Bandelier and Frijoles Canyon

Here I am back in our cozy B &B in Santa Fe after a day spent at Bandelier Monument which is just northwest of Santa Fe, near the infamous Los Alamos. In Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier is the cliff dwellings of the Ancestoral Pueblo peoples. They lived in these cave-like dwellings carved out of the volcanic tuff for hundreds of years until about 600 years ago when they abandoned the dwellings for reasons not completely known, speculated that perhaps a number of environmental pressures pushed them out - drought, over hunting etc. As you can see from the above photos the dwellings sometimes pushed out from the cliffs and were multistoried, having the depressions within the cliffs as part of a dwelling projecting out. You can see from the one photo the many holes in lines that indicated the different stories of the dwellings. The projecting out parts were just stones mortared together. Occasionally there would be just ladders into caves. The roofs of the caves were blackend with soot to help prevent the fragile tuff from falling down ( tuff is a soft type of volcanic rock from and erruption 1 million years ago). The whole Frijole canyon is beautiful and peaceful. Near the end of the exploratory loop was a chance to ascend to a cave dwelling that house many people at one time. These photos are near the end. In them you can see the brave Joop ascending the multiple ladders that rise 140 feet to the cave where many families lived and cavorted, bringing all firewood and harvested and gathered food stuffs to the cave. You can see the overhang shadow of the cave in one of the bottom pictures, the other 2 are the tiny dot of Joop braving it out on the ladders. Needless to say I didn't do it as it specifically warned against people afraid of heights. I did try the earlier ladders - just one story and even then had severe vertigo. Imagine those people ( they only lived to 35) whipping up and down the ladders probably even to go to the bathroom. The ancestoral peoples were farmers and happily grew corn and were prolific potters. They even had domestic turkeys and pet dogs.

While we were in the beautiful valley we could always hear this gentle cooing. We were convinced that it was the ancestors of the domestic turkeys. But no, it was vast numbers of sandhill cranes to migrating to their wintering grounds just south of Albuquerque. It was so wonderful to see them overhead in their undulating flying V's.

After such an exceptional afternoon we headed to Taos, the infamous town of historic artists and literary figures. I was led by the guidebooks to believe that this town of 6000 was the mecca of New Mexico. Admittedly it was Sunday night, and perhaps the attractions are in the recreation - white water rafting in the gorge of the Rio Grande, skiing etc... I was hopeful that it was the New Mexican equivalent of Nelson. But all I can say is that we drove through the town completely unable to imagine why Julia Roberts makes her home there. My only highlight was being able to view the paintings of DH Lawrence at an old hotel ( we had to pay$3 each and wait until a viewing at 6pm , when finally the curtains were parted on the 9 paintings.) They were painted the year before he died and after he left his ranch in New Mexico. They were deemed too purient by Scotland Yard and ordered destroyed after their first exhibit in the UK. Somehow they found their way back to the illustrious Taos. They were interesting in their lack of purience. Given enough time, perhaps he would have become quite a painter.

Tomorrow I try and see the Native Art Museum to hopefully be able to consolidate all of my ideas on the influence of the different sectors on life in New Mexico today.