Argentinian BBQ

Our neighbor, Kike(kee-kay), is from Argentina, and has brought his special method of grilling over wood coals to us. He set up a makeshift grilling area in the middle of the compound. We, the other residents and friends of the residency, bring pork loin, ribs, fresh garden vegetables and our appetites. David and I contributed: pork loin in red wine and fresh rosemary and a butternut squash (from Flo's garden given to us in payment for helping him tie up tomato plants and weed out Bermuda grass) one half with rosemary, olive oil and sea salt, the other half with pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and butter. Guess which one was David's favorite.




Fellow resident Dave Bogus has a camera flash war with David Politzer. Guess who kept getting caught in the middle?


Indo is a happy dog with plenty of meat scraps and bones coming her way.


Mark moves in on the pork loin.

Two Caves, Bright and Dark

Our recent New Mexican explorations took us to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

First we went to Slaughter Cave - a moderately difficult, "unimproved", ranger lead tour. We hiked a .5 mile up this mountain to the cave opening where we waited for the ranger to arrive. Once he arrived he briefed us on some of the things to expect in the cave, and how to relay messages down the line when we encountered slippery spots, holes or interesting things to look at.

Although we felt totally safe (for the most part), Krista and I talked afterwards about how we felt a little quickening of the pulse as we walked down into the cave. It was about 20 degrees cooler than outside, 90% humidity and of course, very very dark. Each of us had a flashlight and we walked single file. One of the most beautiful images that sticks with me from the experience is looking back at the line of people behind us - 20 tiny, slow moving halos of light surrounded by total blackness.

There were a couple of very elaborate speleothems (the all encompassing word used to describe cave decorations like stalactites and stalagmites) like one called "the Klansman" which can apparently be seen in the background in one of the scenes from King Solomon's Mines - the 1950 version. Once we were in the "Christmas Tree Room" we sat down for a while and listened to Ranger Rob's story about how the cave came to be called "Slaughter Cave." He had us turn our flashlights off, and enjoy the complete absence of light and noise except for an occasional drip, drip, drip. He told us about a cocky guano miner who took on the challenge of navigating the cave with no light. I'll spare you the somewhat anticlimactic ending, and suffice it to say that he made the whole story up.

It was kind of difficult to take pictures in the cave, seeing as how there was no light. But, using the flash, we were able to get some pics.




Later we went to the bigger, more accessible Natural Entrance cave tour. This cave is huge, has a paved trail with hand rails and is lit up inside. You walk 750 feet down into the earth and are surrounded by a variety of rock formations. It is quite dramatic, add to that the smell of fresh guano. Here, because of the artificial lighting, it was easier to take pictures.
This morning, back in Roswell, Krista and I talked about the 2 caving experiences which brought up a conversation we've had several times about the parks system in general.

The first cave tour was exciting and mysterious. It recreated, as much as possible, the feelings of fear, intrigue and curiosity that the first explorers of Slaughter cave must have felt. There was a half-mile uphill hike through a scenic desert canyon to the cave entrance. This made going into the cave feel like a reward - similar, although admittedly not nearly as dramatic, as having found the cave for the first time. Once inside the cave, the Ranger guided us, but also assumed that we were all capable of being responsible for our own safety. "Unimproved" turned out to be not exactly as rugged as we had thought (the cave was once extensively mined for guano, so some steps and trails were made as you can see in the picture above.) But we had to be wary of many of the same dangers as the first explorers. The rock features inside were beautiful, but difficult to see even when everyone had their flashlights pointing in the same direction. In terms of sensory stimuli, it provided a great deal, especially for first time spelunkers. But because of the total darkness, and lack of creature comforts, it left us with more of a mental outline rather than a complete picture.



The second cave, in terms of physical exertion was a walk in the park, so to speak. There was little fear of bodily harm, save for the threat of being trampled by overweight Texans, if for some reason an electrical hiccup caused the lights to go out. The lighted caverns are very cool, and the rock features were very dramatic, again, especially for a first timer. Maybe even more so than the first cave. But we found ourselves recalling previous experiences of simulated caves. Krista and I both mentioned caves we remembered from movies and TV shows. Not to mention museum exhibits, amusement parks and Las Vegas resorts. There is a somewhat steep entrance, but it is optional - if you'd like to tour the cave, but not have to walk downhill, you can always take the elevator. Oh, and if you get hungry, you can eat a hamburger in the underground snack bar, and use the bathroom afterwards.

So, back to the conversation Krista and I have had about the parks: The topic generally comes up after feeling cheated out of some kind of "authentic" experience. In the parks, this is usually brought on by inconsiderate tourists or an over-dramatization or novelization of nature. Carlsbad has both in abundance, and this is what most people end up seeing. But that's fine. Just as long as the money that the tourists are dumping into potato chips and cheap stuffed animals helps to preserve the more "unimproved" experience for those who want it. Even though the crowds surrounding the more accessible sites can be quite annoying, they are a necessity for the rest of us who want to use our imaginations and play caver for a day.

First House Guests Go Dune Jumping

On their way to Los Angeles, Ryan and Elizabeth stopped by Roswell for a couple of days. On Tuesday evening, we packed up a picnic and headed out to Mescalero Sand Dunes. We got there in time to spot some jackrabbits, hurl ourselves off the steepest dunes a number of times and catch the sunset in time to snap some sweet pics worthy of the most esteemed soft-rock album covers.










