Out West

September 30, 2009

Today we decided to get up relatively early and get going. So we hit the road by about 9:30 (we still have a car rented). Actually went out to Los Alamos, based on a recommendation from the Lonely Planet Guide. And they were right: I had only the connection with the A-bomb, which was not exactly a draw for us. But there was a lot of other history in the town and of the area that we explored through their excellent museum, as well as the A-bomb stuff. And even that was more balanced than I thought it would be. So we spent a few hours there, then went on a trip along their Highway 4, which is the scenic route in that area.

That meant driving down to White Rock, where there is not much of interest except an amazing scenic lookout, over the valleys and mesas of the local canyon, and along the Rio Grande River. But it is also on the way to Bandelier Monument National Park, which I had wanted to go to because of the areas of old Pueblo ruins from about 500 years ago. And it was amazing (wait 'til I can add pictures to this). There was about a one-mile self-guided trail around a series of different types of Pueblo houses. they ranged from caves dug into the cliffs of tuff (compacted volcanic ash), to self-standing structures partly dug into the earth, and partly above the earth level. One of the involved climbing ladders up about 140 feet into a Ceremonial Cave, then down into the "kiva" where they lived; that one was scary, particularly on the way back down the ladders, with a strong wind blowing me sideways. It gave me a whole new respect for the women who would go down to the stream at the bottom to get water and then bring it back up again. Also helped me to understand why their average lifespan was only 37 years!

But the weather was wonderful, the scenery was terrific, and it was exactly what I had wanted to do here, so I was happy (at least when I got to the bottom of the ladders from the Ceremonial Cave).

(Apparently, this country was shaped significantly by a volcanic eruption about 1.5 million years ago which spewed 200 cubic miles of ash onto the surrounding country: enough to cover the entire state of New Mexico to a depth of over six feet if it had been spread evenly. Which of course it wasn't, so the area we were in, close to the eruption, was covered to a depth of hundreds of metres. And then has been eroded by water and wind - and glaciers - over the centuries to give the hills and canyons there now.)

We wanted to finish the scenic route, so took off in the car after seeing the pueblos, and the highway took us up the Jemez Mountains to and into the extinct crater of this volcano, then down the other side of it. As you can imagine, it was pretty exciting. The crater was about a mile in diameter, and is now an active farm, complete with cattle. We had hoped to get a hot spring bath in the town of Jemez Springs, but the baths were closed, so we had to settle for a beer instead.

Then back home to Santa Fe, through amazing country with yellow to ochre-coloured hills, some in the shape of mesas, some in dramatic hills and cliffs. The scenery was stunning, and varied enough to remain always interesting. We got to Santa Fe, stopping at the La Choza restaurant for a meal. Now, as I said to Darlene, I don't think it is the New Mexican food which will bring me back. They are very proud of their green and red chilies, and the meals they cook with them. My taste buds are used to the relatively bland Ontario diet, and couldn't stand the heat at all. So we had a nice meal without the chili or the salsa (but enjoyed the guacamole). And the decor and atmosphere were hot and more to our liking, so not at all a waste.

But always good to get back to our little apartment, and get my wife into a bath, and me onto this computer.

Santa Fe Church Day

September 29, 2009

Today was a slow day getting going, probably good given that we would be visiting religious facilities for much of the day. We didn't intend that, but that's how it turned out.

The day began with our ritual checking of email, reading, having breakfast (at the apartment), and trying to decide how we would spend the day. We thought we would see some museums today: there are some good ones in the centre of town. And we wanted to take guided tour around town as well. But when we got downtown, stomachs prevailed and we went to eat at Casa Pascual, a well-known breakfast and lunch place in town. Lovely food, and a good time, but it was 1:00 before we got to the museums, and they closed at 5, and we wanted to see two of them. So that plan was thrown out. Instead we took a guided tour of the town, which was about 90 minutes long and showed us many parts of town we would not have otherwise visited. (Interesting fact: this town has an artists colony of such size and skill that the Art Scene here is second only to New York City, apparently.)

After the tour, we went to and visited the Cathedral in town, a wonderful building, French Romanesque on the outside, and definitely New Mexican on the inside. Lots of colour, lots of fun almost in the decorations (is that sacrilegious?). For a Basilica, it was amazing. And one of the amazing things about it was that it was built using partly money from a local Jew, and there is a Jewish symbol for Yahweh right above the main door, complete with the appropriate script. You don't see that every day!

