Around Alto & Ruidoso

Although we’d reached the land of native American, or Indian, reservations, our time in Alto/Ruidoso was spent more in exploring local scenery and festivities.  As soon as we’d arrived and settled in we set out for the striking Spencer Theatre nearby, another amazing example of a local high quality concert and theatre venue apparently miles from a major centre.  We were there to see the Chinese National Circus (there are apparently several troupes of acrobats bearing similar titles and I have been unable to find decent web information or pictures of this group, but suffice it to say that the acts were breathtaking.  The Chinese buffet served before the show was also very good, and the theatre itself stunning.  Apparently the white marble cladding of the exterior was quarried in Spain and finished in Italy – quite an extravagance.  Pictures of this and of the rest of our time round Alto are here.

The following couple of days were spent in outings nearby.  From the high perch of their house in the pine-covered mountains Barbara and Alan took us west into the Tularosa valley and to the White Sands National Monument.  This extraordinary gypsum desert of fine brilliant white sand  was formed from gypsum washed from the San Andres Mountains by rain, crystallised as the water evaporated and then eroded and formed into drifts by westerly winds.  Much of it is a missile range and so inaccessible – the public site is near Almagordo towards the southern end of this space, but the strip of desert links further south still to the Chihuahua desert in Mexico) was formed.  Walking on the sand in bare feet is cool even in the midday sun because the heat is reflected rather than absorbed, but you do run the risk of ‘upwards sunburn ‘…

We fitted in some wine tasting in the valley and in the local town of Ruidoso – I have written about this in my wine blog.  The rest of our time here was spent in and around Ruidoso, notably watching the local carnival procession, and enjoying a car show of hundreds of lovingly restored old vehicles.  The pictures (follow links) tell the story better than a lot of words.  We also visited the casino in the Indian reservation area nearby – a spectacular building by a lake with symbolic teepees across the water.  At home with Alan and Barbara we ate lovely food and drank good Californian and New Mexican wines (and a bottle of 1977 Pauillac that happened to be around!), watched satirical news programmes on tv, and relaxed on the decking.

The house is comfortable and welcoming, hidden among winding roads on the pinewood slopes, with a big deck to sit out when the weather is warm enough, as it was for most of our stay.  It is high up so the nights are cool, and we found low cloud all around us on our final morning – Barbara pointed out incidentally that, at that altitude (over 2000 metres) it was not worth trying to cook some things because the boiling point of water is just too low.

All too soon it was time to pack again and move on – the excitement of the north and the mixture of Mexican/Spanish and native Indian cultures beckoned.