I forgot the batteries to our camera at home - Ryan took most of these. See the full set here.

Recent Wanderings in the "Land of Entrapment"

Below is an email from Krista to our respective mothers. In bold typeface are my additions, subtractions and otherwise annoying interjections...

Hey blog readers, we had a good trip, thanks for asking. We'll post some pictures here if you'd like to see more.

We recently visited El Morro and El Malpais which are National Monuments west of Albuquerque. El Morro is a big rock butte that has some neato petroglyphs and also hundreds of inscriptions from Spanish explorers and settlers that traveled past it on their way through the area. There is a pool of water that people would stop at, an oasis of sorts, and added their names to the sandstone. Also, on the top of the rock, there is a partially uncovered pueblo ruin. We camped there that night (not at the Pueblo ruin, that would have been illegal, rather we camped at the El Morro campground where there is a pit toilet) and then the next morning, drove to El Malpais, which is Spanish for "badlands" - a number of volcanoes erupted in that area, the most recent was 3000 years ago. We hiked a trail called the Narrows, which takes you up along the rim of sandstone bluffs and to a view of a natural arch called La Ventana Arch (Spanish for "the wicked awesome rocky thing").













We saw some cool (and sometimes scary) wildlife. I think a coyote, we only saw it running up ahead on the trail, and didn't get a good look at its head for identification. Either that or a fox. There are a number of small lizards all over, and then we also saw a collared lizard, which looks like a small iguana. He just sat on the rock and let us take a bunch of pictures, so we'll post those too. A bunch of hummingbirds whizzed past us throughout the day. It is the rainy season up there, so we had to plan around the afternoon showers which were never heavy, but did involve thunder and lightning.



We set up camp there Friday night and then decided to take a little hike up the nearby mesa before we made some dinner. We climbed up and walked around a bit (light forest of small pinon and junipers trees) and when we were heading back, we were walking along the rocks to find a good place to climb down when I saw something dart through the trees. It looked kinda red, and I stopped David cause I thought it was a fox. We snuck around to get a look and it was a bobcat! David didn't get a good look at it (because I was busy acting as a human shield, trying to protect Krista), but I saw its face pretty clearly. It wasn't very big, maybe 20 pounds or so. It snuck away and we left it alone, of course. We heard it making that kind of low warning noise that cats make in their throats. Apparently they can be quite fierce, but don't attack large healthy animals unless desperate. There are PLENTY of cute bunnies out there, so I'm sure it is well fed.

We took a hike Saturday morning on the lava field, which was my favorite part. It was on the 3000 yr old flow, so it is starting to get reclaimed by plants and small trees and lichens, but you can still clearly see the lava formations and sinkholes. Here you can see some of the formations that have a striking resemblance to cowpies. The trail eventually leads you to a natural amphitheater of lava rocks. While standing in the middle, you are entirely surrounded by lava. The 2 kinds of lava we walked on are called Pahoehoe (the smooth stuff, pronounced "pa-hoy-hoy") and A'a (the rough stuff, pronounced "ah-ha").



We also tried to find some other petroglyphs that a ranger told us about across from the lava hike in the wilderness area, but there wasn't a trail and our directions from the ranger were "stay to the left of the arroyo until you see the three large ponderosa pines and then look for the red rock." Or something like that. We couldn't find the pines and weren't sure if we were remembering correctly, so we headed back after a few attempts. The ranger who gave us these directions was not your typical rugged-looking, dirt under the fingernails variety of ranger. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, similar to the Sweeney Sisters from Saturday Night Live. And her nails were very long, very clean and glazed with shiny bronze polish that complemented her tan skin. At first I dismissed her, thinking she was just some local volunteer, but she proved to have a wealth of knowledge about the area, and able to identify every poorly described example of flora and fauna we could throw at her. I only wish we had written down her directions so that we might have found the petroglyphs...and gotten a picture of that hair.

We ended the trip in Albuquerque to stock up on food at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We got a lot of good stuff that we can't get here (or don't want to cause it isn't very fresh...fish, meat) and also good prices on staples like soy milk and cereal (people in Roswell eat cereal, just not the kind we like) that are expensive here because there is little market for them. And some yummy stuff that we can't find here like curries and wholewheat pancake mix. We'll have to ration it out a bit until we can get up there again.

There is so much to see up in the northwest part of the state, that we were a little tempted to stay longer, but I hadn't planned for someone to check on the mice or my plants and the rainy season wasn't very inviting (flash floods are possible if it really pours). So I think we'll plan a little longer trip to see some of the other places. I think we'll head to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadeloupe NP next, after David's show in September. Those are much closer to us.

Click here for the full photo expose.

love,
krista and David

Lizard in the Bedroom!! How'd he get IN HERe?

(He found that hairball on his own)

Edward the Vocal Donkey

HonHee! HonHee! HonHee! HonHee! At 5AM...everyday.

Krista: But he's so cute!

We walked across the field in our backyard to find the source of the rooster-like braying, and to our pleasant surprise we found a very friendly donkey. We also, in the process of feeding him some carrots, met his parents/owners. They told us that Eddie used to be a "roping donkey" (we don't know what this means, but we're sure, by the looks of him, that he is plenty capable) and that they saved him from a future as Chinese pet food.