New Mexico: Las Vegas Hot Springs

This February Lilo came to visit me for a week. We wanted to be adventurous and do something outside of the house, but the wintery weather was not helping. Finally, we decided that hot springs would be the best idea! warm and cozy!

New Mexico is known for having a huge amount of hot springs. We kept on hearing about them, but we never had a chance to go. Since this was new to us, we decided to go to the ones with the easiest access: The Las Vegas Hot Springs! These hot springs are about an hour away from Santa Fe, and they are right on the side of the road! so we didn't freeze on the 'hike' to them or back!

The only disadvantage that comes with the easy access is that they are usually pretty packed with people.

I know I know. There are no people there, but this was just for a second, while they were preparing to get in

 I had never been to any hot springs before so I didn't have anything to compare them with, but after going to the San Antonio Hot Springs last week I can tell you that the Las Vegas Springs are not very pretty at all. However, the water is warm, and that is what we wanted! 

The guy in the back didn't work there.
 No.
He was cleaning before getting in because he didn't want his feet to touch the dirty floor. 

After the hot springs we ate some homemade pizza, we had another small adventure, and then we went home happy to have done something new. 

New Mexico: Dwan Light Sanctuary

Last November Lilo and I went to some hot springs we had heard of in Las Vegas, NM. When we got there we realized that they were right next to the UWC-USA, one out of 13 amazing schools located all over the world. While we were soaking in the springs, some people started talking about the 'Dwan Light Sanctuary', and seemed very excited about it. They told us it was on the school grounds, and we decided to head there after the springs. It ended up being about 2 minutes away, so it wasn't much of a drive. 

Homemade Fresh Mozzarella!!

Instagram Photos @orazzamarual

Last week we were on a 'homemade' mood. We had a pool party to celebrate a friend's birthday, and we had to bring something. I was told that she wanted a caprese salad, but that she had discarded the idea because of the huge price of fresh mozzarella. That same day I had found this post through Pinterest! It was a sign, and we had to do it! 

Moving to The Bay Area: Being Close to Lake Tahoe

Until last summer, the farthest west I had ever been in the US was Champaign, IL. All my family lives on the East shore, so I never thought much about going west. That is, until I saw some pictures of Lake Tahoe. These pictures convinced me that I had to go there someday, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, one day, my dad said that he missed me and my sisters, and wanted to take a trip with us. We all live in different places, so usually our trips consist of visiting each other in one of those places. But this time he wanted to do something different. Jokingly, I said: “Well, Let’s go to Lake Tahoe!”

New Mexico: Carlsbad Caverns

Last weekend we decided to go camp at White Sands National Monument. Since the drive there from Santa Fe is about 4 hours, we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the fact that we were going to be in the south of New Mexico, and drive about 3 hours East of white sands to go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

The entrance. Look at the handrails on top and the people in the bottom. The pictures don't show it much, but everything in this cave was extremely large.

This park has over 117 caves, including Lechuguilla Cave, which is the deepest limestone cave in the US. However, it is not open to the public. Look at how incredible it is: 

Lechuguilla Cave. People are not allowed in here

We were toasted from our camping trip in the desert, so the coolness of the cave felt really good. We got there pretty late, so we only had about two hours to explore before we headed back. Here are our photos:

The Whale's Mouth

In this photo, if you look up close, you can find a person's silhouette standing in the back. This shows you how large this place is

The park has different tours available. Some of them involve dragging yourself in tiny passages, with just flashlights to illuminate your way. I really wish we could have done one of these tours, but we didn't have enough time. Another thing to see is the exit of the bats from the cave. At sunset hundreds of thousands of bats exit the cave together, and there is an amphitheater from which to watch this. We had to drive 5 hours back home, so waiting for the sunset was out of the question.

Who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to come back and do those things we didn't get to do. But even if we don't, I'm very happy that we got to visit. 

New Mexico: White Sands National Monument

Lilo finally arrived, which means that I am officially not in a long distance relationship anymore!

