CommandZed

An American Southwest Christmas Adventure

The holidays are upon us and while many people are trimming their trees, wrapping presents, carefully planning lengthy family dinners and air travel to wintery places, we are planning our own celebration that includes none of those things — and I am so excited about it! It has nothing to do with not wanting to spend time with family or celebrate Christmas with loved ones, rather we wanted to do something that was a little out of the ordinary and uniquely ours. So, we are going on, what I like to call, a great American road trip. Specifically, a great American road trip into the Southwest.

I admit — when we decided to travel for the holidays, our first choices were Mexico, Central America, or South America (even though we just returned from there). Somewhere warm where we could sit on a beach on Christmas morning and sip on a cocktail while getting sunburned. Alas, lesson learned, you can’t make that decision at the last minute unless your pockets are deep. Travel during the holidays can be very expensive, especially if you want to head to a warm location.

And so we opted for staying Stateside. It is a fantastic idea, (as I pat myself on the back) because we travel so infrequently inside of the US, except for places like Northern California, Oregon and maybe New York. There are limitless options for beauty, culture and the unknown available right here in this country, and I think sometimes we take that for granted. So we asked ourselves, “Where can we go that A: we’ve never really been before, and B: will blow our minds?”

The American Southwest it is — a place where the oldest known settlements in the US occurred and still thrive today, even after thousands of years. A place where the landscapes are arguably, the most dramatic in the world.

We’ll get to stay in the Navajo Nation, sleep in a hand-crafted original ‘hogan’ or mud hut, explore ancient cliff-dwellings made by the Anasazi civilization, and hopefully track down the hundreds of wild mustang horses that roam these lands. Not to mention, we’ll also get our Spanish fix since they did invade this area too and left behind a strong imprint in the architecture, language and religious beliefs.

Our trip will also take us into Monument Valley, to the edge of the Grand Canyon, up into the snowy wilderness of the San Juan Forest and a train ride on the Historic Durango-Silverton train.

While it isn’t going to be warm, (quite the contrary — we are expecting below freezing temperatures) it will be a grand adventure, and one we won’t soon forget. We’ll get to discover all kinds of places previously unknown to us. Our twelve day drive will take us through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado and we’ll do our best to keep you updated with some of our findings along the way.

1 month ago 13 notes

Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me. You go there as a snarky New Yorker thinking it’s politically correct, it’s crunchy granola, it’s vegetarian, and it surprises you every time. It’s a two-fisted drinking town, a carnivorous meat-eating town, it’s dirty and nasty and wonderful.

– Anthony Bourdain’s Favorite Places to Eat - NYTimes.com

1 month ago

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

– Apple, Inc.

3 months ago 5 notes

Our balcony which sits next to a babbling brook, and overlooks the Inca ruins Ollantaytampo.

4 months ago 1 note View high resolution

The Sacred Valley

4 months ago View high resolution

High Altitude

There is so much to summarize from our last few days in Peru, so I can only cover a few highlights. I can’t seem to recall when we left Lima, but we did - this memory lapse must be a sign of a good vacation, or it is the altitude.

Arequipa was the first stop on our grand excursion across southern Peru, the second largest city in the country that sits up in the highlands of the Andes mountains. It is very pretty, with many buildings constructed of white volcanic rock that had spewed from one of the many volcanoes that surround Arequipa. About 2-3 hours bus ride from the city is the Colca Valley and Canyon, with it’s ancient Inca Terraces and Andean Condors. We spent two days in Colca, traveling through tiny towns with no paved roads, free roaming Vicuñas and Alpacas, and going to mountain summits to view the deepest canyon in the world. When I return from my trip, I’ll try to elaborate in more detail with photographs some of the sights and history of the area - it is just too hard to explain in words alone.

Altitude can be a problem for people traveling in the Andes. Arequipa is approximately 2300 meters above sea level (~7000 ft) and some of the areas we visited around Colca sit at about 4900 meters (walking 10 feet was hard at this altitude). We stayed in a quaint cottage on the edge of the canyon near a desolate little town called Chivay, which sits at about 3600 meters (12,000 feet). This is where I experienced early symptoms of what could have become altitude sickness (gasping for breathe in the middle of the night, very high heart rate, chills), but I got lucky, survived and I’m mostly climatized for the remainder of our stay at high altitude. Here in Cusco we are at about 3400 meters above sea level and I’m feeling just fine, though climbing or walking fast can still do a number on my lungs. Our gorgeous little hotel has given us a can of oxygen to put in our bag in case we ever need it - which we did today to take the edge off of climbing some stairs.

We’ve eaten amazing food including alpaca and ostrich, held beautiful eagles on our heads and tiny lambs in our arms. We’ve watched the massive Andean Condors soar over 4000 ft canyons and we’ve walked through Inca and pre-Inca ruins. And just this evening, we finished a very full day in Cusco with much needed massage therapy for our aching, oxygen-hungry bodies. I’d say that this trip is turning out quite well.

4 months ago

Lima is known as the gastronomic capital of the Americas. Next week, a national event will be held here, where the world’s greatest chefs will gather to serve up samples of their best dishes to Limeños.

4 months ago 1 note View high resolution