Taos for Sure

Today we are going to Taos for breakfast. Dennis is waiting for me to stop typing so we can go.

Getting breakfast in Taos is not as easy as we assumed. After our 1-1/2 hour trip to Taos, we parked near a restaurant with a breakfast sign out front. Closed. So we walked about a block west and found nothing. Then we walked around the square, saw a lot of shops, but no breakfast. Finally, we got in the car and went east some more. Eventually we found a really great restaurant: Michael's. It was actually a restaurant and bakery. While we waited for our food, a waitress came around offering fresh doughnut holes, glazed. Really, really good, especially when you're really, really hungry. On the way out we bought tonight's dessert: chocolate eclair.

After breakfast, we continued north until we arrived at the Taos Pueblo, a real Pueblo Indian village. This is a photo of the San Geronimo Church built in 1850. It is a Registered National Historic Landmark and one of the youngest buildings in the village.

Many of the pueblo "homes" have been converted all or in part into small stores offering traditional arts, crafts, and foods. While there, we made a few purchases and, as we were leaving, bought a sweet prune pie to share. We ate it in the car and it was delicious.

This is the Hlaauma/North House. It faces the Hlaukkwima/South House across The Red Willow Creek. These structures are believed to be well over 1000 years old. We spoke to a woman artist in one of the houses and she explained the structure and maintenance of the pueblo homes. The buildings are made of adobe, a mixture of earth, straw and water mixed, poured into forms and sun dried into bricks. After the bricks are stacked and grouted with more of the adobe mixture, the structure is plastered with even more adobe mixture. The interiors are coated with white earth washes. Repainting the inside and replastering the outside is done annually to maintain the structure. There is no electricity and no running water in the village.

This is the south house.

We left the Pueblo around 1:30 p.m. and headed toward the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge, the "Most Beautiful" long span (1280 ft.) bridge. According Wikipedia, this bridge was in several films including Natural Born Killers, Twins, She's Having a Baby, Wild Hogs and Terminator Salvation.

Do I look terrified?

It's a long way down there.

Driving just a little way down the road, we came upon this unusual structure. We passed it but quickly backed up and pulled in the parking area. What is this place? Turns out it's the World Headquarters of Earthship and the Greater World Earthship Community, the world's largest self-sufficient residential development (650 acres). Dennis splurged $5 each for the self-guided tour and was so intrigued by the energy saving and use of recycled materials that he plunked down another $50 for the DVD.

It was getting a little late by then, so we started the trip home to Santa Fe. We had in mind pizza for dinner; either that or a burger at Lotta Burger, a big deal in this part of the country. Pizza won, but we decided to eat it at Whole Foods while we shopped for a few healthy breakfast foods to counteract our sugary dessert.

All-in-all not a bad day, and my feet don't hurt.