Going Places with Lucy & Leo

May 19

We woke up this morning to a snow storm. Well it wasn’t as bad as that but snow was coming at us from over the mountains  and the temperature was 32 degrees, that’s cold!!. So we settled in our motor home, snug as a bug in a rug and waited out the storm. The weather forecast here is exceptional and as predicted the clouds thinned out by noon. In the meantime,  we caught up with national.news, ugh, and prepared a healthy lunch before heading out to see Taos Pueblo.

We only had a 10 minute drive to the site of Taos Pueblo. This village is over 1,000 years old and a UNESCO World Heritage site. There was a short guided tour starting with the church. This is a working village with a Catholic Church , which holds services open to the public at 7am on Sundays. The Taos people are Catholic but also honor their Native American religion. This traditional religion has no written legacy but rather passed down by stories from generation to generation. They consider both religions important and they coexist in perfect harmony.

Pictures are not allowed inside the church but it’s decorated with bright colors and with the Madona as the central mother figure. The figure of the Madona was dressed in pink representing spring. To Catholics she is Mary mother of God and to the Taos people she represents Mother Earth and the four seasons.

The town shows its age with some of the adobe homes in poor repair. These homes are passed down from family to family and require a lot of maintanace. Adobe is basically mud bricks made from the local (red) dirt and straw and plastered over with the same adobe dirt material. This plastering process has to be repeated a few times a year, depending on weather conditions. This winter according to our guide, was exceptionally harsh and would probably turn out to be a three plaster year at least.

Most of the homes are used for family special events and some local arts and crafts store fronts. You can find beautiful pottery, jewelry, drums, wood carvings as well as some traditional baked goods. We bought some pottery and the most delicious blueberry flat bread ever, it was hot off the oven and we ate it walking around while we took pictures. We decided to call it a day after this visit, we have an early start tomorrow on our way to Petrified Forest in Arizona, that should be a six hour drive, stay tune folks!