Santa Fe -- Part Two

On my second full day in New Mexico, we went for a long drive to Taos.  We took "the high road" there, which was this really narrow, windy road through the mountains. At one point the two lane road turned into a one lane road and I thought for sure we were going to meet our maker. Luckily we made it to Taos in one piece. More on that later. 

On our way to Taos, we stopped at another church in a town called Chimayo.  My mom and I had fun singing "Schlameezle Chimayo Hassenpepper Incorporated!" (our version of the Laverne & Shirley theme song) all the way there. The church is well known for being a place of miraculous healings. There is a small room off the sanctuary of the church that holds photos of people that are praying for miracles for either themselves or people they know -- there are also a bunch of abandoned crutches, wheelchairs, walkers, and casts of people that have come to the church and have been healed. In that room there is also a little hole in the ground filled with dirt.  Supposedly the dirt has healing powers.  People come and rub their hands in the dirt, or take some of the dirt with them when they leave to heal a family member back home. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Chimayo:

My parents at the entrance up to the church. Pretty cool doorway!

Entrance to the church -- pretty rustic, but beautiful.

There was an area where you could light a candle and say a prayer.  My mom bought a candle in the gift shop and said a prayer for our family.  Coincidentally, while we were there, they held mass. My dad decided to stay and check it out while my mom checked out the grounds, gift shop, and small street in town. We managed to get talked in to buying some spices by a smooth talking Chimayo resident. I managed to find the oldest, mangiest dog resident in Chimayo. I love a crusty old dog - wanted to take this guy home.

After leaving Chimayo, we made our way to Taos. It was there we decided to fill our starving bellies with only the most authentic New Mexican quisine -- Applebee's. I think by this point in our journey all three of us were so ready to not be in the car, we didn't care what sort of food we were eating. It was at this point that my mom wrapped one of her fried mozzarella cheese sticks up in a napkin and put it in her purse for future snacking purposes. I think she also put about 5 jam packets in her purse as well. You never know when you're going to happen upon a rogue piece of toast and need some jam. She'll be covered. Can I offer you some orange marmalade? Why yes, thank you!

Mom enjoying her cold cheese stick on drive back to Santa Fe

While in Taos, we visited the "plaza" -- it seems like every New Mexican town has a plaza with a church and lots of shops. While in Taos the sky opened up and dumped an ass ton of rain. It was like torrential down pour type of rain -- rain you only see in the desert.  The Pacific Northwest may be known for its rainy climate, but we had nothing on the rain in Taos that day. It was like build your arc and put on your water wings because we'll be lucky if we don't wash away type rain. So we headed back to Santa Fe.

More Santa Fe to come......