Santa Fe and Pecos, NM

March 17-18, 2005

After Taos we headed south to Santa Fe, which retains its historic charm.

Because of local ordnances, much of the architecture has a southwestern, adobe, pueblo like look to it.
 

The front of the Governor's Palace in Santa Fe is a good place to look over the creations of local Native American artists.
 

We had lunch at the restaurant in the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. The food was good and the ambience was outstanding.
 

The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe had a very interesting exhibit on Carnival celebrations from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the Caribbean, Bolivia, Mexico, and New Orleans. The exhibit showed photos and manikins dressed in various Carnival costumes, and videos of celebrations. When it comes to partying, the folks in Latin American make the rest of us look like party poopers.
 

After Santa Fe, we headed for Pecos National Historical Park, which contains the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo. The pueblo was started about 1100 A.D. and built up to a population of about 2000 by 1450 A.D. The Spanish came in the 16th century, with priests following shortly thereafter.
 

The priests started to convert the Indians to Christianity and built a church next to the pueblo in the early 1600s.  In 1680, the Indians, after a period of long drought, blamed the Spanish for upsetting the natural rhythm and thereby causing the drought. They revolted, destroyed the church, and drove out the Spanish. As an act of defiance, they built this forbidden kiva in the convento next to the church.  The Spaniards returned 12 years later, built a new church (the ruins of which are seen in the photo) and filled in the kiva.

By  1821, when the Santa Fe trail  passed near the pueblo, it was almost a ghost town. In 1838 the remaining Indians in the pueblo abandoned it and moved to the Jemez pueblo, 60 miles to the west.
 

Next stop - Roswell, NM, which is well-known for UFO and alien nonsense. Maybe we will see a UFO (:-)!