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Published: August 21st 2006
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New Mexico
Taos Pueblo Church We were kind of happy and well rested and relaxed once we disembarked at LA, we had the very delightful surprise of being upgraded to First Class from Tahiti, the front row too - so the 10 hour flight flew by! Don’t ask how or why - it’s a long story!
No matter how many road movies and Westerns we have seen, nothing could have prepared us for this amazing corner of South West USA, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado - huge open vistas of vermillion red buttes, mesas and canyons and never ending desert arid flatlands.
We wanted to spend most of our time in New Mexico so had to high tail it through Arizona via Tucson in a couple of days enduring over the top temperatures of 116oF, in Tucson it was 85oF @ 6am, for God’s sake!. In this area they are enduring a 20 year drought and its year 10 now so I hate to imagine how much crisper this land could possibly be, most livestock is just turned out on the highways to graze for whatever they can find.
New Mexico a former Spanish colony - big pull for me was the
New Mexico
Land of Enchantment ancient fabulous cliff dwellings of the ancestral Puebloans which in some cases cling to the soaring red rock canyons and the culture of the Navajo, Apache and Hopi native American tribal people who still live in situ on their ancestral homelands. Since many years ago when getting into black and white photography, Ansel Adams inspired me with classic graphic images of these very interesting people and their homeland and I have always wanted to ‘go there’!
We hired an Alamo car and just took it as it came finding a motel for the night when we got wherever we were going usually about 6pm - enough time visit a Walmart or similar for nosh that cd be heated up in a micro washed down with several G & T’s or exquisitely miniature sized Margaritas which I admit I was getting addicted to…………….Motels were well priced we never paid much more than 50 bucks for a room, £30.
It’s very much Thelma and Louise country so huge and vast distances between each place with breathtaking scenery everywhere, there is sooo much to see too. Three weeks was going to be pushing it, but the coffers were getting a bit
116oF on our second day!
approaching New Mexico border low by now after 8 months away.
There must be around 50 or so ancient New Mexico Pueblo villages that native people still live in, some of these groups actively seek out and encourage paying visitors, some do the bare minimum and others make no effort and value their privacy.
Taos Pueblo was for us the most beautiful and had the most thriving arts and crafts community with stunning art, jewellery, pottery etc to die for, the centuries old multi-tiered dwellings remain in active use on the fringes of the town. Very friendly and welcoming people as long as you behave with cultural sensitivity, but I was surpised when ‘Hands on Silver’ all Native American Indian artist man, spotted my English accent and told me his ex-wife came from Stockport - kinda shattered the illusion a bit!
Acoma Pueblo, which claims to be the oldest inhabited settlement in the US is a thousand year old mesa-top 300 feet up ‘Sky City’ literally. This place was not so laid back as sweet Taos - more get you in and get your money, 10 bucks for entrance and another 10 bucks for each camera carried - but it did have
New Mexico, Gila Caves
13th C native pueblo cave dwellings the most stunning elevated views and backdrops of 360 degree red vermillion cliffs and canyons. Here the people are of the Antelope tribe - Anastazi people and they still practice their native religion in the 18th century Spanish Mission Church.
We did a bit of a 500kms detour to get to Roswell, home to the International UFO Museum and Research Centre which was where the famous incident of July 1947 happened. Pretty interesting place to go if you are into that sort of thing - you get to see copies of the Great Cover Up, Roswell Case Closed and gruesome models of crash victim aliens! It’s also fun and a bit kitsch too, run by lots of grey haired volunteer enthusiasts. Basically there is nothing much else to see in Roswell, it is stuck out in the middle of the New Mexico nowhere - but it is famous for the ‘Alien’ landing site which you can’t actually visit as it is on private land - but the atmosphere is definitely there, the truth is there and I believe!
It's a great place to visit New Mexico and very different only one word of advice don't go in
New Mexico
Ancient town of Mesilla, Billy the Kids place of sentance June, July or August try and visit in the spring or autumn!
We are back home in sunny Cornwall now and we are trying to adjust 'again' - but hopefully it won't be too long before we head off somewhere again For time being I am keeping amused with my new tower pc with 600GB storage ...!!!!!!!!!!!! only 60x what I had before on my wee laptop, so no excuses now for getting all the photowork up and out, going to have a shot at building my own website next to see if I can market some of my mono work, we'll see....
thanks again for the messages you all sent us when we were on the road it was real nice to get them...
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Peter & Catherine
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Duchy Delights
Welcome Home! Thanks for all your fascinating Blogs. We are down in Cornwall next week, so we will give you a phonecall and hope to see you (but please don't bring any of your alien friends!).