New Mexico Experience II

After staying overnight in Truth or Consequences, NM, we arose and went to the rental car, only to discover its left rear tire extremely low on air. I had noticed an odd warning light on the dash late the previous afternoon...it looked like the shape of the lower half of a tire, with the bottom bulging slightly. My wife went to the owners manual and discovered it was a warnding for a low tire. We aired up the tire and headed a short distance up the road to Elephant Butte, a community that sits on the banks of a reservoir (Caballo Lake) created by damming the Rio Grande.

Elephant Butte is a pretty little place. It has the look of desert oasis about it, a place with an expansive sky and red rocks and dry sand, all next to a pocket of refreshing water. This picture is one of the few I took there; obviously, it is a recreational area, as evidenced by the gargantuan size of the boat ramp. It must not have been 'in season' yet, because the lake was rather placid and there were few boats out in it...and it may have been too early, too, on a Friday morning. In any event, it was a pretty spot. We talked a bit about exploring more, on another trip, to see if this is the sort of place to which we might consider retiring one day, if Mexico isn't within our grasp.

Just as we were heading toward the other side of the town to get another perspective, the damn little warning light came on again. So, we trotted back to Truth or Consequences to the only tire repair place we had encountered and had the tire fixed. It had a screw lodged in its tread. I had called Dollar Car Rental at Albuquerque airport to confirm that we should have it fixed (versus having them send their own service or whatever)...yes, get it fixed, they said, and we will reimburse you. Not so. When we returned the car, they said we did not buy the hazard coverage, so no reimbursement. Moreover, they charged $7.50 per day for my wife being an extra driver, though she did not drive the vehicle a single foot. When I told them to add her as an extra driver, it never occurred to me they would charge me...nor did they volunteer. So, all of you who might consider renting from Dollar; my advice is, don't. I felt like I was ripped off. OK, enough ranting about the ethics of rental car agencies.

As we were leaving Truth or Consequences to catch the highway south toward Hatch, I was intrigued by the view as we looked west. We were on a very broad, divided highway that has a mix of gas stations, athletic fields, entries to subdivisions whose glory days are long-since past, and a scattering of tired old buildings whose purposes are hard to discern from a passing car. In the background, the mountains to the west seemed at once welcoming and forbidding. Something about the scene made me feel like this was the physical embodiment of loneliness. I took a few photos, hoping to capture that sense, but the photos do not begin to convey the sensation I had that morning. But, I'll post one anyway.

We took the main highway south for short distance, then veered west and got on a highway that parallels the main road, but has a more pleasant vista. Alongside the road on both sides were mile upon mile of orchards and fields of one kind or another...pecan orchards, fields that held the remnants of chile plants that produce the reknowned Hatch Chiles, and lots of other crops we could not distinguish. The drive brought back memories of my very early childhood, when I lived in Brownsville, Texas or would return there from Corpus Christi while riding along with my father on his business trips. There's something soothing about being in the middle of agricultural communities where the crops grow right up to the roadside. I suppose it makes me feel closer to nature than walking through an artificially green neighborhood whose last days of growing food passed many, many years ago. These rural 'wide spots in the road' are gathering places in the early morning, where people come together to talk, plan their days, and enjoy some communal conversations before they embard on long, hard, lonely days in the fields or orchards. I enjoy being in rural areas like that, where people wave at people in passing cars. My sense of human goodness is reinforced when people I don't know and won't talk to because I'm in a passing car express friendliness that's not obligatory, it's just a genuine acknowledgement of another person.

It's not far from Truth or Consequences to Hatch, but we succeeded in making it a much longer drive than would have been required by diverting along side roads and taking our own sweet time. We arrived in Hatch in time for an early lunch. We stopped at a place called the Valley Cafe, a tiny little spot on the main road. We ordered a lunch consisting of guacamole and a meat stew with green chile sauce. The menu also had and items called tacos de buche. I did not know what buche was; my wife asked and was told it is pig stomach fried in lard. I'm always ready to try something new, but I decided to pass that one. Maybe one day.

Our trip continued as we headed back north, with Santa Fe being our destination. We took back roads all the way to Albuquerque, making the day's drive very, very long, but wonderfully satisfying. The roads we travelled had remarkably little traffic, so we could stop on the highway and listen to the sound of the wind on the prairies (or in the mountain passes, whichever the case may have been at any given stop), or just stop and ponder the scenery. I tend to forget to take pictures when I am completely enamored of a place, so there were few pictures from our drive north to Santa Fe. This one is one of my favorites, as it speaks to the desolation of the places we visited. Suffice it to say that the backroads of New Mexico put me in a place that I like to be. Getting back into the Albuquerque area at rush hour on Friday, though, took me out of that place, fast. I could not believe the traffic on Interstate 25 just north of downtown Albuquerque. It was bumper-to-bumper in both directions for miles. I don't know if that's normal or not, but I do know it's grinding on the nerves of a geezer who has just decompressed in the desolation of rural roads.

