Day 14, July 13, 2011

Unfortunately, Corita’s roommate Kim (an RN) has had her hospital shift from 11am-11pm this week, but at least they have the mornings to be together, even if Kim can’t join the excursions.  At any rate, Clara is a great tour guide, which is good because Geron went back to work today on his summer job as a pedicab driver on the plaza.  During the school year he is a teacher.

First we did a little shopping at hydroponics stores for some equipment David needs at the farm.  Then we took our picnic lunch to El Rancho de las Golondrinas, a living museum that depicts life in the Santa Fe area in the early 1800s.  The guides wear period dress and on the weekends there are additional volunteers who are there milking and herding the goats, making horseshoes, or weaving at the looms.  It’s an exciting and interactive place to visit.  Here we are at the schoolhouse, where Miss Corita had to punish her lazy student David for not being able to recite the day’s lesson from memory.  Student Raquel earned a few lashings for having long fingernails (it meant you had been slothful and hadn’t been helping out at home), but the day was hot and she wasn’t really in the mood to enjoy a paddling.

In addition to the regularly programmed tour at Las Golondrinas, the wildlife also put on a show for us.   Just as we were passing over a footbridge, where there was (amazingly) some water below, Corita noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye.  A three-foot black water snake got caught behind the head by a six-foot red land snake and was then drug off into the bushes.  Thrashing about, the black snake managed to grab hold of a squash-like vine by its tail.  The red snake tried dragging the black snake up the hill, but it wouldn’t let go, so it tried swallowing it.  The red snake swallowed about five or six inches of the black snake and yet the black snake was still hanging on to the vine.  At this point the red snake was trying to drag the black snake (pulling on what the part it had swallowed) sideways around the hill. 

Meanwhile, David had gotten relatively close, taking photos.  He yanked on the vine and the black snake flew out of the red snake’s mouth.  The red snake, stunned, sat still for a second, and then slithered off into the overgrowth.  The black snake, after returning to the water, resurfaced at the spot where David had rescued it.  Not finding David there (he had returned to the low footbridge), the snake swam around a bit, then pulled itself partly out of the water directly facing David and stuck its tongue out a couple of times, looking directly at David.  It seemed to be thanking him.  We could see on its back the marks of where the red snake had been gnawing on it.  We think that if David is ever in need, a black snake will come to his rescue, just like in the folktales.

That afternoon, we went to the Plaza where Geron gave the kids a pedicab ride while David and Corita enjoyed a coffee upstairs.

We ate dinner at the pool, between bouts of swimming.  Wrapping up the evening, David and Geron met Geron’s farmer friend at the pub for a discussion of strawberry production.