In which we slow down for a few hours.

These past few weeks have been busy -- though not really busy-busy as much as stuffed with wonderful and interesting encounters and adventures, planned and spontaneous, and more enriching than exhausting, or maybe exhausting in an enriching kind of way. In any case, I had a surprise evening off today and have so enjoyed sweatpansing around, watching the storms roll, rumble, and rollick their way through the neighborhood, windows open and wind wooshing in. Laundry drying in the hall. The warm scent of honey-walnut granola wafting over from the stove.

   

In which there's a city in the sky and wild winds do some crazy carving (New Mexico part IV).

A Must in my Albuquerque guidebook is a short day trip to the Acoma Pueblo, a little over an hour west of the city and with more incredible vistas along the way than one brain can properly process. Most of the trip is highway, but MANN, there's one point in particular where you drive up and up and up a mesa and then WHOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FROM THE TOP YOU CAN SEE EEEEEVERYYYTHIIIING FOR MIIIIILES!!! And yeah, it is that exhilarating. Once off the highway, the back roads to get to the pueblo are great, too. The best part is definitely when you're nearing the end and drive through two cliffs around a bend that opens into this wild landscape:

I won't bother rewriting the pueblo history or stats for this post, though I will put a link to the Wikipedia page right here and encourage you to take a peek if you're interested. It's a fascinating story, at times inspiring and at times horrifically gruesome. Let's just say that life back then would have been a lot better if the Europeans hadn't come and screwed everyone over. The only way to visit the Sky City on the mesa is to take a strictly regulated tour. This was my fourth time there, but the first time I'd had a female tour guide. The same person had given all the previous tours I had been on, which was fine with me because he had one of the most soothing voices I'd ever heard. This time the spiel was different and I learned a lot of new things. The guide pointed out many times that the Acoma have a matriarchal society and seemed very pleased with the arrangement. Artists have tables set up in front of their homes and tourists are allotted no more than a couple minutes to peruse and purchase their traditional pottery, jewellery, or kiva-baked pies and frybread. If you're ever in the area, definitely check it out. Like I said, I've been there four times now and would happily go back again.

The sky got pretty exciting as the tour ended and we hiked down the mesa and back to the cultural center. It got more exciting still as we got in the car and went out on a nearing-desperate search for a gas station, the car beeping loudly for a little swig of something strong.  Luckily we got to one in time and didn't have to get stuck on an open highway in the middle of a dramatic thunderstorm.

The next day we tackled another one of my favorite Must day trips -- a hike at the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, where nature does a neat thing more commonly identified with Cappadocia. But step aside, Turkey, don't you be hogging those hoodoos. The wind does crazy stuff with volcanic ash in New Mexico, too. (And if these look familiar, it's because I've already posted about it once before.)

Some landscapes never get old, and that's one of them.

As for that exciting snowfall lastnight? Gone this morning. Ah, well. Schnee von gestern.

In which there is a room with a view.

One of the biggest positives of living on in the top corner of a large building is the delicious array of cloudscapes that come awafting by everyday. Today was particularly savory and I had to keep the windows closed to stop the wind from slamming them around.

Recently returned from a very picturesque adventure in Ireland. Getting back into Internetmode has been slow and, well, not particularly desired after so much green and fresh sea air. More on that later.