Life away from the real world....
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Taos, New Mexico
Saturday, July 4, 2009
We got to S.f. and stopped at Cow Girl - the place where Tibia's daughter Sophia works part time .... oh what a beauty - Tizia and Paul actually have green eyes how ever Sophia has blue eyes. Really stuffed my self with lunch - had a nice salad followed by Grilled Tofu tacos and Squash nut casserole. Both the dishes were extremely tasty - not to mention that we followed the meal up with dessert which was flan. Like I said , I was so stuffed by the time I got out of there I thought i was going to fall asleep walking back to the car - which btw I did - without much delay. How ever we went to a food market before that and a fresh market - I had never seen prices the way as low as the place that she bought her veggies and fruits from .
Anyway off we were on our way to Taos - it was a 2 hr drive from Santa Fe - and I could feel my self dozing off - well I did - and most of the trip all the way up to the point where we could see the Rio Grande from the city of Taos - went by in a daze. Could remember Tizia telling me about the Los Alamos (a mountain that erupted as a volcano and its trunk almost got chopped in half - and apparently it was the tallest peak in America before it erupted - well now it actually has a city there and it was also the place where the first atom bomb was founded.. pretty impressive eh ? ) so its a town of scientists (something like NASA , only difference being that they actually live in the middle of a mountain )
So got out at that particular point - took a few pics and set out to Taos. When we got to Taos she brought me to the church there which really was a beautiful structure - absolutely no symmetry what so ever and that was what I really liked about it. It looked like it was going to rain quite soon so we made our way home as quick as we could. More over she mentioned that there was a show in the night put up by the local talents in Taos and that she really wanted to go for it.
The altitude in New Mexico is quite high - not to mention that her house was on top of the Mesa - which might have been at an altitude of a little over 7000 ft. She was actually quite worried that I would get altitude sickness and kept mentioning that she should get a special tea for me. Well I didn't need it at all - acclimatized quite well.Anyway we got to her place - I dont even know how to describer her place - her house was actually below the level of the Mesa - and it was completely made by Paul over a couple of years - 5 to 7 I think - but anyway Paul made the house and then followed it up with an outhouse which they have now let out to another lady (I cant remember her name right now ) which is a graphics designer and the roof of that outhouse was just amazing - its a 7 sides house and it has light coming from the top - and its absolutely flat - so the water actually puddles up over there when it rains and you see the wind blowing ripples in it and then you see the reflection of it on the ground - just amazing.
He also made the yoga treatment room which they called the plum shed. In the plum shed they actually have an underground room where they store food for the winter - so when I was there they actually made quite a bit of apricot sauce and plum/apple sauce - absolutely delicious. Dint really want to jump the ball right now - so anyway I met Paul and Tizia showed me around the house after which we went out for a walk around till around 6:05 pm and then we went back to pick up our neighbour so that we could all go into town for the show -the place where it was taking place is called "The Space" - so the show started - btw Paul and Tizia are strictly vegetarian - and so I ate nothing but veggie food the whole trip - the show was really really really weird - everyone was doing some thing either they were talented in or some thing completely nonsensical - so for example there were people who read their poems , or people who read their stories - some of them sang - there was one who was an opera artist - and there were piano artists - so on and so forth - there was even an American lady who danced odissi - that was pretty awesome. Anyway the show came to an end but our night hadn't - we went back and the moon was up - a full moon - how ever it was hidden behind the clouds and Paul and Tizia actually thought it was a bright night ! So we all decided to hike down to the hot spring - there were two locations close to us - we chose to go to the one which was a little further from us since we wanted to be alone. We drove all the way and then hiked all the way down - it was some experience all right because I had never hiked in the night - and it wasn't very cold but it wasn't very warm either - so I wasn't sure what to expect - anyway it took us about 40 minutes to get down , and by the time we were in the water it was already 11 pm - Tizia helped me float in the hot spring for a while and we tried both the hot springs out - i found one of them a lot warmer than the other - so I stuck to that one. In fact the water was so warm that my heart started beating quite fast after sometime, so I had to come out of the water a couple of time till my heart rate got lower again
So we stayed int he hot water spring for at least an hour and a half and started our hike back - got to the top and by the time we got home it was well past one. The night at the hot water spring is etched in my memory - I could not get any photos because it was at night - and I wished that I had come down during the day because I really wanted to picture the gorge while being at the river.
