Santa Fe

Archive, 2002.

Two of my favorite people at Bandelier.

One of the coolest things about New Mexico is that there is a law to preserve starlight. Talk about having your priorities in order. Love that.


Bandelier: Home is a canyon with water running by, flanked by tall trees, warmed by afternoon sun. Ceilings are blanketed with the smoke of a hundred thousand fires. On the walls, art and mythology, spirals and creatures. A hawk takes wing nearby, deer and elk browse through the snowy forest floor. The sun sinks and chill air sends us away, back to our shiny version of civilization.

Ancient Pueblo view.

After several miles of twists and turns, we reach the Jemez caldera, an immense flat expanse covered in snow and traversed by a snow buggy headed in one direction and a horse-drawn sleigh going in the other. Progress, smogress.

Subsequent days bring less adventure but as much culture, in a multitude of forms.

I've never seen so many shops packed so densely. I give in when we reach 5 Eggs (everything Japanese). [Sadly, it was no longer there as of 2006. Rats.] Then I give in again at the Polish pottery store. And the rubber stamp store. (C'mon, Edward Gorey stamps - who can resist?!) I draw the line at Provence, where I admire place settings that turn out to be $145. Ha. I'll stick with the wedding china my mother bought from our hometown bank in the 70s. I might have been 8 years old at the time. She thinks ahead.

We sit in the winter sun in the plaza, listening to a guy playing an accordion and watching dogs wander about.

Things we'll remember:
Stars - galaxies - wow!
Gulches, gullies, mountains, mesas
Delicious foods
Charlie
Thick beams and thicker adobe
Tinworks
Pottery
The moon at noon!
Sage, yucca, cactus, pinon
Juncos, nuthatches
Raven complaining in the tree
75mph
Running out of film (eep)

Sunset at Gail's.