Road Trip - Day 6 - Wednesday

Today we decided to drive up to Taos for the day. With sadness we checked out of the Turquoise Bear Inn. We had a wonderful time there, met many people and bonded with our innkeeper Steven. He was sad to see us leave and perhaps we'll see him Thursday night at the infamous Zozobra festival. We may be going with all the staff from the Turquoise Bear.

On the drive up our first stop was Santuario de Chimayo, one of the most famous churches in all of New Mexico. The story goes that over 200 years ago a man named Bernado Albeyta was leading a Holy week celebration when he saw a mysterious light coming from the ground. He began to dig at the source of the light and soon uncovered a crucifix. The crucifix was taken to the church of Santa Cruz, but miraculously continued to return, on its own, to its original location. The santuario was constructed around the cross so that it could remain where it belonged. It is said that people make a pilgrimage from all over to rub the dirt from that hole over their ailments and that it cures them. I rubbed dirt on my shoulder. It seemed to feel better, I forgot to rub it on my back as that was quite sore as well.

Then we drove up to Taos, shopped a little and visited the bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge. That's spectacular, its about a 600' hole in the middle of endless prairies. The gorge cuts across the entire valley floor, which is quite extensive. All I could think of was the wagon trains coming across for the first time and riding on this nice flat ground then they run into the gorge and the only word out of their mouth would be "Fuck!". Because there really is no way around it.

From there it was the Taos Pueblo. That truly was the highlight of the day. We got a guided tour and met several artists, one being Tom Ready to Hunt. We purchased a few pieces of jewellery from him and enjoyed our stay. No running water, electricity or modern conveniences allowed within the pueblo walls. If you are Taos Indian you always have a home here anytime you want, a mud wall adobe home. About 20-30 families living there fulltime with the population rising significantly during holidays.

Dinner was at a wonderful place called Gabriel's near our new digs, the Triangle Inn. We are about 10 miles outside of town, it's quiet. Gabriel's had the best food we've had since we've been here. For $ 40 we had margaritas, fresh made at your table guacamole (Fantastic!), sopapillas (best I've ever had) and more food than we could eat. Dena had these chile rellenos that were pure perfection.