I got up the next morning at around 7 am - and I was actually the first to get up - the back of my heels were hurting because of constant pressure I had put on it trying to rest it on the rocks while I was trying to float. I checked my email for a while and watched tout petit and tippito - Paul woke up first - made him self some breakfast - I ate couple of Tizia's solar baked cookies - the previous day I had actually had quite a lot of food so I wasn't really feeling well - so was taking care to not over eat - anyway Tizia woke up in a bit and we started making plans - I really wanted to go hiking but Tizia wanted to show me town - we even discussed Wheelers Point which is the highest point in New Mexico - over 13000 ft. But the weather was bad and it wasn't a good idea to go there - but never the less we decided to go on a hike to go to the gorge from the other side of the house - and Paul and Tizia hadn't been on the other side in over 20 years.
So we decided to go there and started getting dressed when suddenly Paul realized that he couldn't find his wallet - he was so worried that he had left it at the spring - so we went back there - and hiked all the way down - there were quite a few people down there - which made us realize that we made the right decision of going down there the previous night. Anyway Paul couldn't find it there either - so we hiked back up and he decided to just carry on with the day - go back home - pack some lunch and go hiking - so we went back home and LO ! we found his wallet in Tizia's purse :) Oh we were so happy ! so we packed some lunch and set off on our hike. Now we weren't really sure where we were going to hike - we were going to find out own route - so we went quite a way over to the other side of the mesa - and realized that there was a fence - on the other side of the fence was the greater world - so we parked our truck on the side of the muddy road in the grass - climbed over the fence and started hiking - like I said we had no idea where we were going - so we just followed the trees - from Paul I Lent that if you had no idea where you were going just follow the trail of trees since you would inevitably come across either a river or a way to go back home - so we did just that - and we came across a number of lovely rocks - Paul and Tizia love collecting rocks - so we found a few that we wanted to carry home and marked them so that on our way back we would pick them up. About a mile later we came across the bed of a river - and really it was so beautiful - we literally rock hopped for quite a bit - and it was going downwards - just how we wanted it to be - so we knew we were going in the right direction - so after rock hopping for quite a bit - we saw 3 major drops - really big ones - in fact when we saw the first we thought we wouldn't be able to do it - and Paul and Tizia almost turned to go back when I said hey you know maybe we can go down this way - and well we could ! it wasn't easy though - I was glad I had done all that rock climbing - kind of helped me with my gripping the rock. We had lunch there - a few sandwiches and a couple of boiled eggs - and set forth - like I said there were 3 major drops - and we had to do all of them one after the other - Tout Petit was beginning to tire so we had to start carrying him on a shoulder bag pretty much of the way after that - and it was scary sometimes during the falls because he kept coming out of the bag and we were scared he would just fall out.
So we did those 3 crosses - and there were a lot of rocks below - like i said there was absolutely no trail laid out and we were absolutely sure no one hiked in this area because there were no trails - absolutely nothing - even when we came back and told everyone of our trip - everyone just couldn't understand where we had gone. So anyway continuing - mid way we really thought we were stuck - we had to find a way to get back to the top again - and there was no way we could go any lower because the drop was just too steep - and we had no ropes or anything of that sort - not to mention it was beginning to rain and we could hear quite a lot of thunder from a distance.
So Paul asked Tizia and me to wait while he went up looking for a trail and when he found one he would whistle for us - we waited underneath a rock - i had my gloves on by then because there were a lot of spiky thorns around and I was so happy that I had worn track pants - no doubts I would have been poked a number of times if not.
So Paul went and after a while we heard his whistle - so we started going up again and true enough there was a way to go back up again - of course by finding a way to climb back up - it was an adventure all right - and by the time we got back up - we were so happy we made it to the top ! keeping in mind that we were scared it was going to rain and there might have been the risk of flash floods and also the fact that some of the drops were steep and we kept thinking we might have to turn around and go back.
