hey from santa fe!

wow, three weeks in!

where to begin...

well, we moved to a new campsite in jemez springs, nm, and did our work around there in the bitter coldness. one day it rained pretty hard in this gloriously gorgeous canyon area (outside bandalier nat'l monument), and it was really dangerous slipping and sliding all over these huge boulders and rocks made of clay. by the end of it though (as by the end of every point we do), i was feeling quite confident in my skills meandering, climbing, and not falling, as it were. it was pretty fun, except my clothes didn't dry out for two days.

then we went to a hot springs and met a professor from cameron in oklahoma. that was cool, except i had to sit there in my underwear with TWO men i barely knew. at least there weren't more.

it snowed that same day, up in the higher elevations, and it was just so beautiful! on the other hand, it's mid-may, so the snow was rather confusing. it obviously wasn't going to be the land of flowers up there...seeing as how white tends to blot out other colors...

then we moved camp to a site next to a river (around el rio, nm), and it was cold there, too! it's so hard to sleep when you're so cold! i woke up shivering all the time, and God help me if i had to pee! anyway, our sites out there had to do a lot with rocks and plateaus and canyons. all stunningly gorgeous, and actually having flowers and hummers! but difficult to clamber over, and eventually i had three blisters on my feet.

i can say with confidence, however, that i believe i've lost a bit of weight so far. it's great for the self-esteem, but the clothing i have is getting so big, especially my pants! i bought a belt in mexico (probably the only good thing i spent my money on), and i've gone down two holes since then! in two weeks?! i suppose it's entirely possible. we hike every day and sometimes all day, with minor food breaks in between, i cook all vegetarian meals for us (unless it's too late or too fatiguing to prepare an elaborate meal, in which case, he eats his own meatful soups or sausages or whatnot), and since we're on a budget everything is in smaller portions.

it sure is time-consuming to add pictures to my blogs. i'm sorry i'm two weeks behind with these complete articles with photos, but i also don't have the room on my hard drive to upload any more pictures..just yet. we're heading to best buy today, and i'm going to invest in an external hard drive. and then there will be photos, oh yes.

but santa fe is pretty great, for the solid two hours i've actually seen of it. i've spent more time on my computer farting around than doing anything fun and adventurous here. that needs to change, so here i am signing off.

until i can get some photos up on here, hopefully you will enjoy it without. :)