New Mexico, Part I: The Land of Enchantment

Okay. I'm finally doing this. New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment! (Seriously, is that not the greatest state nickname?) We flew into Albuquerque on Sunday the 11th and decided to walk around. Side note: the flight in was one of the more beautiful ones I've taken. New Mexico was exactly how I had pictured it - soaring over the Rockies in Colorado, then suddenly everything was craggy, then flat, and all brown, brown, brown.

Anyway, we walked around Old Town for a while. This is San Felipe de Neri, the oldest church in Albuquerque (1706).

Obviously we had to go to the chocolate shop. Also the sign (like everything in NM that isn't beige) was turquoise.

I washed down my delicious chocolate with some delicious...chocolate soda.


Dinner that night was yummy (and spicy!) huevos rancheros, as well as a free cup of coffee given to me by the very odd cashier at the restaurant. I think he was lonely, or maybe bored. While we ate, we (Habitat-ers) got to know each other a bit better - and I could already tell that I was going to love the energy of the group. They're all friendly, very genuine people.

Somewhere along the way, these pictures switch to Santa Fe. I'm not sure where to draw the line. In any case, one of our fellow travelers was actually from Santa Fe - and since we were all so worn out from getting in at different times, she graciously let us all crash at her house on Sunday night. It couldn't have worked out better! Then on Monday we spent the morning exploring the capital city.

Seriously, everything looked like this - beige, fake adobe, rectangular. I felt as though I were on the set of a movie. Can you imagine seeing a building like this in New England?

A line of people, mostly (if not all) Native American, out selling their wares - beautiful handmade jewelry.

A fajita cart!

Inside the church of St. Francis (the outside was being worked on, unfortunately).

The chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe - the little doll in the middle is taken down and paraded around during an annual festival.

We then walked down a road that was solely populated by art galleries. Apparently the northern NM area has the third largest art scene in the world, after Paris and New York! Following this we drove a little ways to Tesuque, where we encountered a sculpture garden and glass-blowing place (workshop? studio?).

If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it.

The whole group! Minus Sean, who was the only guy (bless him) and didn't like to be in photos.

Glass-blowing is probably the form of (visual) art that leaves me most in awe. Even though I can see how they do it, I'm still thinking...how'd they do that?!

Finally we piled in the cars and drove up to Taos, on a long highway under a big sky. Pictures taken from a car window really can't capture the beauty or the scope, or the joyous atmosphere of that car ride. We were all just...giddy, overwhelmed by the majesty of it all. The landscape was just so different from anywhere else I'd ever been - the desert, the flatness, the scrubby trees, the canyons, and then the towering mountains in the distance. Nothing short of breathaking.

We arrived that afternoon in Questa, population approx. 2,000. It had one main road and was about an hour drive to Taos, the nearest city. This is the Baptist church in which we stayed.

This is the view from the front of the church. I know that three pictures of the same view is a bit excessive, but I couldn't decide on just one angle - by the end of the week, I felt so familiar with those mountains. Now, looking at the pictures, I feel that I would recognize them anytime, anywhere.

Shopping that night was pretty hilarious. Coordinating what food to buy for the week was...well, inefficient and borderline chaotic with ten people. Then we couldn't find milk anywhere in Questa. Anywhere! All was well that ended well, of course.

Coming up next: the building begins!