how good Central and Prospect Park are, and if my future kids can't get enough nature out of that, they can rent a documentary. We then ran into an older man, he must've been 65 to 70 something, that was also on his way up. He decided to join us and began walking between Matt and I.

I don't know if to be thankful for his presence or not. He kept Matt busy, talking about New Mexico and giving us details about the places we passed; everything from they just fixed this wooden bridge to the type of rock we walked by. He informed us it was tarantula season. I quietly wheezed my way up behind the two of them, while the old man, in his hat and his sweater, walked ahead cool as a cucumber. He reminded me of Roger Gulley and I was torn between finding him adorable and wanting to smack him over the head so that he would stop talking and I could concentrate on my wheezing. I need to get in shape y'all. For reals.

A Salad Bistro

The work day was pretty slow, but that didn't deter our hunger. After a beautiful Sunny day, we decided to stop by a spot in Santa Fe proper that advertised that they only sold Salads. Its name? Vinaigrette.

It was crowded, which is always a good sign I suppose. They apparently own a farm and only serve seasonal and organic veggies. They do offer meat, however, so they're not strictly a veggie place. We ordered from the seasonal specials and salads. We shared the most delicious pan crusted potatoes

And then I had the On the Cob salad, which consisted of a lot of corn, goat cheese, and a whole lot other goodness.

We finished the night with hot apple pie with a scoop of their homemade ice cream.

Perfect.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

After lunch in Albuquerque, we hit the road to Santa Fe. We took the scenic route. Check out all the blue:

Mountains upon mountains. The place is gorgeous and at times just beyond breathtaking. I kept singing the Santa Fe song from Rent, which probably bothered Matt a little, until we turned on his iPhone on shuffle.

We stayed at this place called "The Triangle Inn", which markets itself as the Gay Santa Fe Bed and Breakfast. The couple that own the place have two children and are hella friendly. The B&B consists of a bunch of "casitas" all made out of Adobe. I stayed in one of their Studio Casitas, with a lovely living area and kitchenette area attached to my bedroom. The only drawback? They don't receive TV signal, so although the rooms are equipped with TV's, you have to depend on their (considerably) large vhs collection if you'd like in room entertainment. Luckily, I had Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to keep me company, but this also means that as of this writing I've yet to watch this week's Grey's Anatomy and that sucks balls.

We were hungry, but also tired, so instead of heading into town for dinner, we drove around the corner to Gabriel's. The place is huge and quite beautiful. I was swayed by the smell of onions and so I had me a most excellent chicken fajita.

It comes with rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, guacamole  and corn tortillas.

The food was excellent, and even though I was only able to eat about half of it, I was immediately thrown into a food coma, so we quickly paid the check and I promptly passed out for the night.

Albuquerque, part I.

Arrived in Albuquerque in a very sunny Thursday afternoon. Call it Schadenfraude, but knowing that it was raining cats and dogs in NYC made me happier to be in the sun. Sorry my NYC loves! Nothing personal!

Anyway, we drove to 20 Carrots Cafe.

There was only a customer there, an older woman that kept saying in Spanglish that she was from Bogotá, Colombia, and judging by her commentaries, she was not very fond of people from Mexican descent. The owner, who might've been of Mexican descent, was a lady probably in her late 50's that just kept agreeing.

I wasn't too hungry, so I got a cup of pinto beans soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Simple, yet delicious.

The best part, though, came when I stopped by the bathroom before leaving. The original owner of 20 Carrots (Christie Brinkley's brother, nash) had commitioned a painting or something. The thing was bizzare, but awesome. There was a beach scene, with a Scotsman in a kilt playing the bagpipes, walking on water. On the other side Jesus was actually walking on water. It was just too much.

Before leaving, stopped by the news stand next door to buy a postcard for Brichelle. The self-help section: