Outdoors

The hills are covered in white again and there was snow on the ground at our altitude two mornings in a row. This morning we went for a nice walk on the Atalaya Mountain trail near St. John's College. The trail begins along an arroyo then climbs through pinyon juniper forest on pink granite hillsides. There are great views of the city and mountains as you go up. On the way home we bought a car load of pinyon and juniper firewood from one of the many vendors along the side of the road. They seem to have replaced the rock vendors mostly this time of year.

Last night arriving home from seeing "Quantum of Solace" (not one of the better Bond movies), there was a woodcock right by the front door! It was polite enough to wait while I went inside and got my camera. The bird book says they only go as far west as TX, but I guess this one has strayed from the proscribed range.

Cat update

The week we were in Mexico the cats were at Petco, and Boo was adopted! So Mija, Jet and Onyx are left. Yesterday I picked up Thursday, a little orange kitten who is in need of socialization. Poor little guy was neutered 2 days ago and then yesterday he was taken away from his siblings to be put with our 3 cats instead. He has been hunkered down ever since arriving and growls and trembles when I pet him. The other cats have sniffed him out but generally leave him alone since he growls and spits if they get too close.

Upon arriving Thursday immediately secreted himself in the most secure space he could find behind the cat cage. I set up a box for him lined with a tshirt, but when I picked him up to put him into it he darted under a cabinet. I took it as a good sign that he did soon move into the box on his own. This morning he was in a paper bag the cats play in, so I'm not sure if he spent the night in there. He has since moved back to his box. I did see him get up to eat and drink once!

The other cats seem to be getting bigger every day. They have learned not to get on the dining room table, but are now almost large enough to jump on the kitchen counter. They are all still very friendly and love to nap with you if you're sitting on the couch. Three cats is almost as good as a blanket!

Isla Mujeres

We spent the last five days on Isla Mujeres, an island near Cancun off the Yucatan peninsula. The whole island is about 7 km long and is very thin in the middle. The largest town is at the North end of the island where our hotel was located. We stayed at Na Balaam which is on the north shore. The hotel's rooms are simple but clean and nicely designed. The deck had a hammock and Adirondack style chairs to lounge in. On the beach they have platforms with mattresses during the day and beach chairs. There's also a restaurant that will bring food and drinks to you, so you could just stay on the beach all day. The waters on that side are calm and shallow a long ways out.

The first day we were recruited to visit the Avalon, a resort on it's own little rock island connected to Isla Mujeres by a wooden bridge. This was an attempt to get us to join the Avalon Vacation Club. I'd never been to one of these sales pitches and Jake wanted to see the resort so we decided to try it. Plus the day was a little cold and grey and not so great for sitting on the beach. The sales person assigned to us was very pleasant and we were shown around the resort and got a free buffet lunch. The sales pitch at the end though was tough to sit through, and after Jake explained the concept of compound interest to the salesperson things got rough. (Jake calculated the actual cost of buying into the beach club versus investing money in something else. Since Mexico has a 17% interest rate, the money you could make after 25 years was astronomical although he did use 6% as a more "realistic" example. The cost for the vacation club was $29,000 for 25 years plus a $680/year maintenance fee!). Having overstayed our alloted 90 minutes by another 60 minutes they pulled out the manager who finally signed off on our form after we refused to try the resort for a week at some future date. We got our baseball caps and beach bag and went back to our vacation.

One day we rented a golf cart and toured the island. The southern end has rocky cliffs with a sculpture garden and small Mayan ruin at the point. Another day we went to Parque Garrafon, a national park, for the day. This park has zip lines, a pool, snorkeling, restaurants and snack bars and a path to the Mayan ruin. You pay a set fee that includes snorkeling equipment, lunch buffet and all the drinks you want (yes, full bar). We staked out our beach chairs and spent the day alternating between activity and reading in our beach chairs. If you just want to snorkel, our taxi driver recommended Garrafon Castillo just up the beach which is much less expensive.

There were many dining options in our neighborhood. We tended to have a drink and ceviche or guacamole at one of the beach bars and then pick out a restaurant on "restaurant row", a pedestrian street in the middle of town. We tried an Argentine place (great beef, 2 for 1 drinks, and complimentary shots of mescal at the end of the meal - as Jake was being good I had to down most of the drinks!). One of our best meals was at Bamboo, an Asian inspired restaurant where I had tempura battered grouper and Jake had a tuna steak. The best soup was at a stand at the Mercado Central where I had Sopa de Lima, a traditional Yucatecan soup. Other dishes we had were shrimp grilled with garlic, fish tacos and fish fillets with Yucatecan spices. For breakfast we had a hard time finding places that opened before 8 am, but once we finally settled into the island rythym my favorite place was Cafe Cita with its decent coffee and banana, pineapple, coconut jam that could be spread on pancakes or sweet rolls. There was also a coffee shop that served Illy coffee and had good quick breads. There were several gelato stores and another good dessert were marquesitas - crisp crepes spread with your choice of fillings. These were made at little carts on the street.

On Friday night the Mayan Caribbean Cultural Festival started. Bands and dancers performed on the main plaza the first night that were pretty good. On Saturday we caught some children dancing traditional dances from Veracruz at a stage on the beach with the sun setting behind them. Saturday night's entertainment started with a play about skulls (I think it was titled 40 Heads). Unfortunately no one could hear the actors and the play continued on with many short scenes for the next hour and a half. After a while it stopped and taped music started playing so we all thought it was over, but then they started up again! They were a little better about microphone use, but not enough, so we abandoned it. We felt bad for the actors who had obviously worked hard on this somewhat surrealistic series of plays. Scenes included a soliloquy to Urich's skull of Shakespearean fame, a giant spider, a beheading, cave women one of whom's face became a skull, a clown who kept stopping because he rattled, a flautist whose teacher only wanted him to play classical music, ghosts that meandered through the audience, . . . (I swear I did not dream all this nor was it the effect of too many margaritas!). People in the audience would occassionally yell out that they wanted music and dancing, but no one ever stopped the actors to effectively fix the audio problems.

Overall we had a wonderful vacation and I would highly recommend Isla Mujeres for a low-key vacation spot that still has some culture to it.

Isla Mujeres wildlife

We visited the government "turtle farm" where they raise and release three species of sea turtles. They had turtles of all sizes in tanks indoors and outdoors and in an ocean pen. There was also an enclosure where they put the turtle eggs to hatch out. We happened to get a ride from a taxi driver who volunteers to collect turtle eggs on the nights the turtles are laying.

Iguanas were also fairly common on the rocky southern shores.

Birds included frigate birds and several shore birds. One sandpiperish bird seemed to have adapted to picking up human food crumbs and was very bold. Grackles (great tailed?) were also very common.

On our one snorkeling outing we saw lots of pretty fish including blue ones, silver ones with yellow spots, and yellow and black striped fish.

Isla Mujeres - Erosion and Hurricanes

Isla Mujeres was attempting many solutions to the beach erosion problem. On the rocky Atlantic side they used layers of rock gabions to reinforce the limestone on that side. On the beach side they were pumping sand onto the shore and using sandbags and groynes in an attempt to reclaim sand.

People seemed pretty optimistic - check out the model condo on the Atlantic side shown above! This building is being rebuilt after the last hurricane.

Chocolate

Last week was all about chocolate in the Chocolate and Sugar class at the Community College. As with sugar, we ran into some problems, but the results were delicious none the less. We did chocolate tastings of chocolates that ranged from 40 - 100%. The percentage refers to the amount of cocoa butter and cocoa liquor in the chocolate. The rest is made up of milk solids or sugar usually. Some of my favorites of what we tasted were the 85% Vivani, the 74% Dagoba with chili (that was the only flavored one we tasted) and the 91% Theo. The 91% is a little too dark for regular eating, but the flavor was intensely chocolate and still edible.

We failed in all our attempts at tempering chocolate, so we put the blame on the chocolate deliverers for the chocolate getting out of temper on its way to the college. Tempered chocolate creates the glossy, crisp coating of candies. But we still made chocolate coated truffles in various flavors and peanut butter cups. Everyone made a different truffle flavor. Mine were honey almond. Other exceptional flavors included saffron, black walnut, mint-tarragon and cinnamon. Pictured are a truffle and candy assortment including pecan brittle from the week before.

Fortunately we had company both Friday and Saturday nights to help eat everything, and the neighbors got some too!

In other food news, we had a delightful dinner at Bin 351 where highlights were duck pate with roasted garlic and pickled onion relish, a flavorful stewed lamb, and an apple pastry. The restaurant is small, located in an old adobe building decorated inside with the colors of Provence. They have an excellent wine selection as well.

Geology on Horseback

On Sunday we participated in a community college class called "Geology on Horseback". A geologist from the University of New Mexico led the trip and the Broken Saddle Riding Stable in Cerrillos provided the horses and guide. After an introduction to geology of the Ortiz mountains and some rock samples (including a "belly stone" from a dinosaur!), we saddled up. Jake and I both had Tennessee Walkers, who are known for their smooth gate. The other horses were a Missouri version of the TN Walker.

We rode through Cerillos State Park looking at the shale formations from when the area was an inland sea and the volcanic rock domes and dikes that form long lines across the hillsides. You can find fossil clams and worm burrows in the shale. Prospectors would look for the intersection of dikes because that was where they were likey to find minerals. More vegetation tends to grow along the fractures where minerals can be found too. The Ortiz mountains were mined for turquoise, lead and silver. Abandoned pit mines are all over and we stopped at one to look for pieces of turquoise. It wasn't at all hard to find, but most was just a fine layer of turquoise rather than chunks or veins.

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice lunch in Madrid, hotbed of quirky small shops and galleries. Jake got the last hamburger with provolone and prosciutto, served on a biscuit, and I got the pork biscuit, smothered in a flavorful pork stew. Unfortunately they were out of fried green tomatoes, my first choice!

Kittens, Sugar and NM tour

The kittens have been at Petco all week awaiting adoption, but we will have them around again for another week starting Saturday afternoon if no one falls for their cute faces!

My Chocolate and Sugar class started on Monday to keep me busy. This week was all about sugar. The first day the chef's anti-corn syrup stance led to a total flop for all but one student in making cashew brittle. The results were still tasty, but the sugar crystallized so it was rather granular. The next day she gave us a revised recipe with corn syrup and the results turned out beautifully. The brittle had a 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and chili powder - surprisingly yummy! One student made a version with sesame seeds, cardamom and black pepper which I think I will make for Christmas. We also make the sugar garnishes shown here on day two. On Wednesday we worked on spun sugar and sugar ribbons which came out fine and attempted nougat, which for me and half the class was a dismal failure once again. We may have added the butter too quickly. The chef and one student were going to have another go at it yesterday and report back on what the results were. Next week is chocolate week! That's the real reason I'm taking this class ...

On Thursday afternoon we decided on the spur of the moment to drive down to Albuquerque to do a little research for the tour I'll be leading in July (call Adkins Arboretum in January to sign up!). We visited the Rio Grande Nature Center since I hadn't been there for a few years (see photo of the cottonwood trees along with invasive Tamarisk). They have replaced their herb garden with a native plant garden which I think will be lovely in July. We also stopped at the Hotel Albuquerque where I think we'll all stay the first 2 nights. It is just 3 blocks from Old Town Albuquerque's plaza and the major museums are close by as well. We had pasta for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in the University area with Tom and Leah who recommended High Noon near the plaza for authentic Mexican/New Mexican food and atmosphere for the tour welcome dinner. In other tour planning news, the staff at the Santa Fe Botanic Garden are going to arrange for us to visit three private gardens in an old neighborhood of Albuquerque!

Dia de Los Muertos

Santa Fe was in its usual Fiesa mood for Halloween. There were many parties to choose from and we chose one at the Santa Fe Playhouse. They have been performing a series of short French horror plays and for Halloween it was preceeded by a reception and followed by a costume contest and party. The food was quite good, catered by Cowgirl Cafe and the Chocolate Maven, although since we had eaten before leaving we focused mainly on the desserts. We both came up with costumes, but decided they were really too subtle for an event like this one. The best costumes were 2 gnomes who were very padded, dressed in blue gnome coats with tall red pointed hats. There was one very tall slender guy dressed in drag and 5" heels. Another group had come as French men and women (a baker, another guy in beret and striped shirt and 2 overly fashionable women). Haven't guessed what our costumes were yet?! I'll post it at the end.

The plays were great, for Halloween - gruesome operating scenes and stories about lovers throwing acid on their cheating partners. There was also a funny one to start with about a guy who gets stuck in a guillotine that is on display at a museum and the only person who can get him out is his girlfriend's husband! The party afterwards was short-lived so we went on to Cowgirl Cafe where things were hopping! Most of the patrons were dressed in costumes - caveman, Santa Claus, pirates, catwoman, teddy bear (he had gone as "bear naked" the year before but was too cold). The band was dressed in drag and played a variety of rock music. Across the street was another party in a couple old rail cars, the "Angels and Devils" party sponsored by the Santa Fe Railway.

Okay, I was "Once in a blue moon" and Jake was questioning where the new RailRunner commuter railroad tracks go between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. They head off to the east at one point under the highway but then reappear on the west side of the highway in Albuquerque!

Like I said, maybe a little too subtle.