We got to Santa Fe about 6 pm and drove directly to our hotel, La Fonda. It's an old but very nice hotel right on the square. After putting our stuff away, we went for a walk around the square and then ventured off some nearby streets, looking at leather and jewelry and knives and baskets and clothing...and buying none of it. By the time we got back to the square, we thought it was time for a margarita, so we went to the Ore House, where my wife ordered what the restaurant called the cutsie name of La Plaza Platarita, made with Cuervo 1800 Silver and Cointreau. I got their 'Sandyrita,' made with Sauza Commemnorativo Añejo and Cointreau. Next time around, my wife got the Chacharita (Sauza Silver and Cointreau) and I got the Horny Toad (Hornitos Reposado and Gran Marnier). All were good, but I still prefer my recipe, personally. Then came dinner: sopa de lima for my wife and a Hatch burger with bacon and bleu cheese for me. Obviously, we were being very careful about our diets.

Most of our Santa Fe visit was about food. Sure, we walked, we viewed "stuff," and we even bought some things, but mostly it was about food. I did take pictures from our room, but once outside, I tended not to take many. You see, it snowed while we were there! Yes, early May, snow. It didn't stick, but the snow flakes were huge and heavy and tended to clump together on the way down, turning instantly to large drops of water when they hit the ground (or me). I was not prepared for snow. I was not prepared for temperature in the 30s. But I lived. Below are a few pictures I took...the first one is looking our our hotel window at the mariachis leading the wedding party from the chapel across the street to...who knows where? It happened about six times while we were there.


I was talking about food. For breakfast our first morning in Santa Fe, we walked across the street to a little coffe shop and ordered a breakfast taco that turned out to be large enough to feed a family of six. Good smells, good food. Very wierd clientele, including two young women who used the place as their bedrooms, curled up comfortably in some beanbag chairs, and some surly old bastard who was annoyed with the waitress at the counter when she took our order before embarking on building his elaborate combinagtion of cream and sugar and cookies and whatever else with a splash of coffee. I ordered an espresso that turned out to be wonderful. I wish I'd written down the name of the place.

After breakfast, we wandered along the plaza, viewing artworks and handicrafts and finally make our way to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. We viewed all the pieces in the museum; while we enjoyed it, we felt like the Kimbell in Fort Worth had done a better job of displaying her works. I'm a huge fan of her work, though, and the short video about her life made the $8/person fee well worth it.

For lunch, we did something very odd (seems to me); we ate in a place called Rooftop Pizzeria, in a newer-looking mini shopping mall on the plaza. As it turned out, it was an exceptional place for lunch. I got a glass of Saint Clair 2006 Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) and my wife got a glass of Osborne Cabernet Sauvignon (Spain), both of which were excellent and very reasonably priced. We ordered a thin-crust pizza topped with grilled eggplant, squash, sundried tomatoes, artichoke heart, roast garlic, kalamata olives, basil pesto, and goat cheese (on my half). It was out of this world.

As we walked off lunch and tried to avoid being soaked by snow flakes, we came upon a tasting room for Santa Fe Vineyards, a winery located in Española, New Mexico. The place had some interesting art on the walls, so we went in and browsed and were persuaded to do the $5 tasting. That, too, was a good thing. Despite tasting a few much-too-sweet-for-our-taste wines, there were some that were incredibly inexpensive and very good. The guy who orchestrated the tasting was young but knowledgeable and he convinced me to try some of what I would have normally avoided, some 'known' sweet wines that, as it turns out, are a bit sweeter than most I would enjoy but were good, after all. It turns out he is waiter in his other life. He works at La Boca, a tapas bar that has been getting rave reviews from the Santa Fe media and, we're told, the Albuquerque media and beyond. He urged us to try it, saying the chef/owner was responsible for other restaurants in town getting a reputation for serving fabulous tapas. We succumbed to his persuasion; when we got back to the hotel, we asked the consierge to make a reservation for us at 8:00 pm.

La Boca did not disappoint. Here is a sampling of what we shared: marinated catalan olives; alcaparonnes (Spanish caperberries); coriander spiced grilled eggplant w/ red onion chermoula; cantimpalitos: grilled mini chorizo w/ membrillo glaze. I think we had more...but looking at the menu, I cannot remember. I'd like to go back to try the other tapas but also to try their larger-portion meals, including paella which sounded incredibly good.

After sleeping off dinner, we went to the Plaza Cafe for breakfast. It's a place that pleases me as much for its lack of pretension as for its food. Everyone from old Indian street vendors to local publishers (and everyone in between) seemed to be there for breakfast. My guess is that we were among the few tourists. I found a reference to it on Roadfood.com, which reinforced my thoughts that it was a great place to eat and learn.

Not long after breakfast, we were back on the road to Albuquerque. We got off the freeway a bit north of town and went west for a ways until we got to a road that parallels the Rio Grande. It was on that road that we saw the house in this picture. I hope the lizard wrapping around the place is easily visable...if not, click on the photo to enlarge it.

I had promised myself that I would try to find the Flying Star, a place recommended to me by a blogger friend. We did not eat there, but we did, indeed, find two of them...one at 4026 Rio Grande NW and one at 3416 Central SE (the original). We had planned on eating at the original, but it was very crowded and, upon entering, we could not find the Buddha Bowl on the menu, which was the primary reason for going in, and the crowds were a bit more than I wanted on our last day in New Mexico, so we went wandering. We ended up having lunch at Las Cuates, the sister restaurant of the one at which we had lunch our first day. It was a much larger place, but had a similar menu...and I had a similar menu to my first time in.

By the time we headed to the airport to return our car and fly back home, I thought how astounding it was that we had covered so much ground in such a short period of time and how the physical presence of the more desolate areas of New Mexico had really captured my imagination. I'm already thinking about the next trip.