Mythcon 42: New Mexico
Jul. 21st, 2011 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThis was only the third time I'd ever been to New Mexico, a state I enjoy more than that. Last time was more years ago than I care to mention, and in the winter, and from our convention in Albuquerque we traveled to Santa Fe and Los Alamos. I wanted to get back to Santa Fe, but skipped Los Alamos this time, in part because the huge wildfire that threatened it the previous week was still visible sending smoke up in the distance. Let's not go that way.
Instead we drove to Taos, where I'd never been, along the High Road through the little old Spanish towns and the pueblos. And back again along the other, east, side of the mountains, beautiful wide forest/prairie landscape country that reminded me that we were almost in Colorado.
On the very different west side, also, the scenery was fascinating: rugged dry canyons and mesas and layers of sedimentary rocks turned up on their ends, interesting enough that back in Albuquerque we visited the state museum of natural history to learn its geological history. (It told us that, but the principal fact one learns from the museum is that New Mexico is full of dinosaurs. That would explain Pete Domenici.) The townscapes, not so much. My tourbooks (Moon, Lonely Planet, and Off the Beaten Path) wet themselves in excitement over these villages full of wonderful artisans, but there was nothing there, and this secret gem of an out of the way pueblo far superior to the overtouristed pueblo of Taos turned out to be nearly deserted, just a collection of adobe huts with satellite dishes on top. When we asked the only person we could find, a secretary in the tribal office, about the museum mentioned on the tourist sign outside of town, she said without interest that it was closed, apparently permanently. "The church over there is open, though," she added. It was closed too.
Taos turned out to be an OK place to visit. The plaza gave better upscale-trinket window-shopping value than the similar plazas in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, the mission church was interesting and actually open and had a bountiful gift shop, and the Martinez Hacienda was an excellent unpretentious restored home displaying early 19C Spanish life. A docent in the weaving room who reminded me much of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias answered all our questions. The only question I couldn't get answered was, why did the map in the tourbook show it as down the wrong road?
In Santa Fe we mostly looked at some expensive sculptures in the outdoor art galleries and at the cathedral built by Fr. Lamy, whose novelized life Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather had been my anniversary present to B. for topical reasons. The other most touristly recommended church in town was ... closed, though the hours sign said it was open. Back in Albuquerque, the zoo was not closed, though the huge polar bear habitat seemed to be deserted. Best sight: the show-off seals and sea lions. We usually visit zoos because they're B's favorite kind of outing. Describing this at Mythcon, she exclaimed, "Yay, zoo!" to which, quick as a flash, Lynn Maudlin added "... joy of man's desiring."
Also in Albuquerque, we decided to get some exercise walking through the petroglyph fields on West Mesa. Unfortunately, there wasn't much good walking to be had in the canyon we visited, only trudging through sand and scrambling over basalt boulders. The petroglyphs, though, were really neat to see. Here's B. in front of a petroglyph of a bird, which you can barely make out from here on the triangular boulder.
We didn't go out the evening we were in Santa Fe. The chamber music festival hadn't started yet, and though in theory if we wanted to drop more than $100 a seat we could have heard La Boheme at the Santa Fe Opera, that exceeded my desire to hear La Boheme by about $100.
What satisfied me most about the state was the food. Every meal out we had was at a regional restaurant, whether in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, or Las Vegas (yes, there's a Las Vegas in New Mexico, a fact I startled a few Mythies with). New Mexico cuisine differs from the Mexican food you get around here mostly by the addition of green chile (which I like) over everything, and sopaipillas (yummmm ... sopaipillas) served with most meals, all of which is good, and the substitution of tiny brick-like tamales for the kind I know, which is not so good. Anyway, I was happy, because New Mexico cuisine is rare (though not unknown) around here and I'd been dreaming of sopaipillas since my previous visit to the state. Sopaipillas, I should explain, are puffed-up fried bread, served and eaten piping hot. You tear one end open and put butter and honey inside, and ... yum.
Came home with a bag of hot red chile piñon brittle from a candymaker in Santa Fe, which I liked too much.
Instead we drove to Taos, where I'd never been, along the High Road through the little old Spanish towns and the pueblos. And back again along the other, east, side of the mountains, beautiful wide forest/prairie landscape country that reminded me that we were almost in Colorado.
On the very different west side, also, the scenery was fascinating: rugged dry canyons and mesas and layers of sedimentary rocks turned up on their ends, interesting enough that back in Albuquerque we visited the state museum of natural history to learn its geological history. (It told us that, but the principal fact one learns from the museum is that New Mexico is full of dinosaurs. That would explain Pete Domenici.) The townscapes, not so much. My tourbooks (Moon, Lonely Planet, and Off the Beaten Path) wet themselves in excitement over these villages full of wonderful artisans, but there was nothing there, and this secret gem of an out of the way pueblo far superior to the overtouristed pueblo of Taos turned out to be nearly deserted, just a collection of adobe huts with satellite dishes on top. When we asked the only person we could find, a secretary in the tribal office, about the museum mentioned on the tourist sign outside of town, she said without interest that it was closed, apparently permanently. "The church over there is open, though," she added. It was closed too.
Taos turned out to be an OK place to visit. The plaza gave better upscale-trinket window-shopping value than the similar plazas in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, the mission church was interesting and actually open and had a bountiful gift shop, and the Martinez Hacienda was an excellent unpretentious restored home displaying early 19C Spanish life. A docent in the weaving room who reminded me much of
sartorias answered all our questions. The only question I couldn't get answered was, why did the map in the tourbook show it as down the wrong road?In Santa Fe we mostly looked at some expensive sculptures in the outdoor art galleries and at the cathedral built by Fr. Lamy, whose novelized life Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather had been my anniversary present to B. for topical reasons. The other most touristly recommended church in town was ... closed, though the hours sign said it was open. Back in Albuquerque, the zoo was not closed, though the huge polar bear habitat seemed to be deserted. Best sight: the show-off seals and sea lions. We usually visit zoos because they're B's favorite kind of outing. Describing this at Mythcon, she exclaimed, "Yay, zoo!" to which, quick as a flash, Lynn Maudlin added "... joy of man's desiring."
Also in Albuquerque, we decided to get some exercise walking through the petroglyph fields on West Mesa. Unfortunately, there wasn't much good walking to be had in the canyon we visited, only trudging through sand and scrambling over basalt boulders. The petroglyphs, though, were really neat to see. Here's B. in front of a petroglyph of a bird, which you can barely make out from here on the triangular boulder.
We didn't go out the evening we were in Santa Fe. The chamber music festival hadn't started yet, and though in theory if we wanted to drop more than $100 a seat we could have heard La Boheme at the Santa Fe Opera, that exceeded my desire to hear La Boheme by about $100.
What satisfied me most about the state was the food. Every meal out we had was at a regional restaurant, whether in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, or Las Vegas (yes, there's a Las Vegas in New Mexico, a fact I startled a few Mythies with). New Mexico cuisine differs from the Mexican food you get around here mostly by the addition of green chile (which I like) over everything, and sopaipillas (yummmm ... sopaipillas) served with most meals, all of which is good, and the substitution of tiny brick-like tamales for the kind I know, which is not so good. Anyway, I was happy, because New Mexico cuisine is rare (though not unknown) around here and I'd been dreaming of sopaipillas since my previous visit to the state. Sopaipillas, I should explain, are puffed-up fried bread, served and eaten piping hot. You tear one end open and put butter and honey inside, and ... yum.
Came home with a bag of hot red chile piñon brittle from a candymaker in Santa Fe, which I liked too much.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-21 10:42 pm (UTC)