Truth is, when you read something like “First Chocoholics in U.S. Found in New Mexico?” you can’t hold back a smile. That was the title of a recent article published by the venerable National Geographic News, which stated “Chemical residues found on pottery jar shards reveal that the practice of drinking chocolate had spread at least as far north as Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico by A.D. 1000 to 1125—400 years earlier than chocolate was thought to have reached what is now the United States.”

Read the full article here and don’t forget they serve free hot chocolate every Saturday after 3:15 PM on the Patio at Ski Apache, just minutes away from Vera Cruz Mountain Ranch!

Aeromexico, the global airline of Latin America, and the New Mexico Economic Development Department announced today that air service between Mexico and New Mexico will become a reality February 9. The first AeroMexico flight from Chihuahua City will depart at 11:05 a.m. MST and touch down at 12:25 p.m. MST at Albuquerque International Sunport. The inaugural flight from Albuquerque to Chihuahua City will depart at 1:10 p.m. MST and arrive at 2:30 p.m. Non-stop service on 50-passenger Embraer ERJ 145 regional jets will be scheduled three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Frank Galan, Vice President, U.S. Division, AeroMexico, said, “AeroMexico sees a real need for this service between Albuquerque and Chihuahua because it will expand opportunities for growing international business and tourism. We appreciate the support shown by Governor Richardson and other officials in New Mexico and Chihuahua who helped this route take off.”

Governor Bill Richardson said, “With connecting flights from Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City, tourists and businessmen from Mexico’s largest markets now have direct access to experience all that New Mexico has to offer. And, of course, New Mexicans traveling to Mexico for business or for pleasure can make the same connections.”

New Airline Service Will Support Growth of International Business and Tourism

Governor Richardson, as chairman of the New Mexico-Chihuahua Commission, took the lead in negotiations with AeroMexico, the state of Chihuahua, Chihuahua City and Albuquerque, which culminated in the new link that will increase access for international business and tourism.

“Southern New Mexico has been enjoying the growing numbers of Mexican tourists who have been coming to the state over the last several years,” said New Mexico’s Economic Development Secretary Fred Mondragon, whose department was instrumental in working out the details. “These flights will open the door to make the rest of New Mexico more accessible. Mexico’s growing middle class has money to spend and time to travel – and New Mexico has the cultural and language synergy to be good hosts to them.”

The New Mexico-Chihuahua link modernizes a portion of a travel and trade route that is as old as the presence of Europeans in the Southwest. The Spanish colonial road El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro linked Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico to Chihuahua City and on to Mexico City and Veracruz on the coast. It was the backbone of trade and commerce into New Mexico from the late 16th century until the opening of the Santa Fe Trail, linking Santa Fe with Kansas, in the early 19th century.

“Albuquerque is very excited to host this international flight and we know that it will greatly benefit not only our community but the state as a whole,” said Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez.

“It will enrich the business and cultural experiences of citizens of both countries as this air route brings us closer together,” said Governor Richardson.

Airline Offers Excellent Value and Award-Winning Service

This new airline service will provide travelers with excellent value based on AeroMexico’s competitive fares and premier style of award-winning service. The airline has been named “Best Airline in Mexico” in 2008 by readers of both Global Traveler and Business Traveler magazines. While on board, passengers will receive complimentary beverages, cocktails and meals at meal times along with attentive, personalized service. In addition, flight schedules provide convenient arrival and departure times to complement the airline’s superior, on-time performance record. Attractively priced vacation packages, which include airfare, hotel accommodations and rental car, will also be available through AeroMexico Vacations.

AeroMexico and its subsidiary, AeroMexico Connect, currently operate more than 600 daily flights through the airline’s Mexico City International Airport hub to 40 destinations in Mexico, 12 U.S. locations as well as major cities that include Tokyo, Paris and Buenos Aires in 12 other countries worldwide. U.S. cities served currently are Los Angeles, Ontario (Ca.), San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle-Tacoma, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, New York City, Orlando and Miami. Service will be added to Denver on February 1, San Francisco on February 12 and Toronto on March 3. AeroMexico Vacations provides customized vacation travel packages throughout its network. The airline also offers connecting service to other international destinations through its SkyTeam global airline alliance with 11 full member carriers and three associate carriers. AeroMexico has been recognized for its award-winning style of personalized in-flight service, one of the world’s best on-time flight records, the highest safety and quality standards ratings, outstanding reliability and baggage handling performance, and exceptional value based on its competitive fares and superior service. Additional information is available at www.aeromexico.com or 1-800-237-6639.

