Taos and Beyond

A few weeks back we went to visit the Pueblo of Taos. This National Monument was added to the World Heritage List in 1992. It is the first living world heritage spot because it is home to the country's oldest continuously inhabited Pueblo Community. The Pueblo has been occupied since around 1000 and 1450 A.D. There are still 150 or so descendants living in the pueblo which has no running water, electricity or other modern facilities. Captain Hernando Alvarado was part of the Coronado expedition in 1540 and that marked the first meeting of the Spanish and Tiwa Indians who had lived in the area for centuries. Spain declared it a Spanish Village and conflicts over religion broke up what was for a while a peaceful coexistence. In 1680 there was a Pueblo revolt that expelled the Spanish from New Mexico. Churches were burned down, people killed and a lot of other bad stuff. We were here simply to see the Pueblo and area which also has New Mexico's highest peak - Wheeler Peak at 13,161 feet. Our first stop was as we entered town. San Fransicso de Asis Church had just been remudded and we were told to go check it out by the visitor's center on the highway approaching town. The church was spotless and interesting. No photos allowed inside but just the outside alone had interesting enough views to keep me occupied for a while!

The drive was probably a couple hours and Jeff was hungry so we decided to eat near the church which was really situated in a parking lot with not much else around. We sat down in a lovely little place, outside in the courtyard, and had a very good lunch. With full tummies we headed off toward town. After a false start we realized we were in the town and not the Pueblo. The Pueblo was mission number one so we regrouped and headed further up the road bypassing all the galleries and restaurants and fun places. We parked and then waited for the tour. The tour was pretty crappy and if you hadn't read about the Pueblo or culture you certainly would not have learned anything. That was disappointing but the place itself was really neat and very photogenic! The cemetery (1619) was interesting since all the crosses were situated around the ruins of one of the original churches. We were not allowed to roam free around the graves and did not ask to do that. We went to the San Geronimo Church which has got to be one of the most photographed places ever - it was built in 1850 and despite being the youngest thing in the village it was still interesting. It is a Catholic Church and about 3/4 of today's Taos population share in some of the Catholic beliefs. Everyone practices native rituals in real life. Kivas were off limits. Many of the Pueblo buildings have become spots for people to sell their traditional pottery or jewelry from or food and drinks (no alcohol). I roamed around looking for things to photograph. The mountains and the Pueblo and the church and clouds and just about everything had a weird scale to it. Buildings looked small against the mountains and sky. Everything was clean and only a handful of dogs were laying around. There were not many people roaming around either.




Clouds had been moving in and it started to rain a little. We hopped into the car to head up to the Earthship Biotecture area. It was a few minutes before 5 already and they were just closing up. Thankfully we didn't have to pay for the tour there - there wasn't much there...a few neat buildings and interesting ideas behind them but really just modern day hippies in a commune (nothing wrong with that!). Jeff already knows all about solar and stuff so not much to learn there. The couple buildings we could see where pretty neat and space ship looking!





Now the clouds were REALLY rolling in, it was after 5 and we had a long drive back. We still had one more stop - the Rio Grande Gorge and its bridge. This bridge took us by surprise. We didn't have it on our original day trip plan but the visitor's center recommended it. It is a steel deck arch bridge 650 feet above the Rio Grande river. It is the seventh highest bridge in the United States an 82nd highest in the world. It was built it in two years (1963-1965). The span is 1,280 feet. Mainly it is just a giant bridge that pops up in the middle of nowhere with a kick ass view of the river below! We stopped, got out, and roamed around back and forth looking down and then out to avoid getting dizzy! It was a long way down. I laid on my stomach to photograph just to stay steady. Then we took a trail along the upper edge of the gorge so see the views from there. We spent quite a bit of time there. Then we headed down a dirt road in to the gorge to see it from below. People were rafting and kayaking on the river. We drove along the river until we popped back out at the visitor's center.



The drive back was very beautiful and we will definitely go back to explore the town of Taos and maybe do some camping or snowshoeing. There is really too much to do in the time we had and we are finding that is the case more often than not around here. That is a good thing though!

Aguada Day Trip - Cemetery and Church

Every where you go in Puerto Rico there are churches. Churches and cemeteries. In the states I never had an interest in visiting either but here in Puerto Rico there is quite a bit of history and there are some really neat buildings and old, interesting cemeteries. Every town plaza has at least one church and I am on a mission to visit at least nearby ones. There are churches scattered every mile or so it seems, embedded in neighborhoods, under tents in fields, etc etc. It is the ones in old buildings I am interested in. Cemeteries it seems are everywhere also. This last week I went with a friend to the town she grew up in - Aguada. We headed to the town plaza near where her grandparents lived to take a look at the church. This is Iglesia San Francisco de Asis. It was built between 1924 and 1936 and was repaired after a more recent earthquake. The two towers are over 100 feet tall. We met outside and waited a bit before entering since there was a funeral in progress. Cars and people were lined up outside. When it seemed appropriate we went in and looked at both old and new stained glass. I always like looking at the creepy statues and figurines on pedestals or enclosed in glass boxes. This wooden pope was donated to the church by a local artist, Creepy.

