New Mexico Trip – 22 April – 5 May, 2009

We flew from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, NM where we rented a car and drove north about three hours to our house exchange in Angel Fire, NM, a ski resort at about 8,800 feet elevation. There was snow on the ground and the elevation became apparent as we carried our luggage up one flight of stairs. We settled in that day and unpacked. The next day our friends Sue and Pat Meaher arrived and we took the 45 minute mountain road down to Taos where we visited several museums, shops and the Taos Pueblo.

The Taos Pueblo (http://www.taospueblo.com/) is a must see and is thought to have the oldest continuously inhabited structures in the United States. They have been inhabited for over 1,000 years and their appearance now is thought to be unchanged from 1540 when Spanish explorers first discovered them. The construction is adobe, mud and straw, with tree trunks supporting the upper floors. We met a charming little Indian girl named Ku-wi who is five and in the first grade. She had missing baby teeth and we asked what she does with the teeth that fall out. She said she throws them up to the mountain to get strong teeth (we asked if she had heard of the tooth fairy and she said “Yeh, I heard about that.”). She was delightful and a highlight of our visit to the Pueblo.

We spent several more days in Taos visiting galleries and museums including the wonderful Taos Art Museum and Fechin House (http://www.taosartmuseum.org/) that has a breathtaking collection of paintings by the artist Nicolai Fechin. After hearing a lecture at the Bent House and Museum by the artist Alyse Frank (http://www.fenixgallery.com/artist_portfolio.php?ID=26) we asked to visit her studio and met here at her house in the countryside. Her paintings are mainly impressionistic landscapes and very vibrant. Her house was an amazing old house in the New Mexican tradition filled with antique Spanish church icons which she called “Santos” that she and her husband had collected for many years. It was a fascinating visit.

Other highlights of the trip included going to the Bandelier National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/band) an ancient Indian settlement built in a circular shape that had originally been surrounded by stone dwelling built into cliffs. We hiked a loop trail that took us through various parts of the ruins where we were able to climb up into some of the caves. It was a very interesting place. On the same day we drove to Los Alamos, through guard gates on the atomic facility and the very informative Bradbury Science Museum (http://www.lanl.gov/museum/) that explained the history of the development of the atomic bomb and we saw a movie called “The Town that Never Was” about the development of the town of Los Alamos. From there we took a long overnight trip to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/chcu/), about a six hour drive from Taos. Getting to the park requires taking a 20 mile drive down a dirt road from the highway, but it was worth it. The Park has hundreds of structures that were occupied between AD 850 and 1250 and were built with an incredible level of sophistication including multi story buildings with very fine closely fitted stonework with no mortar We spent several hours following trails through the ruins and visiting the museum there. Although a bit remote we highly recommend Chaco.

After leaving Taos we went to Santa Fe where we spent three nights in a lovely bed and breakfast inn. Here again we visited galleries and museums and on a Sunday afternoon went to a concert at Lensic Performing Arts Center of Verdi’s Requiem (http://www.sf-symphony.org/). Two particular museums we enjoyed were the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (http://www.wheelwright.org/) and the contemporary basket weaving collection at the New Mexico Museum of Art (http://www.mfasantafe.org/intertwined.html). The Georgia O’Keefe Museum (http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/home.aspx) is also highly recommended but be had been there before on a previous visit. After Santa Fe we headed back to Albuquerque where we took our plane back to Los Angeles.