Calling All Dutch Oven Cooks  (and those who’d like to try their hand at “black pot” cookin’…)!
Come to cook — see how Dutch Oven cooking is done — come to eat — listen to music — or just visit
with the happy crowd at the Southwest New Mexico 7th Annual Dutch Oven Cook-Off on Saturday, March 28 in Glenwood, New Mexico!

The event will be held again at the Glenwood Community Park on CatWalk Road in Glenwood, New Mexico (just an hour north of Silver City).

In previous years, we had cooks from Glenwood, Cliff, Gila, Reserve, Albuquerque, Cuba,
Las Cruces, Silver City (New Mexico) and communities in Arizona.

Everyone is welcome to enter, no matter where you call home! (If you need overnight lodging, there are several unique motels in Glenwood.)

Those interested in entering as a Dutch Oven Cook this year, please contact the Event Organizers:

Leah Jones (Glenwood)  (575) 539-2800          Email ~ leahj@starband.net

Linda Locklar  (Silver City)                   Email ~ lindamanyponies@hotmail.com

Zana Wood  (Las Cruces)  (575) 805.7170    Email ~ loschilehead@msn.com

These ladies can give you all the details, but here are the basics:

Cooking categories are one pot or three pots (Main Dish, Bread, Dessert).  Cooks can enter on their own, or as a team.  Entry fee ~ $ 15 for Single Pot, $ 30 for Three Pots.

Cooks can set up their camp and start their fires at 8:00 am.  Some entrants bring cowboy-camp setups, teepees and tents, and one entry even drives a mule-drawn chuckwagon to camp!  (The Glenwood Park features shady trees and open spaces for camp set-ups)

There will be a Cooks’ Meeting at 9:45 AM. Cooking time is from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm., during which time spectators always enjoy going from camp to camp, seeing “what’s cookin’” and getting to know the cooks. Judging is done on Presentation, Cleanliness, and Taste.

After the Judges have tasted all the dishes and are tabulating their results, here comes the best part of the day ~ about 3:00 pm, Dutch Oven cooks bring their pots to the Pavilion, multitudes of folks show up to purchase Taster Plates ($5.00 for adults, $2.00 for children under 12), and the “Tasters’ Delight” eatin’ begins!  Each Dutch Oven cook will put a spoonful of their dish on each plate, and there are usually about 30-40 different dishes on the buffet line.

We have some musicians lined up to entertain on this special day, and invite others to join in the fun!

Tables and benches are provided for the diners, and after everyone is served, Awards and prizes are presented to the winning cooks.  (Proceeds from this event each year go towards the upkeep of the Glenwood Community Park.)

Glenwood’s Dutch Oven Cook-Off was first started by Wendy Peralta, owner of the Glenwood Trading Post, in 2003.  Each year since, the event has grown — in size, number of cooks, and fun!  This event is reminiscent of the old days when members of small communities would gather for shared food and “visiting.”  This is the seventh annual year for the Dutch Oven, and it promises to be another memorable occasion, one you won’t want to miss!

Dutch oven from the 1890s

The national New Partners for Smart Growth conference, hosted by the Local Government Commission, opens in Albuquerque January 22. Now in its 8th year, the conference will gather hundreds of planners, developers, community leaders and other smart-growth practitioners at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

According to Judy Corbett, Executive Director of the Local Government Commission, “People from multiple disciplines are now talking about Smart Growth; and if they aren’t doing it, they are talking about the need to do it. This conference will again bring together interested people from ever-expanding disciplines to learn everything from the basics to the cutting edge of implementation.”

Among the presentations will be the latest research, cutting-edge implementation tools and techniques, best practices, model projects, policies and codes, coordinated networking activities, interactive learning experiences, and new partners in Smart Growth. It’s an opportunity to network and coordinate with your peers as well as practitioners from many different disciplines.

Who Will Benefit

The conference will draw a multidisciplinary audience of local elected officials, city and county staff, landscape architects, developers and builders, planners, transportation professionals and traffic engineers, public health professionals, architects, bankers, realtors, urban designers, parks and recreation professionals,school superintendents and board members and facilities staff, environmentalists,crime prevention professionals, advocates for older adults and youth, bicycle and pedestrian advocates, advocates for social equity and affordable housing, labor representatives, and all others committed to building safer, healthier, and more livable communities everywhere.

