New Mexico: Day 4 (Part 2)

Afterwards, we headed back to Santa Fe, took a little break, and we visited the Santa Fe Plaza in Downtown Santa Fe where the architecture has remained largely untouched since the early 1900s.



Yay, columns:





The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the only structures in downtown Santa Fe not in the adobe style of architecture:

















That night, we ate at the Flying Tortilla right next to our La Quinta hotel here. Not bad, but not great. It's okay.


Finally, today, we woke up at 6:30, and left for a little place near Taos, about an hour and a half away. My brother and I were going rockclimbing! It was great. Our guide's name was Jay, and was loads of fun--apparently he's been climbing all over the world... I'm so jealous. He was great to talk to, and pointed out a couple techniques for outdoor climbing. Also, he "founded" a lot of hiking routes (developed?) in the area and other places... he even gave me his climbing book at the end! How awesome! We hiked into a trail about 10 miles, and came across massive sandstone walls. I've only climbed outdoors twice, and only on granite, so this was interesting... I think I like it better. It's apparently a harder sandstone, but was nicer than the granite that I climbed on before in California (Consumes and Castle Rock). We started out with a 5.5/6... I was a little nervous as I always am outdoors, but our guide was great about reassuring me, and suggested that I do the same route again. Still didn't love the route, but did another 5.5/6 next to it, and it was great... a lot of laybacks... apparently I tend to like those a lot... lots of using your balance and torque (teehee, nerd) and shifting your weight around... hehe. I'm worse at slabs and smearing because I'm too nervous about slipping, hehe. Then we moved to another part... oh yeah, so I had to lead belay him all the way up... good chance to practice my lead belaying techniques, hehe... and we did another 5.6 and then a 5.7. They were pretty fun. Figure out which routes they are. Then, we moved to another part of the wall, and I got to climb a 5.9/10a! It was awesome. Each route has a "crux," the hardest part of the climb. It took a lot of different skills that I've actually been working on... turning your feet different ways, using your palms to push up, using your weight in different ways... oh yeah. Then, next to it was a 5.7 that we did... it was okay... actually.

So many pictures of my brother, but not me, haha.







Me!



Back to Jay.





Oh, me and my photography:



Our guide, also Jay!





My brother climbed it first, and when he started, around 2:00, and it started POURING RAIN with the biggest rain drops ever. ...He got completely soaked. It was still raining when it was my turn, but oh whatever... it was actually really fun. It was one of those things that... I'm annoyed about how uncomfortable it sounds, but when I'm actually doing it, I remember why I love pushing my comfort level... it's so exhilarating... the wall was slippery, and it was hard to look up for holds because of the rain, but it was fantastic.

RAIN!





I really wanted to get in more climbs, but it was a little past 2:30, and our time was up, and it was time to go. Haha, right when the sun came out. Ah well... I hope to be able to go to Thailand and climb with our guide again, hehehe. ;)

We drove back, took a little break, and ate at Cafe Castro... it was pretty awesome.



They gave complimentary sopaipillas... with honey... THEY ARE SO GOOD. I'm so tempted to find the recipe for them, but I hate to have to deep-fry things... ah... but deep-fried dough... but better than, you know, donuts. Omg, so good. Doesn't it look tasty?



My brother's... chicken burrito with red chili (the green chili is sooo much better)



Dude playing the guitar and singing in Spanish, how awesome.



I was feeling a little weird, so I didn't order anything, but ate bits and pieces of my dad's chicken burrito with green chili, my brother's chicken burrito with red chili, and a little bit of my mom's chile rellenado + pork talame + cheese burrito thing with green chili. The green chili was soooo good. The burritos and Spanish rice were pretty good, too. Anyhow, that's all. Apparently my dad needs to leave tomorrow while my brother and I are out white water rafting (supposedly a Class III-IV full-day route, which'll be interesting) for an emergency trip to Taiwan, and yeah... now I know where my need-to-work during vacation thing comes from... I swear it's genetic.

Anyhow, my brother wants his computer back, and I have no idea when I'll be able to get another go at this. Sigh, we'll see.