Came to Louisiana to visit my family and attend a "cochon de lait" by my friends Mary and Chuck. Now traditionally the pig was buried in the ground over a bed of hot coals and cooked for a day, but Terrell made a modern version of the cooker.....a stainless steel lined wooden box, with a tray for the coals on top, complete with a thermometer and light. 
We proceeded to decorate the pig with an assortment of fruits, veggies and herbs....note the pineapple stuck up his a......a touch from one of the cajun girls!
Me cher we dun passd a good time ya know!!
Went to this tiny village (population 11) on the Pecos River (south of Las Vegas, NM) to check out the schoolhouse that Brock and Richard have rebuilt. They purchased it in the 1980's and finally in the last 5 years have decided to put their hard working labor into it. Built from the ground up with traditional adobe blocks made by the locals, it will be a perfect place to come and hang out and experience small town life in a remote place. 
We were told that the Spanish brought the ideas of these ovens to the American Indians and they liked them and kept the tradition.
then the local Weavers Guild comes in and cords the wool, dies the yarn with all locally produced plants, spins it and then weaves on this 1610 weaving loom from Europe...all authentic stuff! 
Wow what a place!! And the reward after the long wilderness hike.......HOT SPRINGS!!!....Flowing out of a steep hillside the water is about 105 degrees. There are a series of rock pools with a strong water flow of about 300 gallons/minute. 
It is a delightful experience to be in a cold environment and be able to undress and be warm whilst under a gorgeous sky with a view of rock cliffs, snowy mountains and tall tall trees. 
It is a remote place so we were surprised when a group of 3 people arrived after we did. We were even more surprised when the snakes arrived!! Yes about 2 dozen of them!!!! Slithering all around the springs were these skinny, 2 feet long brown snakes.....they did not look poisonous, more like what I call a gardner snake. However they proceeded to gather into a mating ball as we watched the frenzy. I was in the water mind you when all this was taking place and as soon as the ball got closer to the water and part of it fell into the water is when I abandoned ship. Even knowing they were not venomous, the thought of having snakes slithering around me in the water was a bit unnerving.....the cowgirl yogis said there was probably a transformational message in all this!! 
We managed to get the camera at the beginning of the melee for a video but the battery died. After some Googling of the phenomenon, we determined it was probably the female that emerged from "hibernation and brumation" as her sex-specific pheromones attracted the male snakes in droves.
On our way up the mountain we passed this trail and stopped for a short hike and look see, discovering a very beautiful mountain stream with pockets of snow everywhere and it was COLD!
Bandolier National Monument is only about a 30 minute drive north of Santa Fe, located on the slopes of the Jemez Mountains. About 14 miles before you get to the official site, there are some cliff dwellings off the road that are definently worth exploring. We had the place to ourselves until about noon. Called Tsankawi, named after a tribe of the Ancestral Pueblo people. 
The place is full of cave dwellings. The volcanic tuff, (formed by volcanoes over a million years ago), is very soft and easy to cut into. 
Most of the caves were naturally created by wind and water erosion, but you could tell where humans had embellished them. There were well defined steps and trails that had been incised into the rock.