Sitting at the intersection of Interstates 25 and 40, Albuquerque and the surrounding areas stand on the verge of rapid growth, with new “green-tech” and film industries emerging in the local economy to compliment the legacy of high-tech capital flowing from the Sandia National Laboratory and Intel in nearby Rio Rancho. The conference will have more than 300 speakers, 100 sessions and 11 tours of local projects.

The Red River Ski and Ride Area is having a Fiftieth Anniversary Gala on January 30, 2009. There will be live entertainment, night skiing, dinner, and a fantastic fireworks display! Also in conjunction with the 50th anniversary, there are planned weekly events like vintage ski races and fashion shows. Call for more information or details! (575) 754-1708 or visit www.RedRiver.org.

KOAT TV-7 in cooperation with Ski New Mexico and nine (9) of its resorts ( Angel Fire Resort, Pajarito Mt.., Red River Ski Areas, Ski Santa Fe, Sandia Peak, Ski Apache, Sipapu Ski Resort, Taos Ski Valley, and Nordic areas-  Enchanted Forest ) are pleased to join the nationwide  efforts of “Learn a winter sports month” this  January 2009 . The KOAT Kids Learn to ski & ride program is now entering its second year. This January the program will be expanded to include a limited number of reservations during the week, which will add more opportunities to the previous weekend only program. Both KOAT TV-7 and Ski New Mexico are committed to provide an affordable opportunity for the youth of New Mexico to learn a great winter outdoors sport.

For a price of $30.00 per day a youth 6-12 may contact any one of our eight alpine ski resorts and make a reservation for the program.  The program starts on Jan.5, 2009 and runs through Jan. 31, 2009.

The program is space available and is by reservation only.

For reservations - Alpine
Angel Fire Resort 575-377- 4383
Pajarito Mt..  505-662-5725
Red River Ski Area: 575-754-2223
Sandia Peak: 505-242-9052
Sipapu Ski Resort: 800-587-2240 or 505-414-1550
Ski Apache: -575-464-3600
Ski Santa Fe: 505-992-5084
Taos Ski Valley: 575-776-2291

For reservations- Nordic:
Enchanted Forest: 800-966-9381

New Mexico’s Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport has installed a solar energy array that is designed to feed energy back to the state power grid.

The Alamogordo Daily News reports the new 8 kW grid-tie array will be connected to the PNM’s energy system, with expected savings of up to $500 a month. The project was financed with a $100,000 grant from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, and the Albuquerque-based company Sacred Power installed the system.

The installation is the first of its kind for a New Mexico airport.

By Tom Schneider for the Current-Argus

CARLSBAD — The National Cave and Karst Research Institute made a big step forward in its second full year as an independent, nonprofit institute with a ceremony Monday breaking ground at the site of its headquarters building at the Cascades.The building will house a visitor’s center, a library and other research and educational facilities dedicated to cave conservation, utilization and management.

“Understanding how to manage these landscapes is essential,” said institute Executive Director George Veni. “We have people from around the country and around the world waiting to work in partnership with this institute.”

“Partnership” is a key word with respect to the institute. Its existence is the result of numerous partnerships on several levels, beginning at the highest levels of government and working down.

“When you think of this institute, you have to think of that full range of partnerships,” said Carol McCoy of the National Parks Service. “From Congress, through the National Parks and down to the city of Carlsbad, there has been a commitment to achieving a common goal for the common good.”

That goal, she said, was to enhance the understanding of cave resources.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., introduced legislation in Congress to establish the institute in 1997, and plans to back legislation scheduled for the next Congress, said Lynn Ditto, a Bingaman aide.

“Cave and Karst science is extremely important,” she said, noting that research, education and management programs “provide necessary tools to discover the wealth of knowledge in caves.”

State Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, is a longtime supporter of the institute.

“We’ve been working on this since 1992, which is not unusual for Carlsbad,” he said, noting other long-term projects that have brought lasting benefits to the region such as Guadalupe National Park, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Brantley Dam.

“This brings another dimension of science to our community,” he said.

Builders estimate construction of the facility will take about one year, Veni said, with a realistic move-in date possibly 18 months to two years away. In the meantime, he said, the institute is continuing fundraising efforts to equip its laboratories, library and other needed facilities.

“We are about to have a beautiful building, but we do not have the contents for the building,” said Dr. Penelope Boston, associate director of academics for the institute and a professor in the Cave and Karst Program at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, which operates the institute as a nonprofit corporation.

