the Pueblo and the Opera

Even though I had a vegetarian taco, cheese enchilada, Spanish rice, veggies, and a light pudding dessert for lunch yesterday, I am down a pound to 263.8 this morning.  That's what I was a few days ago.  The weight loss isn't going as fast as I would have hoped, but it's still okay.  I'm also enjoying some interesting meals.

We visited the Taos Pueblo yesterday, which was fascinating.  The two large, multi-story dwellings have been carbon dated at over 1000, that's one THOUSAND, years of age.  At any given time about 80-100 people live in them without electricity or water.  Most of the Indians live in more modern homes on the reservations, but their families still own the old dwellings, maintain them, and live in them for at least part of each year.

After the tour, we drove through the Rio Grande River Gorge on the way to lunch at Rancho di Chimayo.  This ranch was bought in the 1700s and is still owned by descendants of that family.  In 1965, the family turned it into a spectacular restaurant.

By 4 p.m. we were in Santa Fe and blitzed through one of the many museums on Museum Hill for an hour until closing time.  After checking in to the hotel, changing our clothes, and grabbing a very fast Subway salad for dinner, we headed a few miles north of town to the Santa Fe Opera where we saw Puccini's Girl of the Golden West.  Spectacular!  We loved the singing, costumes, and acting, but the sets were jarring.  They used costumes of the gold rush era in California, but they had metal chairs and tables that did not look like they came from that time period and neon lighting around the bar.  That seemed weird to me.

Today we will go to the capitol building and the Palace of the Governors before driving to Albuquerque.

This is one of the two multi-story dwellings that is over 1,000 years old.

Jaro, our guide, told us the story of this church built in the 1600s and destroyed in 1840 during the Mexican-Anerican war. Very tragically the government burned it and destroyed it with several hundred Pueblo Indians seeking sanctuary inside.

Listening to Jaro

The current church, built a few years after the original one was destroyed.

Mark and Rudy crossing the foot bridge over the river.  This river is their only source of water for the Pueblo, and it is still clean and pristine today as it comes out of the mountains.

We went into this shop, which is in a room in the thousand year old building.

This room had belonged to this lady's family for hundreds of years.  She is now 91.  This is a picture of her baking bread in the ovens.  Now one of her descendants is selling the bread, cookies, and pies in this room.

We stopped for piñon coffee in another little shop.  Mary Esther and Maria allowed me to take their picture.

At Ranchi di Chimayo waiting to be called in for lunch.

My delicious lunch.

Gigantic statue outside the museum.

At the opera

View from the opera house