So, logically, the next place we went was the Loretta Chapel, which used to be part of a Catholic girls' school, and is now privately owned by a spa, of all places. But has inside it a 24-foot high spiral staircase made without external supports, and using wooden pegs rather than nails. Made, according to legend, by an itinerant carpenter who is still anonymous, over a hundred years later. The chapel itself was pretty ordinary, and probably not worth the money to get in, but the stairs were kind of neat.

Having seen the girls' school, we then went to the boys' school. Now their chapel was pretty fantastic: the San Miguel Mission church, built in 1625 with the help of Mexican Indians, destroyed almost some years later by American Indians, rebuilt by Spaniards and .... well, you get the picture; kind of like the castle in Monty Python. But the chapel was wonderful. It is simple, mostly done by hand only, in an adobe-walled structure, with a wood-carved front screen influenced by the Mexican heritage. There was a sense of it being a very well-used building with real people really believing, and was refreshing after the Loretto chapel. We loved it.

Now, I have to say that we had a quest here. There is a saint known in this area, San Pascual, who is the patron saint of kitchens and cooks, among other things. He is always shown with a bottle or glass of wine, as well as wooden spoons, and perhaps other kitchen stuff. So of course we like him, and were looking for something like a painted image of him to bring home. Well, as Darlene said to me, the search for San Pascual turned into, at the end of the day, a finding of San Gria in one of the local cafes. So we had to end it there, and decided in the end to stay at home and eat again from foods gleaned from the whole foods store in town.

On the way home, as we walked by the parking lot near our apartment, we were met with a rather strange bleating noise. We looked, and saw a man blowing on something, sitting on one of the guard rails of the lot. As we approached, it was clear that he was blowing repeatedly on a ram's horn, a shofar. We asked the lot attendant, and he told us that this was the owner of the adjacent restaurant (which is called Los Mayas). Since it's somewhere around the Jewish New Year, we have to assume that he is Jewish, and this is not some weird Mayan custom. But it kind of fit in with the rest of the day.

Tomorrow is a day for hot springs and pueblo explorations. We have car, so we'll be out of town for much of the day.

Taos

September 28, 2009

Getting the car turned out to take longer than we had thought, so we didn't get going until late in the morning. But we were on our way before noon, and up the highway to the High Road. We stopped in an information office for the Pueblos, and got a map plus some information. The onto the high road.

The road itself went through high prairie ares, scrub bush and sage, with some cacti as well. Again, we kept expecting to see cowboys riding towards us from the horizon. We went up and down, through forests which were in some of the valleys, and then up to the dustier and more sparsely vegetated peaks. We stopped for something to eat in a small town called Truchas, where you don't want to be a single female, and Spanish is a definite asset. It seemed to be stuck in the 1950's, and could be set in a northern Mexico parish: dogs sleeping by the road, people in cowboy boots who probably hadn't had work in some time. We got some food at the "General Store" (in quotes because it didn't have much besides snack foods), and got our own glucose tolerance test to eat.

Then we proceeded to get lost, trying to find the way to Taos, and missing the cut-off. Eventually finding it, stopping at two art galleries to look and buy a few things (a small retablo of San Pasqual and a ceramic dish), and purely by accident had a phone conversation with Diana Bryer, who we plan to visit while here. The we got lost again, ending up on a dusty road with no place to go but to turn around. Thank heavens for the GPS in this case. We got back on track and went to visit one of the Pueblos on the way to Taos. It was closed to the public, so we moved on, and made it to Taos in time for a coffee and a short look around, before starting back to Santa Fe via the Low Road (itself a very stunning road), getting home by about 8:00. We ate at home, read and went to bed. We will go back to Taos in a few days for a longer visit.

Santa Fe

September 28, 2009

I am still catching up. The first few hours in Santa Fe were tiring to me. The elevation here is about 7000 feet, and I was finding myself breathless at first, and perhaps a bit dizzy. After some water, and a sleep, I felt a lot better, so we went out on the town after dark, to explore a bit. Walked and looked and talked. Ate supper at Zia's, late but appreciated, and came back to sleep.

The next morning we were up early, reading our books, enjoying the cool clear air, and having our breakfast at the apartment before heading out to walk again. Went down to the Plaza, over to the Cathedral (where we walked the labyrinth), and continued to tour the town by foot. This place is a town where you have to build in the adobe style, and buildings mostly cannot be more than three stories tall. But the colours range from sand to auburn almost, and seem to reflect the sand colours of this area. There are of course lots of tourist things available, but also lots of interesting things going on. This is an artist's place, so we stopped in some galleries to see sculpture and paintings, walked through some of the stores in the area, and mostly had a good day visiting the town.

