BBQ Train Ride, Sat. 30th May, continued

In the late afternoon, we took a train ride on the Santa Fe Southern Railway for a Saturday night Campfire BBQ supper.  About 100 people boarded the two old 1920 vintage railroad cars with a flatbed in between for passengers to stand and sip drinks from the cash bar, for the journey to Lamy. Here we stopped for a meal of barbecued beef brisket and chicken, coleslaw, beans and cornbread along with iced tea and a dessert. We even had live music from a local country singer.  Our table was shared with a young Japanese couple who were living and studying medicine in Boston, and who generously invited us to visit them in Japan when they returned. 

As the train passed by this unusual rock house on the sandstone cliffs near Lamy, I took this photo because it was unique and we thought it looked rather unnatural. I found out in an article from the New York Times, that “The Flintstone House”, as it’s known, was designed by the owner, a Ms. Pierson, to resemble the surrounding area. 

Although a normal house beneath the rocky disguise, the exterior is actually a polyurethane foam such as that used in insulation and toughens to a strong shell. It took about two years to cover and was very expensive. The more I look at it, the more it looks like a face with two eyes and an enormous lopsided grin - even if it was an  ingenious concept.

Saturday, 30th May - Smudge Sticks and Spinning

This is Becky Thorp from SunStar Herbs in Cerrilos, NM.  She grows most of her own herbs and some berries for edible or medicinal purposes with such names as horehound, sweet Anne, anise, mugwort, chaste berry, artemisia, et al.  

You can see the smudge sticks, which she makes, in the lower right side of the photo.  Traditionally they are burned by the native indians and religious groups for spiritual purification in differing rituals but Howard bought a sage stick to ward off the mosquitoes, which we hope will work, as I always get welts when bitten. They also apparently ward off “no-see-ums”, (nasty, tiny insects, which of course you can’t see), but the bites are supposedly worse than those of mosquitoes, also female bloodsuckers.

Having a second Saturday in Santa Fe, we dropped by the Farmers’ Market again and bought some odd items like the smudge stick, two beautiful pink and white peonies at $3.00 each with a few buds that would open later, three lavender bags, which we were told to add to the dryer to make the clothes smell nice, a pound of snow peas and some red corn-cob jelly from the same organic farm as before for our family to try.  

We wouldn’t like to try it but years ago, corn cobs (with kernels already removed) were used in the outhouse when nothing else was available and they were plentiful - ouch, just the thought......  They were also used for fuel for heating at one time rather like peat from the peat bogs in Ireland centuries ago and during the famine.

We met a man concentrating heavily on spinning yarns with mohair from his angora goats and wool from his beloved Corriedale sheep. Before we started chatting, he gave me one of his cards and the first thing I saw was the  name "Oasis Fiber” - I thought it was unusual and began to ask where his name originated from when he told me it was Frank - duh, what a pillock!   Then I realized that it was the name of his company.

His animals are all pets and after they’re shorn, he cleans the fibers, dyes them using commercial dyes and then hand knits or crochets items to sell at the market or online.  It is such a time consuming business but he loves it. He feels that the market for hand made items is actually growing  because, he said, people in a recession tend to revert to buying less commercially produced products.

The Plaza in Taos

Returning to the central Plaza that evening, we were entertained for a couple of hours with a live performance by musicians on the bandstand.  Listening to the singing in Spanish, we almost felt we were in another country.  It was a beautiful sunshiny evening with a huge audience, some families, some with dogs, sitting under the old cottonwood trees (photo) enjoying the ambience. 

According to the sign in the Plaza, it was established in the 1790’s by Spanish settlers and became the northernmost trading center of NM.  It has an old Hotel called “La Fonda” and shops such as “Taos Cowboy” for leather goods, Taos Trading Center, a goldsmith, “Nature’s Emporium Soap Co”, and other fancifully named shops. Passing by one of the galleries with some rather expensive items outside, a sign announced: “Unattended children will be given an espresso and a FREE puppy” - excellent idea!  Not that we don’t like children - we adore our two grandsons and are on our way northeast to see them in summer.

Taos Pueblo -“The First Living World Heritage”

In the English language, Taos means “place of the red willows”.  We had to explore at least one of the pueblos in the state and this is the most well known and is considered to be “the oldest continuously inhabited community in the USA”, according to the pamphlet we were given.  The Red Willow Creek runs through the center of the enclave dividing the buildings into the north and south.  This is the only source of water for the roughly 50 or so native peoples who live there permanently - there is no running water or electricity so they gather water for all their needs from the river.  We have it so easy!

 

The buildings are all made of adobe; the two main structures joining the individual homes together are about four storeys high with ladders to reach the entrances in the rooftops.  Nowadays there are brightly colored doorways which also serve as entryways for visitors to buy arts and crafts as well as the breads and pastries. 

The tribal members selling their art, drums, pottery, etc. were very willing to talk about their way of life and we gleaned so many interesting facts from them.  They have their own Tiwa language which has never been written down or recorded and wish to keep their values and culture to remain so.  The feast days are held throughout the year for dances or their annual Pow-Wow and photography is not allowed then. 

Unfortunately, as with most tribes, they have been oppressed by the white Americans and have had a violent past and many were forced into “slavery or Catholicism in order to become civilized”, another quote from their superb brochure.  In fact, this brochure with photos and facts about the Pueblo was one of the best we’ve read during our travels.

