Locally Santa Fe - The best hike and dumpster diving

So my parents are not believers of "trying the local life' way of travelling; my dad is more "go and see quickly" traveler, and my mom is a "shop until you drop" lady.  When I told them that I have booked a 5 nights trip to Santa Fe, came the chorus of wines and complains that 5 days is just way too long to be in a place.. (what!.. they must not know me very well).  I decided to give them a little taste of my way of travelling.

We got to the rented house and fell in love immediately with this artist's home.  Warm, cozy and well spaced, this house oozes New Mexico charmed.  My mom perched at the recliner immediately and my dad paced nervously waiting for the next adventure (his style of travelling).  The house has a nice backyard area with BBQ, the owner lives next door .. and they let us play with their dog, Chulla, which is a plus.

My husband decided to stock the fridge by dumpster diving the local Whole Food store.  He just went around back and checked out things that are ready to be thrown out.  He hit a jackpot with carts and carts of bananas, cheese, chocolate, veggies, still cold from the refrigerators.  If you read my previous blog, my husband is a rather odd character and quite unpredictable... smile :)
We totaled all of his finding to over 300 bucks.. Crazy expensive cheeses.  BTW, he did it again a couple days later (Trader's Joe this time) and they threw away so many of their flowers and potting plants.  My parents was amazed of our wasteful way of life.

Dumpster Find! Free food

Places that we stumbled into and fell in love with.

Tent Rock - 30 min south of Santa Fe..  Wauza... you have to visit this place when you come to this area.  We decided to go after we saw a picture of this place in one of the galleries.  It looks like a combination of underwater caves and the surface of the planet Mars.  The hike to the top take about 1 hour each way and it can be a little challenging.  But if a height-phobic like me can do it.. anyone can do it too.

Every turn was more beautiful than before.. We were completely overwhelmed.. Bring water and sandwiches (in our case, we brought bananas and hard boiled eggs) to eat at the top.  

The town of Madrid - where artists and outlaws created a utopia 

Bring your wallet and shop for one-of-a-kind jewelries and arts.  One of the shop owners start playing a guitar made from cigar boxes just for us..  This town is full of interesting people.  Anthony had a blast talking to everybody in between climbing on the top of an old coal mines.  We stopped at Java Junction and perched for a couple hours to work and ended up learning about the town news.  Note: This coffee shop use thick pasta as stirrers (great "green" idea!).

Chimayo _ The Lourdes of the Americas

My dad's hobby is visiting holy places of the world.  Just during this trip he visited a couple in France (his stopover before US).  And since a month ago, he has told me that he had to visit Chimayo when we are in Santa Fe.. Fine.. fine.. fine.. I went because of him, but we ended up staying longer than expected and really enjoying the place.  Two very nice churches.. one is famous for its holy.. wait for it.. DIRT!  It supposedly has caused thousands of miraculous recoveries.  We prayed, dab the holy dirt.. Anthony brought some home with him.  And spend a nice day in the sanctuary.  A must if you are Catholic.. much cheaper than Lourdes.. 

Main Church, Chimayo

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge - Taos

A nice Barista in Taos told me to drive north and walk on this bridge. We did just that.. and it is scarily high.. I know that the bridge is super strong and there is noway that the little ol me will cause it to collapse.. but my heart rate beg the differ. We saw a girl histerically screaming her way to the other side of the bridge.. A site to see and an experience to have.. 

Rio Grande Gorge.. bridge.. wow!

Rio Grand River 

Full of campsites.. Great way to experience New Mexico great big sky - we heard that the trout fishing is awesome here (note to self.. do this next time)

Highlights of this trips:

Mom and Anthony dancing in the Santa Fe square to the live band.. spontaniously fun.

We ran into a huge antique car show in Plaza Square Santa Fe.  Awesomeness.. The best I have ever seen.

All and all this is a huge bonding experience with me and my parents.  See my dad remarried 3 years ago and this is the most time I spend with my new mom.  It is very nice to see my dad in love and well taking care off.  Love her to pieces..   Until the next adventure.

Keeping It Real - A travel note from the Bahamas

As my husband went for the third time to the same local dive to eat his beloved boiled fish, a local started chatting him up.  Hubby then with his childlike excitement started to chat him up on all the fish that he has caught in his fishing adventures, all of the food we have tried and on how we love the Bahamian people. The handsome Bahamian with his perfect white teeth turned out to be a professional fisherman.  Living 21 days at the time at a commercial fishing boat.

Soon a group of locals surrounded him as he continued his story telling activities. One of the local, a big burly guy named Marco, told him : "I like you man.. you are keeping it real.  Not like most tourists that come here and just want to shop and stay at fancy hotel".  With bouncy excitement, my husband retold the story to me.. ." Keeping it real.. is what we are..he pronounced proudly."

We landed in Nassau a week ago.  Living in a rented condo in a beach community called "Love Beach".  Away from the mega hotels and the touristic area. The beach is breathtaking, with various shades of aquamarine dotted with coral reefs and fringed with soft pinkish sand..  At night the full moon casted ample light for us to still see the blue of the water.  This is one of the top 3 beaches I have ever seen in my life, and yet most tourists never made it this way.

We shopped and cooked at home.  Explored the stinky fish market at night.  Meeting and chating with the locals during the day.  We did visited the Atlantis to check it out, and decided almost promptly that the manmade beach and the glitz are not our style.

Locals:
Frank: 89 years old resident of our  complex.  a world traveler with a keen eye on land investing.  " I can count the countries that I have not visited easier than counting the ones that I have".  We used his pots and pans to cook the lobster (local called it crawfish) that hubby pulled out from the rocks.

