How Dry I Am

Today is our last day in Arroyo Seco/Taos.  It is a jaw-droppingly beautiful place and I am told that this is the least attractive time of year.  One of the themes of this trip has been "you will have to come back in......when it is even more beautiful."  But, as I warned Martie, be careful what you say because we just might do that!

But they aren't kidding when they named it Arroyo Seco.  It is dry here!  I feel like I am beginning to crackle.  Moist, grey days do not exist here.  As a lover of moist, grey days, I have had moments when I wonder how they stand it but everyone I have asked says they love it.  So there you go.

Here is where we have been staying in Arroyo Seco.  Lucy and I sat out on the front porch and spun and read in the afternoon sunlight (they get about 300 days of sunshine/year here).  Pure bliss.

If you walk down the street a little, it looks like this:

Then, feeling like we were not taking advantage of all that was available to us, we took a late afternoon drive out to the Rio Grande Gorge.  There is a bridge over it that one can walk out across and really take in its amazing scale and profound beauty.  

A few miles beyond the bridge, there is a fairly large community of Earthships, which are off the grid houses made from old tires, cans and bottles and mud.  Old hippie culture is alive and well in and around Taos but some of these houses now sell for nearly half a million dollars.  You can tour one and watch a video about making them for $7.  Selling out to the man, man!  We declined to participate in that bit of free market economy.

Yesterday, we went with Martie and Ani to Rancho Taos for lunch and to visit the church that Georgia O'Keefe made so famous in her paintings.

The interior was lovely - huge beams across the ceiling and very beautiful painted altars.  There were some remnants of Ash Wednesday on view (it is still an active church in the community).  They don't allow photographs but I suspect part of the reason is so that you will buy postcards in the gift shop across the way.  Even the Catholics want your money!  Well, they got some of mine because I found an amazing painting by a local resident, Lydia Garcia, that I purchased.  

A fixer-upper?

ETA:  Here is Martie's post about our day yesterday.  She includes much more educational information about what we saw.

Tomorrow we will leave early and be back on the road.  No meandering on this leg of the journey - speed will be our watch word.  But today we will savour every last bit of New Mexico.