Partying with Nuns and hanging with elk

Best Super Bowl Party Ever:

Our Super Bowl viewing experience was absolutely priceless.  I'll ever forget partying with the nuns.  As you can see from the picture (right) the room was divided between the Ravens fans (in purple) and the San Francisco fans (in crimson and gold).  First, I should mention that only two of the nuns have any understanding of how football is played.  Nonetheless, they have a party every year.  Without any understanding of how football is played and with no allegiances, the majority of nuns just split off so that an equal number are cheering for each team.  Sister Kay, the Mother Provincial (head honcho for the North American province of the Canoissan Sisters - in the gold scarf), is the resident football expert among the sisters.  Sister Kay and Sister Christiana (in the maroon sweatshirt) were both huge San Francisco fans as they had spent some time at the Canoissan community in San Francisco.  Chelsey and I were cheering for the Ravens (obviously we were happy with the outcome).

Hiking with Matt Douglas:

Matt Douglas was in town for a work conference so we got to spend a few evenings hanging with Mr. Douglas.  On Friday (2-8-13), I  had some free time and suggested we go on a hike here in the Albuquerque area.  Matt had only been in town for 4 days at that point so he probably had not adjusted to the altitude.  This did not, however, stop us from hiking 10 miles in the Sandia Mountains.  It was a beautiful 50 degrees and sunny on the bottom of the mountain.  Half-way up our hike we hit the snowline and neither our clothes nor our shoes were really appropriate for the weather.  After hitting a very anti-climactic
peak (with no view or anything) we turned around and re-traced our steps.  Along the way, we came across this large Abert's-Squirel (right) which walked with us down the trail for 20 yards or so.  It was fairly curious and stayed very close.  You might not be able to tell from the picture but it was really big and had the face of a marsupial.  Matt spent the rest of the day recovering and touring Albuquerque while Chelsey and I went to a retreat celebrating the life of Saint Bakhita with the Canoissan Sisters.  We met Matt again for dinner.  It was great getting visit with Mr. Douglas before we left.  Now the pressure is on to convince him to visit us in Paraguay. 

Chaco Canyon:  On Sunday (2-10-13) we got up early and headed northwest to visit a remote National Park that we heard of through a Park Ranger at El Malpais.  Chaco Culture National Historic Park is about a three hour trip from Albuquerque.  The weather had taken a cold snap and many of the roads in the area become impassable when it snows, so I was a little concerned we were not going to make it.  As usual, sunny in ABQ but as soon as we hit the mountains we were in the snow on untreated roads.  All went well until we hit the turnoff to the park.  What I have failed to mention, up until this point, is the last 20 miles approaching the park are all on dirt roads.  In our case, they were snow covered dirt roads.  As you can see (above) it was quite pretty and fairly clear on most of the road.  There was, however, a portion of the raod that was completely covered and I had a split second where I thought it was a bad idea.  Anyhow, it was the right decision in toughing it out because the Canyon was awesome and nobody was there.


When we were told about the park, the ranger described it as the "Pyramids of America."  He was not too far off.  Chaco Canyon is, to quote from the NPS website, "The Center of an Ancient World" where "massive buildings of the ancestral Pueblo peoples still testify to the organizational and engineering abilities not seen anywhere else in the American Southwest."  The canyon was the epicenter of a Pueblo civilization that existed between 850 and 1250 AD, connected to other Pueblo civilizations (including Sky City - from my earlier post) by ancient roads.  The park presents a beautiful canyon but also amazing structures that are still intact after over 1,000 years.  They blend so well into the surrounding terrain that you can almost not see them in the photos but if you look close you will see amazingly well designed structures that have withstood the test of time.  I don't think our modern buildings would withstand 1,000 years of weather, but these wood and rock structures, because of their location and the climate, are still here for us to see.  

Chelsey and I hiked a 6 mile loop trail on the top of a mesa.  The temperature on the floor of the canyon was 34 degrees.  It was colder and windier on the top but I still had a great time (I think Chelsey did, too).  The snow presented some really pretty vistas.  On the mesa top we saw tons of Elk droppings and even a bobcat print with bobcat scat.  I was disappointed that we did not see any actual wildlife in the park but I got my wish when we ran into elk right after leaving the park (video below).  It was dusk and there were 5 huge male elk hanging in a field right next to the road play fighting.  It was really quite amazing.

We left the park through the South on a different, longer dirt road.  After 3 hours we were back home in Albuquerque - tired and dirty from all our outdooring.  Nothing better evidenced the dirt than our poor Pontiac Vibe.  Next adventure is the Grand Canyon...