Taos Pueblo

We took a half a day and drove out to Taos. Here's where it would have been nice to have had just one more day. There is a loop road that goes north from Taos that sounds beautiful, but we just didn't have enough time with all the other things we still wanted to see and do on this trip. The one thing that had been recommended to us and that we really wanted to see while we were in New Mexico was a working pueblo. A New Mexican pueblo is a sacred village that still looks as it did when the inhabitant's ancestors were living there. Most pueblos have no electricity or running water. Taos Pueblo is no exception. The creek running through the village is their water source and we saw locals collecting mud to do home repairs. The buildings are constructed purely of adobe with wood timbers supporting roofs. The newer additions include windows and doors. Taos Pueblo is home to about 150 Taos Indians and, unlike some pueblos, they are open to the public most days of the year, for a nominal fee. Many of the inhabitants open their homes to sell their arts and crafts. Of all the places we visited, this felt like the most authentic source of Indian crafts that we'd seen on our trip so far. The other perk of going into their shops was to get a peek at what the inside of their homes looked like. Many had what we thought were skylights, but are actually the original entrances into home, by ladder, before doors were installed. The temperatures were lovely and cool inside, at least by 20 degrees, so it's not hard to see why they stick with adobe for the homes. This pueblo happens to be the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America and is absolutely worth a visit. The residents were welcoming and friendly and had some really interesting wares for sale. I am suffering from some really bad technology issues today; my brain just can't figure out Google photos, so here are the photos that I could get to upload.
On our drive back to Santa Fe, we stopped at a couple of old churches. One near Truchas and one near Chimayo. Neither of us are religious, so my apologies for not having more information to give you on these stops.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wildflower hunting in DV...

Image
For those of you that know about wildflowers in the desert, there are events known as superblooms that can happen. You get the right amount of fall rain, add in the perfect amount of spring rain and just the perfect temperatures and the blooms abound. Well, I’ll break your heart now...this was NOT a superbloom year! However, knowing how tenuous life is in the desert, I was seriously on the hunt for  any  blooms I could find. I just wanted some proof of life in such a harsh environment. I can’t keep anything green alive, with exception of a single Christmas cactus, so anything blooming & green attracts my adoration. I think Gav was initially bored by my perpetual search for flowers, but even he eventually got on board and spotted a few pops of colour that I had otherwise missed. My first reward of the hunt came from attempting to find a hike that was recommended by a friend of Gav’s, up Hole In the Wall valley. Instead of the slit canyon that was supposedly at the end...
Read more

Vino, anybody?

Image
So while Gav was home with his broken foot last fall we decided to go ahead and get our wedding registry done. Most of it was reasonably straightforward, decisions were made, items were agreed on. Then came wine glasses? Well, what can I say about wine glasses. We could not decide on a single design. These ones were too chunky. Those ones weren't chunky enough. They were too square. They weren't square enough. Agh! We finally decided we just weren't going to register for any glasses. We would make do with what we already had and buy more of them. They were only $20 for 4 after all, that's a bargain. Turns out the company that makes them, no longer makes the style that we already have. Seriously! Back to looking for glasses again. Months into this process (ok, maybe weeks, not months) we finally find a glass we can agree on. It's funky, it's not too chunky, but has a good solid stem and doesn't cost the earth. So, what gives? I go into Macy's last week to...
Read more