You can see Howard looking inside a “horno”, the adobe ovens still in use almost daily for baking the bread.  One of the vendors, whose son has the appealing name of “Dancing Humming Bird” after which the shop is named, told us that she and a friend built a horno recently and could bake at least 72 loaves at one time in it. Naturally we had to buy a loaf and it was delicious.

However, the “fried bread” on offer was not the type we eat in the UK as part of a big English breakfast, (which is a piece of white bread fried in a huge amount of fat), but similar to “funnel cake , a popular sweet pastry we tasted at a fair in Arkansas, too calorific for us!  The oven is also used for cooking vegetables or game.  The whole experience was unmissable and if we have a chance in the future, we shall certainly visit other pueblos. 

Thursday, 28th May - The High Road to Taos

Taos, just north of Santa Fe, is a welcoming place and famous for its galleries, inns, museums and outdoor activities including a large ski area and white-water rafting on the Rio Grande.

It was time for a day trip before I got too claustrophobic, so after several days doing mundane things except for several good hour long phone calls with our daughters and one with my best and dearest friend, Jenny from Devon, we headed for Taos, pronounced a bit like ‘house’.

Having had no breakfast, and needing a coffee fix, while stopping for diesel at a Valero Gas Station, I tried a new drink from the shop.  Amongst the cappuccinos and mochas was a “horchata”.  It was described as tasting like a cross between rice pudding and french vanilla, an unusual white mixture but very sweet and filling - not a smidgeon of coffee.

From our current place to Taos is a journey of about 85 miles, maybe 2 hours - it took us four hours on the High Road to reach the town center because of several stops on the way to take photos of scenery which reminded us a little of the Badlands in the Dakotas but not nearly as dramatic, various odd rock formations and later on an area that looked much like the Alpine region of Switzerland.

Just past Chimayo, seeing some unusual donkeys, we pulled in to take some pictures and met Pat who asked her son to give us a tour of the equine center.  So, we were able to spend some time with a delightful young man called JJ, who loved his job at La Centinela Ranch and invited us to meet the donkeys.

The ranch also encompasses a gallery for both wood and bronze carvings where JJ’s father, Marco Oviedo is an award winning sculptor with his own foundry and also breeds mammoth donkeys, once almost extinct and still quite rare.  They were used for the cavalry during the civil war both for riding and for pulling wagons and were much bigger than the mules (or burros), which were used for carrying heavy loads.  We stroked the nose of a gentle, grey spotted jack donkey named Julio, a crossbreed of a Peruvian and Andalusian, who was the stallion and had his own stall. Up the hill, we petted a gentle, pregnant “jenny”, sometimes called a jennet, the female.  JJ said that the gestation period for a donkey was longer than that of a horse, about 12-13 months.

It was such a delight to learn firsthand about the animals and the difference between a horse, a mule and a donkey, the three we saw together in a large enclosure. Cuca and Musca were hungry and hee-hawed their impatience loudly for the bales of fresh hay, which JJ was already on his way to throw into their fodder rack in the field.

A short way down the road, he was going to feed the flock of Churro sheep and we would have accompanied him except we were less than halfway to our destination.  The Churros were introduced by the Spanish and these ones are sheared twice a year by hand - the fleece coming off almost whole by using this method. They have a soft inner wool and a longer protective coat and with 4 or more horns are somewhat related to the Jacob sheep we’ve seen in Cumbria and Scotland.

JJ’s uncle, Irvin Trujillo is a master weaver and he and his wife, Lisa, hand spin the yarn to weave “world-renown” (as mentioned on his web site) blankets and other useful items using the traditional method.  Their work has been collected or shown by many U.S. museums including the Smithsonian.

On our way again, we stopped at Las Trampas to photograph an old 1760 Catholic church.   Any building over 200 years old is very old for the U.S. 

Arriving in historic Taos we had an excellent lunch at the Bent Street Deli and Bar in a pedestrian area of the town.  Kevin, our #1 son-in-law would have loved trying some of the beers with names such as “Flying Dog Fat Tire Golden Ale” from Colorado, or “Rio Grande Outlaw Lager” from NM.   

“Bobcat Bite” (Sat, 23rd May, continued)

That afternoon, we drove along part of the historic old Route 66, where we felt we had to eat at the famous “Bobcat Bite”, noted as one of the 100 best burger places in the country. It was transformed into a family restaurant in 1953. Its name derived in the early days when the owners were friendly to the bobcats who came down from the hills and were given a few scraps.

Having read about it, we knew we’d have to wait for a seat, and we did, for an hour!  With only 9 seats at the counter, we got a good view through the window of a couple of bird feeders visited by two species of humming birds.  The café is an unassuming building lying back from the road and we would have missed it if it hadn’t been for so many cars in the parking lot.  There are so few tables available in the covered porch, that three more tables were quickly occupied. 

You may ask, was the wait worth it?  Yes, indeed. The burgers are cooked on a 50 year old cast iron grill and are each 9-10 oz in weight.  They’re cooked to order and delicious.  Loved the grilled onions on top with home fries (pan fried potatoes).  You can see the menu online along with some photos and the awards they’ve received, one of them for the best green chile burger in Santa Fe.