The institute has a complete fundraising contribution menu, she said, allowing individuals, organizations and corporate sponsors to contribute toward everything from its significant exhibits to its laboratory equipment.

Donations could go toward sponsoring a single bat in the bat roost or purchasing equipment for an entire laboratory, she said.

The New Mexico Ski Season opened on the 15th at the Sipapu Resort, and we’ve got more openings scheduled for this weekend!

Red River will open Nov. 26 and Taos Ski Valley and Ski Apache will open Thanksgiving Day. This will be the first full ski season for snowboarders at Taos, which only opened its runs to snowboarders at the very end of last season. Angel Fire will open Dec. 19 and has already announced season pass discounts, packages and early booking incentives to interest families who might be rethinking vacations during the recession.

Pajarito Mountain Ski Area will open Dec. 12 and Sandia Peak will open Dec. 19.

Ski Santa Fe officials said they will delay the opening of the 2008-09 ski season, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day. The ski area will open as soon as weather and snowfall permit, they said. A storm system is forecast to move into New Mexico by Wednesday night, possibly bringing snow to higher elevations. The staff at Ski Santa Fe has also been making snow.

George Brooks, with Ski New Mexico, said none of the other ski areas or resorts in the state have plans to delay their scheduled openings and all are ahead of schedule with their snow-making operations.

Ski Apache, one of the premier ski and snowboarding resorts in the Southwest, opens for the 2008-2009 winter season on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. Ski Apache is the perfect retreat for all snow-lovers, offering a variety of trails for skiers and snowboarders – and even a tubing hill for younger guests and those young at heart. With snowfall already being reported on the mountain, Ski Apache officials are optimistic for an on-time opening.

“With so many new amenities debuting at Ski Apache, we are extremely excited for this year’s season,” said Justin Rowland, director of operations for Ski Apache.

“The ski resort offers something for everyone – people of all skill levels are encouraged to come up and enjoy the runs, new tubing hill and great snow conditions.”

Sitting atop the peak of Sierra Blanca, Ski Apache offers 55 trails for skiers and snowboarders to explore, with a top elevation of 11,500 feet.

As the southern-most major ski location in the United States, the resort has a dry, arid climate that makes for optimal snow conditions, typically producing more than 15 feet annually.

Additionally, should the weather not cooperate throughout the season, Ski Apache boasts a state-of-the art snow-making system. The ski resort has the ability to create enough snow to cover more than 35 percent of the entire mountain – even when the temperature rises above 32 degrees.

In celebration of opening day, Ski Apache and Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino are offering a special ski and stay package. The first 50 guests who book by November 27 will receive one free lift ticket per room when they stay Sunday through Thursday.

The offer runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18 and provides guests the opportunity to play from day to night.

“Enjoying the nightlife at the resort is the perfect ending to a day on the slopes,” said Douglas Lentz, COO of Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino.

“Having the opportunity to take in a show, play in the casino and order a gourmet meal – on top of the outstanding Ski Apache accommodations – allows guests to achieve the complete getaway vacation experience.”

One Ski Apache amenity that is offered exclusively to guests of Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino is the new Ski Valet service.

Through Ski Valet, hotel guests can pre-order their ski rental equipment prior to heading up to the mountain.

Upon arriving at Ski Apache, patrons will find all of their customized orders waiting, allowing them to avoid lines and get on the slopes faster.

Ski Valet is free for all Inn of the Mountain Gods guests, who can request the service when booking their room reservations.

“Our goal at Ski Apache is to make everything as easy and accessible for our guests as possible,” Rowland said.

“We want them to start having fun the moment they walk onto the property and be able to take advantage of all of the great experiences the resort has to offer.”

Ski Apache is also a great place for beginners to get their first taste of skiing and snowboarding.

The resort’s Snow Sports Learning Center offers several daily instructional programs where qualified instructors provide training on techniques and safety of the sports.

However, for those not yet ready to don the ski gear, there is a newly opened tubing hill and the recently renovated Elk Lodge restaurant to enjoy.

“We see so many people return year after year to Ski Apache,” Rowland said. “Many of them learned how to ski here themselves, and now they bring their children to share in the experience.

“The mountain is a special place – one we strive to keep on the cutting edge of ski technology, but also always retain the charm that keeps people coming back.”

For more information on pricing, hours and weather conditions, please call 464-3600 or visit www.skiapache.com.

Information on room rates and ski packages at Inn of the Mountain Gods can be found at www.innofthemountaingods.com or by calling toll-free (888) 262-0478.