Lunch: We stopped near the oldest church in America (an adobe church built in the 1600's) at "The Upper Crust" pizza place, shared a pizza and a bottle of wine, then walked off towards home. The rest of the afternoon was spent in a nap and some reading, with some planning for the following day. Supper: went to a place called "Dinner for Two" and had a very good meal there. It helps that it's just around the corner,since we were tired from our day's walking.

Sleep and a decision to go to Taos the next day, along what is known as "The High Road". Difficulty getting a car rental arranged but we though we could do it in the morning. So we went to bed, opening the indows to let the cool air into the apartment.

The Southwest Chief

Monday, September 28, 2009

Well, since I am on vacation, I guess I had better do a blog. So here we go, now 4 days into this time off....

It all begins on Thursday night, when we leave and drive to the Best Western Hotel at the Toronto Airport. Got there about 9:00 (PM), and settled in. Now here is where darlene and I are different. We both knew that we would be getting up at about 4:00 AM to catch our plane, but we react to this knowledge differently. I want to go to bed immediately; Darlene figures this is a cue for staying awake and eating and talking through the night. So we compromised: we stayed up and ate a bit, then I went to bed bu about 10:30, with the clock set for a gawd-awful time of the morning.

That call came far too early, and in the dark, we stumbled around and got ready to leave. Caught the shuttle by 4:40 and were at the airport in time to check in and go through the song-and-dance required to enter the US of A. A little puddle-jump across a few Great Lakes, and we were there, at O'Hare.

It was surprisingly easy to get from O'Hare downtown. There is a rapid-transit line that goes the whole way (called the "El" in Chicago), and for $4.50 for the two of us, we got to the Union Station in about an hour. Why can't Toronto, a so-called "World City", do something like that? It was just fine, and relatively painless.

So we got to the train station by about 9:30, had a nice talk with the ticket agent, who issued us our tickets, checked into the lounge reserved for the hoi-polloi who have some kind of sleeping arrangement, and left our bags there, before going out for a walk and a bit of breakfast. That part of Chicago was quite safe and easy to navigate, and we found a pleasant enough place for some food (decidedly lacking on the airlines). the went back to the lounge, which is a kind of place where people can sleep or gather, or do their Internet thing, or whatever. there were lots of seniors who were in groups, and labelled to keep from getting lost. So I felt kind of at home.

After a while, we were led down to the train platform, and found the car we were to be in. Got in and immediately had a problem. We had assumed we would have our bags with us in our roomette, but it was suggested by the nice lady who was looking after us that there wold not be enough room. And was she ever right! The roomette was two seats facing each other, and not a lot of additional room to move. Minimalist, but sufficient. There was room for the two of us, plus a small bag for each of us, and that was it.

Settling in, and looking out the window, we passed through the suburbs of Chicago for a long time, before getting to the farmland of Southern Illinois. We were going southwest, as befits a train called the Southwest Chief. And the land to the southwest of Chicago was flat - flatter than our Prairies, I think. Full of corn fields and soybean fields, with a few cows thrown in as well, and the odd down-on-their-times small towns. Darlene got off at some of them, I stayed in our "cabin" and read. Then we had supper: odd to sit in the dining car, eating okay food off plastic plates. Not exactly what I had expected. But we got to wtch the sunset over the Plains, an that was great.

After supper, we read and then to bed. Getting me up into the upper birth and into bed was like slipping into a sleeping bag inside a pup tent. But, once in, I slept well with the rocking and bumping of the train not disturbing at all. We passed through most of Kansas during our sleep, and woke with a bit left before heading into Colorado. Had breakfast watching the sun come up. And crossed the wide Missouri about then as well.

Colorado began quietly enough, with the same type of flat country. But then became hillier, developing ridges, cut by water and wind. And rivers eroded into the ground. And high plains in places, bare except for sage and chaparral. I kept expecting to see John Wayne riding towards us, but it didn't happen.

After a longer stop to attach another engine for the final climb, we started what was for us the final part of a wonderful trip: over the Santa Fe Pass into the town of Lamy. Wonderful scenery, beautiful skies, and so much better than driving. When we got to Lamy, we were met by Irvin Santoval, brother of a friend of Darlene's. He drove us into town, and we were then on Stage Two, the part in Santa Fe.