So anyway we started our hike back trying to go back to our trail head and mid way we realized we were on the stage coach trail - so now this is a bit of history - in the early 1700s there were 2 bridges to get across the Rio Grande - one of them was the stage coach trail - and it was about 8 to 10 ft wide - and it was actually a paved road sort of thing made out of stones - so we actually saw it and went along that trail - that was quite amazing because a lot of people talk about it but they haven't really ever hiked on it.
So we got back to our trail head , picked up our stones and made our way back - of course not to forget the fact that we marveled at the clouds - Literally cloud struck again and again - took so many pictures just couldn't get enough - saw "walking rain" - you can actually see rain falling from the clouds in a distance over an area and you can actually see the cloud moving along with the rain falling from it - hence the name walking rain. Really beautiful - took a couple of photos of that as well.
So we finally got back - climbed over the fence again - and got back to the truck . It was a hectic hike and we were happy to go back home but elated at the same time - just love that feeling.Anyway we made our way down and decided to stop at the bridge - beautiful view of the Rio Grande from a tourists point of view - of course it felt amazing looking at it from a lot higher than the level of the mesa - but I think i loved it more because I had hiked down it - by the side of it - up it - in every different angle - and finally seeing it from the top - really completed the whole experience . Took a couple of pictures with Paul and Tizia there and then Paul decided he wanted to go to El Gamal to have food - wow the food there was just amazing not to mention the music too - the DJ s name is blue tech and i just loved it - for sure I will be listening to that all the time while I am back at home. I had a portobello mushroom pita sandwich and watched Tout Petit chasing a dog twice his size. that was a funny sight all right - Lulu was obviously having fun with Tout Petit - but TP was frivolously running after her.
Anyway that was the end of it - we went back home - and when we reached - it was almost time for sunset - so we went up to the terrace - tried to take a few pics - they came out quite nice actually - Our neighbour came over to make apple plum sauce - so Tizia and she sat outside cutting all the apples and plums. I was on the computer downloading all the pics - and i realized that I was getting a tonsillitis sort of pain - I told Tizia and she immediately took care of it - gave me some tea - ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, milk and a black tea bag - wow that s really some nice tea - she taught me how to make it the next day - I am definitely going to make that for myself quite often here on - really healthy for you too - thanks to all the spices that you put into it.
So anyway coming back to what I was saying - she immediately took care of it - and made me spray some thing into my throat too - wow the next morning I had no pain what so ever - incredible :) So the rest of the night went into making the jam and me talking to them about the plan for the Arizona trip as well as the pics from the Alaska trip and before we realized it was 10:30 and time to go to bed - it was a really long day - and I had enjoyed every minute of it.
Oh I had forgotten to add - the previous morning they had showed me a lot of their family pictures - including the house boat they lived in for 7 years or the way the built up the house they are presently staying in - the outline was made with tires and a lot of soda cans. Also the ceiling was made with wood - there were a lot of pics showing Paul cutting down trees in the forest - I mean really it was just amazing. Their house is so beautiful , they even have a hammock in their house and plants in the front and a lot of windows so that the house is warmed by natural sunlight instead of the heater. Their house is designed in such a way that the temperature inside the house is almost always the same.
I got up the next morning at around 8 am - took a nice long shower in their cute bath tub - got dressed and actually posed for Tizia and Paul - yup they wanted an Indian model for their website - and they have already put the pictures up - I have a very funny face really :) and I dont particularly enjoy seeing my face on a website - well then again if it means it will get them more customers I would love to help. Took a few more pictures of the plum shed and the underground basement area. After all of this, Tizia and I got ready to go into town - I packed up and left and we stopped by a few shops - really artsy stuff - I bought Tizia and myself the same dress - ironically made in India :) Walked around a bit more - bought some agate bracelets with glass beads - really pretty - and by then Paul found us. It was time to leave - I got myself a breakfast Burrito , said good bye to Tizia and Paul and I left to the airport in Albuquerque.
What a trip - it was only2.5 days but it felt like more than a week - I was sad the whole way back - i wasn't ready to come back yet. i hadn't spoken to a single soul outside Taos the whole trip - I wasn't even sure if I was ready to speak to anyone yet - I am so sad - but the trip was amazing - complex mixture of emotions - alot going on in my head - hope I have the time comprehend all of it before I go into my usual life of nothingness.
