Puye Cliffs, New Mexico

Puye Cliff Dwellings

In the Tewa language Puye means "pueblo ruin where the rabbits assemble or meet." I think they still do to this day. This area was home for more than 1500 pueblo indians who built villages, farmed, and hunted game. They believed to have left when drought caused springs to dry up and crops to fail.

Ancient pueblos
Kiva: Place of worship

Sun hole
Moon hole

Inside the ancient pueblo
View of the canyon
Walking down the irrigation canal that was carved by the ancient indians.
Hiking down in flip flops not a good idea.
Beautiful view of the canyon
Time to hike up...
End of the tour

Saw cows hanging out on the way back to Santa Fe

Video:

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, was founded in 1607, and is the capital of the state of New Mexico in the US. With an elevation of 7000 feet, it is not only the United States' oldest state capital but its the highest.

Santa Fe is a mecca for cultural diversity, and extraordinary concentration of arts, music and fine dining.









Bandelier National Park



Kiva-A room used for religious purposes by the ancient puebloans.

Frijoles Canyon: Has been created by Frijoles Creek, eroding through thick deposits of volcanic rock.








The (Tyuoni village) tribe built 400 rooms but only a 100 lived in them. They used most of the rooms to store food and turkey's.




A living quarter carved out by the Anasazi tribe (Jemez mountains). The Anasazi were an ancient civilization that settled in the area and are the direct decedents of the more modern day Pueblo people.


Window



















Ancient hieroglyph.












Bear sighting on the Frey trail.








Valle Grande: Is a wide circular caldera, a sunken volcano formed by the collapse of volcanic domes after two massive eruptions about a million years ago. The basin is some 3,000 ft (915 m) deep, measured from the surrounding rim, which encircles several lava-dome mountains.
























This place goes on for miles and miles and it is peaceful and serene.


Next stop Puye Cliffs.....

Through My Lens

Continuation of Bagan....
Mount Popa

Mount Popa, located 50km away from Bagan, is an extinct volcano that rises. The name "popa" means flowers in Sanskrit, because of a local belief that the forest around Mount Popa was once home of Mai Wunna, a flower-eating ogress.

Although from a distance Mount Popa looks like one single peak, it in fact consists of three peaks which are 4981, 4801 and 4501 feet high. Mount Popa is on a plateau that is 1000 feet above the surrounding plains, and 1800 feet above sea level. Therefore, the actual volcano is 3000 feet from the base. The area around Mount Popa is today designated a national park, and the authorities are keen to develop it for ecotourism.

Farmer's market on our way to Mt. Popa















Women carry fruits and vegetables in baskets and walk for miles to sell the produce.


Mount Popa's attraction today lies not so much in its geological past, but more in its religious and mystical attraction. Mt. Popa is regarded as the home of Myanmar's most powerful nats and as such is the most important nat worship center. Nats are local spirits which are commonly worshipped throughout Myanmar, and Mt. Popa was the Mountain of Spirits. There are many nat shrines on this mountain.

To reach the top, you need to remove shoes and socks and climb the 777 steps to the summit. Along the way are a multitude of monkeys expecting treats. Sometimes they can get a little aggressive. One of the monkey's stole my friend Matt's hat and we had to bribe the monkey by giving him treats to get the hat back.













Hmmm!!! where's my lunch?


Sa Sa's family.















Top of Mt. Popa
























Sa Sa Kotovsky, Matt K, Kyle K, Momayi (Sa Sa's sister), nephew & our guide Khaing.






Next stop Mandalay...

Through My Lens

Bagan, Part II

So, here I am writing about this magical place again. I was so fascinated by this place that I had to capture everything I saw. There is so much history and it is not easy to document everything in one sitting.
Our second day we head out of town to visit a local palm candy/palm liquor facility. The country side is beautiful with rice fields on both sides of the road and life in these parts moves at a very slow pace.




Yes! this is where they make the palm candy and palm liquor. It took us 45 mins from our hotel to get to this place and it was a really warm day. They make their own peanut oil and we had a chance to see how it was made.



Fresh peanuts grown on the property and they use the peanuts to make peanut oil.



Curious as to how they make the peanut oil??? Talk about organic everything...

The method is pretty simple. As you can see these people don't

have fancy machines.



They use an ox driven mill to make the peanut oil. This is located in central Bagan. We stopped here on our way to Mt.Popa. Truly an amazing experience. Here's a video:




After watching how the peanut oil was made we went to see how they made palm candy and liquor. First off, The sap is extracted and collected by a tapper. Typically the sap is collected from the cut flower of the palm tree and a container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented.



Palm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection, due to natural yeasts in the air. Within two hours, fermentation yields an aromatic wine of up to 4% alcohol content (woohoo!!!), mildly intoxicating and sweet.

The wine may be allowed to ferment longer, up to a day, to yield a stronger, more sour and acidic taste, which some people prefer. Palm wine may be distilled to create a stronger drink.







Palm Juice in the clay pots (non-alcoholic of course).



Palm juice, palm candy & tea leaf salad....yum!!!!















The 1st step of making palm liquor










2nd step...


Now this is the real stuff.