This also means that I am no longer living alone in Santa Fe. And if you are a non-hippy 23 year old, new to living alone in this city, then you know that it can get really lonely. Finally I will be able to do all the things I have been meaning to do, but had nobody to do them with. And since we only have three weeks left here before we hit the road, every day of every weekend has been booked for something 

The first one of these things, and the one that had been heading my list, is camping at White Sands National Monument during the full moon. And I got to do it THIS LAST WEEKEND! 

 Lilo decided that we should hike for an hour to find our camping spot. Have you ever 'hiked' on dunes?! Needless to say, I gave up more than a couple of times on the way.

This was the only 'structure' we found during our two days there. It had a strange plant on the other side.  Everything else in the park was dunes and dunes. 

This is the kind of place you only dream of. It is a completely white desert. At some point when the sun was starting to go down, the sky matched the color of the sand, and it felt as if we were in a completely white world, like this part of the matrix! I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, and I can't believe that I didn't go before. This is definitely the kind of place where you want to go more than once. It seems like the perfect location to escape everything and just relax.

Here is a selection out of the hundreds of pictures we took. Hopefully they are enough to convince you that you have to go there. 

We got there at noon. It was over 100 degrees, and there wasn't a single place with shadow. My car camouflaged perfectly  with the dunes.

We found some picnic tables, and decided to shelter from the sun while we figured out what to do. The picnic table area looked like it was from outer space! 

We had bagels with peanut butter, pistachios that we bought at a  pistachio farm near the park, and MY FAVORITE: A prickly pear lollipop!! We found it at the park's gift shop. If you know me, then you know I love prickly pear, so this was my dream come true

Lilo didn't bring a hat, and it didn't take us too long to realize that he was going to need to cover his head. So I gave him my girly scarf and we tied it on his head :D
(Notice how bright the sand was in the background. I tried taking my sunglasses off just to see if my eyes would adapt, since I hate sunglasses, but nope. It was way too much.)

I tried to get my entire body under the shadow of my hat. I failed. 

Then I tried running to produce some wind. This just made me feel hotter. 

It was soooo beautiful, but sooo painful that we had to leave the park and wait for the sun to go down a little bit before we set camp.

A couple of hours later we came back and it was much more bearable. Lilo realized that his shadow looked like Peter Pan's. Look at that! 

One of the best things about this place is that even though it was over 100 degrees, with an incredibly shiny sun,  the sand was not hot at all! it was actually kind of cool. So I hiked barefoot for the rest of the trip. 

I also wrote my name on the sand so that I could be remembered FOREVER.

We walked and walked, and walked, and tripped, and got up, and walked more trying to explore

We finally took a break, drank some water, ate some pistachios and baby food, and just laid there. Then we looked around and noticed that the sky had matched the sand! it was an incredible feeling. The picture above was not retouched. This was really what it looked like to infinity and beyond. 

We would have stayed there forever, but we had to walk an hour to get to our camp spot, and set camp before it got dark. So we walked back to the car, during this beautiful sunset. 

Then we picked up our stuff, and walked to our camp spot.  

We managed to set camp right when the sun went down. 

And then the full moon illuminated everything. It was such a beautiful and bright night. 

But the morning was even brighter.
We picked everything up and started back. It was getting insanely hotter by the minute, so sadly we had to leave fast.

This was definitely my favorite thing I have done in New Mexico. I am extremely happy that I didn't miss it, and I would recommend for anyone to make a trip here, even if just to see this place.

New Mexico: Canyon Road

Santa Fe is the third largest art market in the US, only surpassed by cities like New York, and San Francisco. Even though it is such a small city it has over 240 art galleries. As you can imagine this means that every corner of the city has either a museum, an art gallery, an art studio, or street sculptures.

Edna

Today my almost two year old fishie, Edna, passed away. Anyone who saw me with her knows that I loved her way too much. She was going to move with me to California, and I already had planned to buy her a bigger/better tank, and redecorating, and making her life so much better. I will miss her, and I hope I never forget her.