I recently visited New Mexico. Southwest Airlines was running a special and tickets to Albuquerque were cheap. I booked the tickets without much planning and no expectations. Miles and miles of empty land is all that came to mind on the mention of New Mexico. Thankfully, I have friends who are as adventurous as me and they hopped onto the trip each bringing their own unique “New Mexico Wishlist”.
Not only was the trip to New Mexico incredible, but it is probably one of the best trips I have been on this year and New Mexico quickly became my favorite state, of all the ones that I have visited so far in the USA (Yes, I am putting it above all the must-visit cities and even some of the national parks).
Los Alamos – Visiting the Oppenheimer House and seeing a Nobel prize
Los Alamos is the top secret town that was developed for the research on the atomic bomb and it ended up being the place where Oppenheimer invented the atomic bomb. I usually am not drawn to such sites and find them really dark. My friend Lakshmi, on the other hand (she is going to kill me for this), was drawn to this town. She is one of those people who is fearlessly herself and inspires the same in me. Through experience, I have learned to trust her judgment. We had only two hours to explore Los Alamos. We saw museums, the Oppenheimer home, artifacts, and letters from the 1940s.
I liked that the place focussed on the scientific achievement and the process of invention of the atomic bomb. While in one of the museums, we had the opportunity to see something unique. I didn’t think, it was possible to see this in person since people who receive it tend to hold on to it. “The Nobel Prize”!! This was my favorite moment of the entire trip. We each stood around it and tried to take the only thing we could – a picture!
Taos Pueblo – Visiting the best-preserved pueblo of Native Americans
Sunil, who is basically family and Kero’s favorite uncle, wanted to visit Taos Pueblo. He is also the person who is always on board with my absurd adventure plans. Taos is a beautiful mountain town located in New Mexico’s high desert. In the winter it becomes a top-notch ski destination. Our destination though was Taos Pueblo. This is a designated world heritage site and a living Native American Community. It’s hard to miss the adobe buildings that the community is made of. Adobe is a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water and is a sustainable building material. We took a guided tour of the pueblo.
A high schooler, native american girl told us about the history of her people with pride. She told of the atrocities that were committed on her people by the conquistadors, she told of all the rebellions of her people and how they fought hard to get basic human rights, she told of how they now are allowed to practice their own religion of nature worship, she told of how they use the “Orno” a clay oven which can bake up to 20 loaves of bread at a time. Through her, I got a glimpse of human resilience. Despite all that has happened to her people, here she was, proudly practicing and freely talking about her culture.
Taos – Living in an Earthship
I solely claim the responsibility for this one. While searching for things to do in Taos, I came across “Earthships”. A bell went off in my brain for I had seen a documentary years ago about a community that builds sustainable houses out of garbage. “Surely it won’t be possible to rent one out?”, I thought. But I had forgotten about the Ginnie of our times, “Airbnb”; there are earthship rentals available on Airbnb! So I booked the cheapest one I could find. We drove to the middle of nowhere in the early evening. The Airbnb description said “it’s hard to miss”.
Out of the earth juts out a pane of tall windows. The rest of the structure is underground. As we entered the house, we walked into the greenhouse. This helps maintain a temperature buffer between the outdoors and the indoors. This is also how the water in the house gets recycled multiple times. The walls of the house are extremely thick and made with adobe tires. This provides excellent temperature control in the extreme weather of Taos. The bathtub was spa-like and all the soap in the house was bio-degradable. There were multiple “kivas” in the house for heating. We settled in with a wine bottle and great conversations. I automatically felt very present in the space, in a space dug underground, I almost felt hugged by the earth. Surrounded by natural materials, my body relaxed and I had a great night’s sleep.
The next morning I sat with coffee in my hand on one of the wooden swings outside. The only thing I could notice was the sound or the absence of it. If this is the natural sound that our ears were designed for, I am not sure how or if they have adapted to the chaos of modern life.
Visiting Chaco Canyon – A promise to visit again
Our next stop was Chaco Canyon. I recently read a book on archeoastronomy that talks about pueblos 1000 years old, possibly belonging to the Chacoan people, and evidence of advanced astronomy. About 2 hours west of Albuquerque Chaco Canyon is probably the remotest place I have visited in the USA or anywhere. The last 30 mins start with a left turn on an already empty highway. A small sign reads, the road may not exist, travel at your own risk. They were not kidding, for we drove on dry riverbeds to reach the visitor center. Once there we took maps to see the main pueblo, which is very well preserved even after all these years and many petroglyphys.
We drove around the Fajda butte (now closed to visitors). The Fajda butte contains the sun dagger, which is a slit in a huge rock. Behind the rock and the only petroglyphs in the whole world that accurately track the sun and moon’s positions. At summer solstice the sun shines perpendicular to the rock making a dagger-like shadow due to the slit. The stargazer in me was excited beyond reason. I could only imagine what the night sky here, away from civilization, in the middle of miles of canyonland, with no tree cover to block views, would look like. An RV trip to Chaco Canyon for a night of star gazing is on my “Dreams to Make Real” list.
I only explored about 10% of New Mexico and that has left me wanting to go back for more. The food is incredible, the freshest and tastiest I have had in a long time. The hospitability of people is beyond kind.
On a lighter note, I didn’t give the exact details of the trip to my mom, to save her from the anxiety of minute-to-minute tracking. So she ended up looking at the things to do in New Mexico. She found out about white water rafting in the Red River Canyon, for which you have to hike down miles to the canyon floor. She was convinced that that was what we were doing. Turns out not, but that’s definitely what I’m doing, the next time I visit New Mexico. Thanks, Mom!
Resources:
The Earthship Airbnb – https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8272056?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=cd9b5678-c969-4327-a3e8-7c5432df080b
The Earthship, if you want one for yourself – https://earthship.com/
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