The Ascent to the Ancients.
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2009
1
6
16
Trip End
May 01, 2009
Taos, New Mexico
Sunday, April 19, 2009
There are no pine trees in Antarctica.
My drive to Taos, and ultimately Arroyo Seco was a brilliant testament to these theories. I took highway 68 which went straight up the mountain, skirting the Rio Grande river. It was as if at some point, after several attempts elsewhere in road building, that someone said "Hey, this river seems to have it pretty well figured out, why don't we copy it?". It just so happened that this idea worked swimmingly.
The only way to describe my drive into Taos is hauntingly surreal. The mountains clung to the skyline in the distance for fear of losing thier heavenlyness much in the same way that the town clung to the mountain for fear of losing itself to something ordinary.
Entering Taos was a different feeling too. The town exudes a sense of culture that is largely different than others. The largest difference is that it's alive. The culture is not something that has stagnated and then a city ordinace was put in place to keep it true. It's a moving, breathing, living, and thriving culture rich in people who are the reason it grows in this way.
My first day in Taos I bypassed town in order to go and see the Taos pueblos. They were quite inspiring in many respects, and somewhat deromanticising in others. It's quite amazing that such an array of structures have been standing and had living occupants for over 1000 years. This is an amazing scope of time which cannot be fully appreciated unless we break it down to the sheer number of people who have lived and died in these buildings since they were built. How many decendants came from just one of the original owners of the tiny pueblo rooms? It's staggering to think about.
The visual impact of these buildings tells you that they are a humble thanks from the natives to the earth for the liberties to create such structures. It is, to some degree, disappointing the level of modernization of some of the pueblos. When walking through the pueblos using the deepest reaches of your imagination to try to channel the life of an ancient resident, you are instantly ripped from this place when you see the current residents Ford Taurus out behind the pueblo. However, I can not say much, for the visions in my head were just that, romanticized visions. These are the homes of these people who have inherited the land, and far be it from me to call it bastardized. These are native homes, and shall be tended by the natives. Ultimatley I was honored to be allowed to stand in the presence of buildings of such age.
Getting settled in at the hostel in Arroyo Seco was a treat. I made my rounds meeting the work traders, cabin dwellers, and garden tenders. It was a relaxed afternoon which gave me a perfect opprotunity to take things easy and rest on what I'd seen and thought throughout the day. I made a good friend in the person I was sharing the dorm with, he has introduced me to many tools for traveling that will be infinatley useful in the future. A website called www.couchsurfing.com is a fantastic exchange of hospitality that seems like it will bring alot more value into some of my trips, and he introduced me to several others.
All in all my first day in Taos/Arroyo Seco was a wonderfully refreshing view of how things can be so different just a little ways up the road. Never stop exploring, learning, or thinking. As soon as you stop you'll miss something fantastic just around the corner. =)
