Friday - January 9, 1998: Taos Ski Valley, NM to Santa Fe, NM
Ta-ta Taos and the Gorgeous Gorge...
It was with some sadness, a bit more muscle fatigue and much exhilaration that we drove away from the Taos Ski Valley as it still glistened white and bright in the morning sunshine. The ski portion of our trip was a success in that Desi bravely set out for her first experience on skis and came away having enjoyed it enough that hopefully we'll get to go again sometime in the not too distant future! Brad couldn't be happier about that!

We wound our way back down the mountain, into Taos proper and then back through what must be one of the most scenic drives on the planet along the Rio Grande Gorge back towards Santa Fe. We stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge to overlook the immense canyon (though perhaps not as immense as another canyon we may be seeing later on this trip) before stopping at a local trading post to spend several hours trying to pick out rugs to hang on our walls back home. The selection was huge, and these gorgeous Navajo blankets were really well priced and very difficult to choose between! But we finally picked out several that we hope will look smashing back in LaLa Land.

An excellent, and again, very spicy lunch was had at Orlando's, a local Northern New Mexican cafe before continuing south. Instead of retracing the same route all the way to Santa Fe, we veered out into the small native mountain towns that lead to the tiny village of Chimayó. Here the Ortega family lives and have weaved beautiful (and expensive) woolen rugs for eight generations. We browsed the shop before they closed and mercifully didn't buy anything.

Just thirty seconds down the road is the mystical El Santuario de Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas built in 1816 by a farmer who uncovered a cross as he was digging on his land. This told him to build a church there, and the ancient adobe chapel is adorned with loads of multicolored paintings and figurines and still in use today. But the great secret of the tiny sanctuary is a small room in back with a hole filled with holy dirt with supposedly healing powers! The room is filled with the cast off crutches of those who've been miraculously healed here! Brad rubbed some holy dirt on his face, in hopes of curing his folliculitis. We'll let you know how it works out. And we won't comment on the irony of seeing the maintenance man at the end of day walk through the chapel with a Dirt Devil!

We made it back to Santa Fe by dusk, checked into the Silver Saddle motel, ran out for Sushi at Shohko and came home for a quiet evening. "Sushi in New Mexico?!" you say? Well, we needed both a break from the spicy local fare we've been enjoying for so many days, and preparation for tomorrow's main event. Stay tuned...