New Mexico

We started out yesterday waking up mid-morning and seeing where the day would take us, without a solid, concrete plan in mind. That's my favorite way of traveling - with total spontaneity. So we said goodbye to the cats, Ollie and Chama (who are slowly but surely starting to get along; Ollie has been on his best behavior, while Chama, understandably, keeps hissing at him...perhaps because this apartment is her territory).

Our first stop was at the gas station nearby, here in Albuquerque. We gassed up, then made a stop at Subway to pick up some grub, which we ate along the way as we drove to northern New Mexico. We passed through Bernalillo and other small communities just north of Albuquerque, and finally made our way to the Jemez Pueblo. Due to restrictions imposed by the pueblo natives, it is forbidden to take pictures of, paint, or sketch anything within the pueblo itself. Here are a few pictures I found on the Net that show nicely the scenery at Jemez:

We then made our way to a neat little place off the side of the road, a small cave which is purported to contain water with healing powers:

On the way into the cave (it's the opening where there's a guy crouching inside, in the picture above), I banged the top of my head and forehead nicely, as well as my upper back, with some rather tough, short stalactites. Not a whole lot of wiggle room in that small little cave, as you can see. But I did dip my hands into the neat little pool of the healing waters, which was fed droplet by droplet from a little stream of water, source unknown.

Continuing on the road, we passed mountains of huge pines and cedars, smelling that crisp and invigorating mountain air which I love, until we turned off the main road onto a very bumpy, rocky unpaved road, which we took for approximately 5 miles up the side of a mountain. At the end of the road, we parked and hiked a little ways further uphill, first crossing a small river on large logs that had been laid in place overhead to help one cross it while remaining dry. Crossing was a feat of balance and faith, the latter of which I have plenty, but the former of which - not so much. So I sat on the log and crossed granny-style, to the amusement of Jorge and Justin.

While hiking up the mountain (upwards of 6,000 ft. in elevation, mind you), I had to stop and rest to catch my breath. There's something about a lack of oxygen that my lungs really don't seem to like. Ah, to be 20 again... But we finally made it to the San Antonio Springs, which is a series of neat little pools carved into the side of a mountain, which faces another mountain full of tall trees and rocky formations - so it's like being in a hot tub out in the open. Check it out:

At first, I hesitated to go in, because of how hot the springs were, but the guys convinced me otherwise. It was very relaxing and refreshing.

After a while in the springs, we headed back to the car and drove downhill once again on that same bumpy unpaved road. At a few points, I thought the tires and/or suspension would give in, but such would not be the case today.

Thereafter, we continued driving in the mountains, near Los Alamos (famous for their National Laboratories) and Bandelier National Monument. We didn’t stop to check either of these out, as we were headed to Chimayó, a neat little village located about one hundred miles northeast of Albuquerque.

Chimayó is known for its famous sanctuary, which is home to a small pit of sand said to have curative powers (you can read a short history of the santuario here: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2168)

Chimayó was definitely a neat, memorable experience. I brought a handful of the healing dirt back home with me, along with some amazing red chile spices (one was a typical dark red chile powder labeled “Xtra Hot”, and another was a bright red local chile powder, which one of the visitors called “gold” – and he was right…it tasted heavenly!). I also bought some pinyon nuts that were covered in a green chile powder. Talk about delicious!

After Chimayó, we made a pit stop at a roadside market, where I picked up an additional bag of spice – this time it was dried chipotle powder (I accidentally spilled some of the chipotle powder in the car, so the whole trip back to Albuquerque that’s all we smelled...in typical New Mexico style!). We continued on to some other pueblos (Tesuque, Pojoaque, and Santa Cruz), making a stop at a couple of the casinos on the reservations in search of a good buffet lunch (first, we stopped at Cities of Gold casino, and then went on to another one, where I played some slots for about seven minutes and ended up winning a whopping $16.25!).

Then we made it to Santa Fe, as the clouds started rolling in.

Santa Fe was awesome and picturesque. It’s exactly what you would picture a typical New Mexican town or city to look like. Adobe everything, crisp dry air, all sorts of neat local vegetation.

We had lunch at Tomasita’s, a restaurant where Justin’s grandfather had been a cook years ago. As we waited outside, it began to sprinkle, and the smell of rain hitting the desert sand, combined with the smells emanating from the restaurant of various kinds of chile, chicken, and steak, were simply divine. A happy, rotund local native woman was peddling handmade jewelry, some of it in beautiful turquoise. I thought about my mom and decided to buy her a necklace that was made of various colors of corn kernels – it was really neat. I think I’ll be sending it to her on her birthday as a nice little surprise gift.

The food at Tomasita’s was outstanding. I had the Mexican Steak Platter, which came with a chile relleno smothered in Monterey jack cheese and green chile, along with a sirloin steak smothered in a hot red chile sauce. I left the restaurant feeling like a beached whale, but with heart and stomach content.

We made it back to Albuquerque after nightfall after a very eventful and memorable day getting to know the true New Mexico that lays certainly well off the beaten path.