Day 2 Thursday
The land out here is dry, arid, and minus the red earth- reminds me of the Australia desert I saw in NSW. All of the buildings here though are Adobe or Spanish style. It makes you feel like your somewhere else. Somewhere unrelated to (what I know) as the United States. A constant sea of textures in browns and tans with flecks of vibrant teal, purple, and red-orange doors, lampposts, and fences.
Today Beth took us to a little area of gallery’s called Canyon Road. Beautiful place. Blocks and blocks of Adobe and Spanish style houses; that have flourishing flower boxes, rock gardens, and little signs outside with the style of art, or artists work they display inside. Each house was easily converted into a gallery of displays, mostly fine art in southwestern style, giving respects to the Spanish, Mexican, Native American, and Cowboy influences here. Contrasts of colors, and patterns from the modern to the classic all over every one. Some places had paintings, some sculptures- actually many had bronze sculptures- some had installations. Actually Liz took us into this neat little gallery with the captivating art of a friend of hers, Randall Hasson. I encourage you to look him up, all the words I would use to describe his calligraphy paintings would not do the pieces justice. (www.randallmhasson.com)
Then it was on to eat- we had worked up an appetite. “Let me show you guys what genuine Mexican food really tastes like.” To Tomisita’s we go. We were led to a round wooden table clustered in the middle of a long, tall-ceiling’d room, among business and family patrons alike. Dried red chilies adorned the tan terracotta walls in long strings quite like bananas on a tree. If you know what that looks like. I don’t know- look it up. . . I trying to sound like I know what Im talking about- please just go with it. But the food, was amazing. We had Sopipias’, Mmmm with chicken and red and green sauce. A Sopipia is a delicious pocket of thin soft dough that can be stuffed or eaten alone. On the plate it was arranged with lettuce and salsa, drenched with the sauce. Beth ordered it as ‘Christmas’ because you can have green sauce, red sauce, or both. All you need to know is that it was just spicy enough, the chicken was tender and juicy, and it was GOOD! Oh- and our waitress also brought empty sopipias’ which, as Beth showed us, we drenched in honey found readily available on the table. Great to be with friends, like a long lost experience.
Matt, being the gentleman he is, figured Liz and I wanted some girl time. “All I want is to eventually hike up a mountain” he said, “So we dropped him off back at the base and I guess he went back and took a nap. Understandable, noting that the altitude here is 7,000 above sea level, all I know is that is a lot higher than home. Its wonderful for the weather, but can reduce the amount of oxygen in the air, potentially inducing tiredness to non-locals. So, we were off to a good o’ time. . . Actually we just ran some errands, picked up some magazines at the bookstore, discussed creative ideas about decorating. Elizabeth is so fun to talk to about those kind of things, because she has deliberately picked up on so many details she has seen in her travels around the world.
By this time its getting late. So we crowded around the TV and watched the news and worked on our computers. ‘Ding-dong’, a sound came from Elizabeth’s computer. Skype, a free communication program on her computer was calling. On the other side of that ring, a friend from Alaska and a mutual friend Canada. Two separate places, and with a computer camera, its like the doorbell just rang and your friends are right there. It was nice to catch up. It was a great way to end the night.
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