Quentin: Young fisherman with perfect teeth.  Gentile and very sweet.  He fished by using arrow and bow underwater.

Marco and Marco and Marco: Met three locals named Marco

Dario: the caretaker who lives next door.  He gave Anthony his hawaian sling to use for a day. 

Dragan Popov and his boy friend: a couple of  french guys who lives a couple doors down.  Own a non profit organization that take teens out to sea : www.islandexpedition.com/

Iannis: a Bahamian born Greek, owns a club called Bambu.  Walk around town with a huge body guard next to him.  Drink like a fish the whole night while working and crazy jittery during the day.

A pretty lady on the beach: a private banker who works for a Swiss Armenian family gazilionnaire.  She was shelling to make tootpicks with shell toppers.

Foods

Conch (pronounce "konk" in bahamas) is their main sea food stapple.  Conch fritters, cracked conch (similar to fried calamary), conch chowder, conch salad

The picture above is actually Conch salad made by Anthony at our own condo following the local recipe.  Yum.
Grouper is regarded as the most beloved fish.  Boiled fish serve with grits or jonny cake, stew fish, steam fish.. you name it.. fish..

I also tried souse (boil stuff) with pig feet and lamb tongue.. not very impressed because the lack of spicing.

Ate cherimoye, local fruits (we call it sirkaya in Indonesia).

The beaches..

The beaches are great.  Visibility is unbelieveable even in the city port area.  Pink sand beaches everywhere with every shades of blue and green water.
We didn't have a chance to explore too many beaches just because we are so happy with what we have right outside of our door. 

A Little House Not in the Prairie

Sometimes I cave in, completely forget all reasons and follow my heart and my gut.  One of those moments was when I tactfully talked my husband into buying a dilapidated little house in one of the oldest neighborhood in Galveston.  Yes.. we went there a couple of times, yes.. we loved the ocean, and yes.. the house was a good deal; but what did we actually know about renovating a house that needed everything in a locale that we barely knew... The answer is almost nothing.

But my sweet husband, went with my idea (again...), and threw away his cautions and bought the house.  It smelled very bad, with carpet in the bathroom and stained office tile ceiling.  He spend a full 2 months away from his work and renovated the house.  While I helped him with ideas and moral support from Dallas. The house has a good bone, great layout and close proximity to the ocean.

Armed with determination, big dream, small budget and tons of imaginations, we created our beach getaway.  It is cozy, rustic and luxurious all roll into its 800 SF package.  We carved in an extra sleeping area in the attic, added marble to aged the appearance of the house, and painted everything white inside and happy colors outside.

Now, 4 years later.  Many of my friends as well as strangers have carved great memories in that house. I got calls from people who celebrated anniversary there and come back every year to repeat it.  I love it.

Caco is in the house!

I just survived a weekend marathon.. well, suffering with a deep hacking cough at the moment but still I survived.

It started with a huge event planned by moi.. for work.. big fancy hotel gala type thing.. and my dearest friend Caco was coming to town.  The last I saw her was at my wedding in Bali in 2008!  So we started with a girls' slumber party at the hotel room at the Omni.  Great view, great company.  My best girl, Lorein came and cuddled with us as well.  Oh.. how I love my girls..

 The next day we hit King Spa, coz, it would be a SIN for Caco not to experience this phenomenon while she is here.  Love every short moment of it.. Only having 2 1/2 hours to spend at the Spa.. is a little torturous for me.  Quick hair blow and lipstick action .. and off we go to Lorein's birthday dinner at Villa Grill in Irving..

20 people, 1 huge bottle of rum latter, we are completed sated after the third round of picanha steak.  At spur of the moment we decided to crash a friend's party that supposedly quite legendary...  So we did..

We pulled into the white house across from the lake.. The music was blaring with some salsa tune.. great, it's a dejayed party.. scored!  We hung by the fire place outside with some live conga musicians.. dance a little samba.. amazed people with some of my african dance moved.. making friends..
Now off to the dance floor.  I spotted a couple of professional samba dancer in the room.  Don't you just love it, when that happened.  I requested Magalenha.. and got some french dance music and bhangra instead.     Caco was happy to hear something french.. When we were walking out of the party, we heard magalenha started playing.. Well, of course we dashed back into the house, took off our winter outerwear and started joining the samba crowd with their specific choreography..  Caco said "That was worth coming back!"



Sunday night, last night for Caco's visit.  We gathered at my house with Lorein,Felipe, Christopher, over fresh mussels, fish banana leaves, and greens.. After two days of debaucheries we came into the end of Caco's visit.  Until next time my friend.. The plan is to meet with her in Ibiza in September to celebrate her 40th b'day..   A bientot!

Thanksgiving 2011

OK, I really don't know why people here are so obsessed with turkeys for holidays.  Way back when.. I thought of them as novelties and joined the wagon of turkey and stuffing lovers, but the excitement slowly worn off.  Now I tried my best not to eat too many or any turkey for holidays.. Well, I would make a exception for unusually prepared turkey.. like 5 spiced turkey (chinese style) or kalasan turkey (indonesian style).

So.. around 2pm I decided to go with my buds.. Marco and Maria to their friends house.  Called the host and it turned out to be Indian style vegetarian food.. Well macarooollooo, I need to add some meat to the mix. so I prepared juicy chicken tandoori to go with all the shenanigans. 

People came bearing offerings like chutney and dhal.. Love it .. love it.. love it.. after dinner we lit a bonfire in their huge backyard.. And Mervin the french bulldog pup stole the show by running around the bonfire with his smoking stick..


Don't you just love impromptu thanksgiving party crashing..