Day 6: New Mexico

We left our lodge around 10:00am and headed to Taos Pueblos. Pueblos are Native American communities. This pueblo's community has been living there for approximately 1,000 years! It was a very neat experience and everyone we met was extremely friendly. There is a little river that runs through the pueblo and this is their sole source of water.

Taos is wonderful. It's got gorgeous views, it's small enough to feel like a tight community, but also large enough to have a variety of activities, restaurants, and demographics. Mama Ku and I both loved it and could understand the appeal of living there. Major drawback: closest airport is Albuquerque, which is 2.5 hrs away. Don't worry, I'm not moving anywhere (yet) but it is really nice to see some different areas of the States!

We went to lunch at La Cueva, which was recommended to us by our lodge clerk and got 4.5/5 stars on Yelp for New Mexican food. Pretty good place, although again, nothing all that different from what I could find in Atlanta. Apparently the difference between New Mexican food and Mexican food is in the preparation of the chiles. The common question here is "Red or green?" referring to which chiles you prefer. I really didn't notice my plate of enchiladas, rice, and beans tasting much different than any other Mexican restaurant I've been to, but I could just be naive to the subtleties. The restaurant was, however, extremely cute and tiny.

After lunch, we stopped by the San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church on the way out of Taos. We were told this was the most photographed church in the US, which was apparently stated by the Taos Chamber of Commerce. This church was a fond subject of Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and other artists. We took a couple pictures, but didn't linger. What I found more interesting was being parked next to a car in front of the church that had a poodle in the driver's seat looking loyally out beyond the steering wheel. I tried to get a picture, but the glare from the window wasn't workin with me. Bummer!

On our way to Albuquerque, we passed through Santa Fe. We were originally gonna stroll around and check out the art scene, but when we drove through, we didn't really see many galleries. We came across a lot more galleries in Taos! Taos seemed much more artsy, whereas Santa Fe was just a bunch restaurants and stores. Honestly, if it weren't for the mountains in the background, I woulda thought I was driving through Gwinnett! We probably just didn't drive through the right places, but we were much more impressed by Taos. So instead of searching for art, we decided to just stop for coffee (for Mama Ku) and chips and salsa/guacamole for an afternoon pick-me-up. When we left the restaurant, it was snowing!! We only drove through it for a couple miles before leaving it all behind.

We arrived in Albuquerque around 5:00pm and rested in the hotel until going to the airport to get Papa Ku! Jason and Hojung will arrive late tonight and the parentals will go get them while I get to bed early. We have a 5 hour drive to Flagstaff tomorrow where we will meet up with Ben, Jacob, and their 2 dachshunds! They drove as well, but on a different schedule and route.

Taos Pueblo

Church in the pueblo

These dried pepper decorations were errwhere in Taos

The adobe houses are made up of earth, straw, and water that are shaped into bricks and dried out in the sun. Brick structures are then covered in a mixture of more earth, straw, and water. I am now interested to try and build something using adobe techniques!

This was Harold. He was super nice :)

The entrance of the houses were formerly on the roof instead of doors on the sides. People would climb up the ladders and then pull them up so that intruders could not enter. That round thing is an oven! 

San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church

Rio Grande River

Beautiful New Mexico mountains

Camel Rock, located across from the Camel Rock Casino

This was at the restaurant we stopped at in Santa Fe. "Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can not eat money." Yes. I can't wait to learn how to farm!! :-D

Stay tuned to see the upcoming Ku family adventures!! :)