After wandering inside for a while it appeared that much was new in this church. I am more interested in the older intact churches. We went outside and at that time music/shouting started coming out of the gigantic speakers welded to a special funeral truck. Behind that was a car covered in beautiful flower wreaths. I have seen the same thing (speakers and wreath covered cars) in the middle of highway 2 blocking traffic before. Definitely something you do not see in the states. Behind the wreath-covered car was the casket vehicle and behind that a bunch of mourners walking along following the vehicles with music blasting. Diana had gone to this church as a young girl and said females had to sit on a separate side from the men. She isn't old. We finished looking at the church and headed off to the cemetery. I had driven by this cemetery many times on my way to the vet. It seemed like a newer cemetery but I wanted to check it out.

One thing I find interesting is how many bodies there are, how packed in they are (with no apparent organization) and how elaborate the markers are. I am fascinated by how many bodies they actually put in one cement housing. In Aguadilla they had what looked like plant markers stuck in pots with as many as a dozen names on them.  There are different things people do to personalize things and there seem to be different styles depending on how recent the deaths are. I had not seen photographs taped onto them before. You can see how faded the photos are. In the older section a lot of headstones didn't even have names on them and many were overgrown and the soil around them was eroded. Then in the middle of old stuff there would be something modern. A lot of graves used bathroom tiles as a way to decorate. Some of them used marble and many were just cement. Some had rajas cages around them I guess to secure the space. There were so many markers you could not walk between them - you needed to walk on top of them which just seems wrong.

Gaudy colors of fake flowers were every where and lots of little figurines and other adornments. There are the "plant markers" I was talking about. On one of them we have a funeral parlor advertising (kind of odd if you ask me). As I was wandering the group from the church drove/walked up. Of course loud preaching and music blasted out from the car speakers. I don't know what they do in the states but I am pretty sure the only places I will see people standing on the body are here and in the movies. After the loud preaching stopped the people stepped away and disappeared. It was interesting that everyone was just wearing T-shirts and flip flops and sleeveless low-cut spandex. 

I have seen these ceramic portraits at a couple other cemeteries. This cemetery has a lot of bodies in it. There is an older section with mainly cement markers, then there are a lot of tiled-in boxes and up on the hill raised cement or marble ones that are more elaborate. There are also many, many simple crosses stuck at odd angles in the dirt...dirt that has deep gullies in it from erosion and who-knows-where the bodies have gone.

A more recent kind of marker I've seen are faces etched in marble like these. I am kind of interested especially in markers that have faces of people- ceramic, marble, photographs or cement busts. There seems to be a modern trend where people think it is important that they get credit for putting the marker there (they make sure their name is on there bigger than the deceased). There are some markers with funny anecdotes that I am not sure I am catching the full meaning of. There are also lots and lots of creepy figurines, stuffed animals, cement animals, rooster figures, fake flowers in neon colors and some huge monuments.

Trip to Lares

Last week friend Liz and I went on a day trip to the city of Lares. For years I have wanted to go to the famed ice cream place that has bizarre flavors like arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), plantain etc. Jeff and I are always passing Lares late at night after caving and so far haven't bothered trying to stop in. I am not a huge ice cream fan but some things deserve a try! We met on 111and did the short drive to town. We headed toward the plaza, locating it by looking upward for the tell-tale church that is always at the town center. Lares has a dismal little plaza that is brick,with a rebel head in the middle of it and absolutely no one around. We found the ice cream place and there were a few unusual flavors but nothing was really extraordinary. I tried a sample of the rice and beans and a couple others before settling on tamarind. The ice cream didn't have any cream in it, just loads and loads of sugar and a funny texture/taste from evaporated milk or condensed milk maybe? Really awful but...the church was not a disappointment!

A church always anchors the plaza - kind of the way Sears anchors a modern mall. The church is the Iglesia San Jose.

 

I am not the religious sort but enjoy looking at the creepy statues and displays I find in and around churches. I guess this chick is pretty important since she is larger than life, larger than the guy on the cross and has her foot squashing some poor creature that doesn't quite look like a dog with a ball but doesn't look like a serpent with an apple either. Like I said- creepy.Then there are always the figures gazing upward with exaggerated features - in this case huge hands.

After that I started to see some beauty. The stained glass arched windows were lovely and there was a series of chandeliers on either side of the room. The chandeliers had a single glass ball hanging downward from some ornate ironwork. When I looked closer I could see the upside down reflection of parts of the room in the ball. In this case I could see the twin trees outside the door and the stained glass and doorway. There are also a couple columns there as well.

I continued down the aisle and caught the reflection of many of the upper stained glass windows and chandeliers and lovely ceiling in this one. This made my day! You never know where you will find beauty. My camera was not working all that well but thankfully some of what I did got recorded. We wandered around to try to find a couple museums and when we did they were closed. Of course. The doors had chain on them and a lock like you had when you were 10 years old with your first 10-speed bike. Oh well, I have come to expect this from Puerto Rico! As we were getting into the car these gentlemen came by with their cart of who-knows-what! Probably brown hairy roots!

The day concluded with a lunch and on the way home I saw this large cow alongside the road. Cows in the road are not unusual, but this one wasn't real! That was the surprise.