Santa Fe, Taos and Los Alomos



One of the disappointments of this wandering, especially here in the Southwest,  is the fact that all the Indian Pueblos and or towns are closed to non-residents(us).  These are the wonderful painted poles just one block off the main square in Santa Fe.  Much is not open and few folks are out.  Nothing that has any association with the state of New Mexico, by executive order of the Governor is open.  But it also means roads that otherwise would have gone across Indian territory are also closed.  This means we are spending lots of time on interstates.
On our way from closed down Santa Fe to Taos we visited a little church in Chimayo.  Pilgrims from all over come here to be cured.  The dirt on the floor of an anteroom in this church is believed to cure all sorts of ills.  The room with a hole in the floor had all manor of crutches and canes hanging on the walls. It had a small village around that was closed but the chapel was open and quite pretty.  Parts of the village reminded us both of our time in Eastern Europe in the Peace Corps.

This drawing was on one of the walls around the small shops in this village.  There were few folks gettting the cure the days when we were there but you could see that maybe on a non-Covid day there might be bus loads of pilgrims.  We headed up to Taos only to find little open there and police roadblocks on the roads leading into Pueblos.  For the first time we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. By morning it was obvious there were few places to stay as there were trucks galore.

After a visit to Los Alamos which is something of an ordinary town sitting in the middle of  extraordinary mountains.  We spent the night at Bandelier National Monument campground.  It was the second time on this trip that we could see the Milky Way as there was little to no ground light.  We were one of only four campers that enjoyed this campground.  This was our windshield this morning when we removed the blanket covering it.  Tonight we are just east of Grant, New Mexico after spending a wonderful morning coming back down from the mountains through Albuquerque.  But we were forced onto the Interstate as the access roads when they exist are on Indian land.  This certainly is beautiful country.  You sort of forget that when you are away so long.






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