listen to the locals
by richiecdisc
Taos is a great town to walk around. Local artists work is everywhere and makes a colorful place even more so. Traveling across country by car brings you through a variety of terrains. It's also likely that you will meet an assortment of people. To be sure, some of them will be fellow travelers like yourself but if you are open, you'll meet some locals too. This can be as enlightening as any other component of your trip and often entertaining. Local tips can be invaluable. You might go to a place you'd have never seen otherwise. One great place to meet locals is the local brewpub. Lots of bars would suffice as alcohol does make people more prone to talk to strangers but with brewpubs you have something particularly in common-you both like good beer. The locals are a proud lot and if you are traveling around the US and like their beer it forms an easy bond.
We met quite a character at the brewpub in Taos, New Mexico. A self-described Argentinian Jew, he had worked all over doing many different things but had settled in Taos and had his own farm. He was very opinionated and funny. His proof of global warming was he could now grow bananas in Taos! He was quite enamored with the bartender even though he claimed not to be gay, though possibly would change his mind for the bartender! One place he went on about was Chaco, a sacred Indian area now a National Monument. It was hard to get to but well worth the effort, especially during the full moon, conveniently the next night. It became a point of fascination for the next few weeks as we planned on how and when we could get there. Whether we actually got there or not wouldn't matter. The point was he filled our imaginations with such a notion of the place. If we didn't go, it would be a driving force for a later trip. Anything that can keep you fired up about traveling is priceless. If that person can make you laugh, that's just more fuel for the fire. Oh, and buying you a beer is always nice too.
The Taos Pueblo - 1000 year of Indian's tradition
by bvizzle12
The Taos Pueblo was a real cool place to visit. Especially for me coming from Switzerland, I had never seen a real Indian "village" before and how they live. We took a guided tour, which was great. I learned a lot.
The tribe is called Red Willow, they still talk their own language (Kiowa-Tanoan) and have their own traditions, which the guide was a little secretive about.
Houses are very interesting looking, made by hand out of reddish brown adobe, they also have hand made ovens, (see picture) and a cemetery that was bombed during one of the wars to keep their land against US territories.
You can buy fried bread and other goodies...we bought some from a very old sweet little indian lady. she was so cute.
Taos Youth & Family Center
by bvizzle12
This place is located at 407 Paseo del Canon in Taos and has an inside big pool with slides, a baby pool and video games. It's $3 for adults and $2 per kid. It was a lot of fun with our whole family.
Soak and relax
by frantz
We were told that there are some hot springs just outside Taos so we asked someone who lived locally and she directed us to the hot springs.
If you drive through the main street to the North after you passed the last traffic lights keep on going for about 15 miles until you see on your left hand side a place called Jebb's and than you have to follow the dirt road< you have to ask someone directions so you don't get lost, untill you go over a bridge across the Rio Grande go left untill where you park athe end of the road. Than you walk down the track for about half a mile and you'll find the springs next to the river.
A Castle in Montezuma
by rexvaughan
Montezuma Castle, five miles northwest of Las Vegas in Montezuma, N.M., is now Armand Hammer's United World College for the equivalent of US 11th & 12th grades. There are 50 American and 150 international students. It was the Santa Fe Railroad's earliest (1884) resort hotel and was a Gilded Age hot springs spa and attracted the Southwest's first real tourists. The place is a huge (300 rooms) Queen Anne Romanesque building visible for miles, and one can see miles from its wrap-around porches.
We had a very nice tour of the castle led by two recent graduates, one from Lesotho in southern Africa and one from Romania. The quality of the school is indicated by the fact that they will attend Smith College and Connecticut College this fall.
The photo is the main dining room and is graced by two Dale Chihuly chandeliers which Vladimir told us a trustee had donated at a cost of $200,000.
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The mountains of Taos
and this wasn't even the Fatty
a geometric masterpiece
the amazing tiered adobe dwellings
