Taos, USA

North America Ancestor of Taos


a christian halo
bandelier
Taos Homes
faith over blue
Beatriz and Joseph
a broiled life
Adobe blank
Brand of Warriors II
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
Rio Grande, Grande road
The Brand of Warriors
Traveling through New Mexico, we were dazzled by the two versions of Taos, that of the indigenous adobe hamlet of Taos Pueblo, one of the towns of the USA inhabited for longer and continuously. And that of Taos city that the Spanish conquerors bequeathed to the Mexicothe Mexico gave in to United States and that a creative community of native descendants and migrated artists enhance and continue to praise.

New Mexico Up, on the way to Taos

For some reason this area of ​​the southern interior of the United States became known as “land of enchantment”. It is justified to take pride in the title to the point that authorities have used it as an epithet and have sprawled it on New Mexico car plates since at least 1999.

We followed in a Californian car. On the trip between Albuquerque and Santa Fé, negative temperatures surprise us.

And a hit-and-run blizzard that quickly freezes the dazzling road we were walking on. Almost as fast as it had arrived, frigid time headed for other places.

We detour west, aiming for the Bandelier National Monument. When we entered there, the desired combination of clear skies and radiant sun once again blessed us. We had given the first grandiose testimonies that the Puebloan Amerindian civilization left to these ends of New Mexico and to the neighboring states of Colorado, Utah and Arizona. They would not be, by far or near, the last.

Bandelier National Park, New Mexico, United States

A stairway gives access to Bandelier's rock-hewn dwellings.

The Puebloan Legacy of the Bandelier National Monument

We walked up and down hills and slopes, intrigued as to how, between 1150 and 1600 AD, they had settled and thrived in caves and openings carved into the great rock walls and riverbeds of the Pajarito Plateau. We explore their almost millenary homes for two hours on end. The only reason we didn't proceed is because, in the meantime, the sun had gone down more than we expected.

Taos was still an hour and a half away. We point to Española. We took State Road 68 and followed it in the company of the Grande, one of the Yankee nation's many famous rivers and moviegoers.

Farther down the map, the Grande leaves New Mexico and enters Texas. Its sinuous flow marks, there, the southern threshold of this state and establishes the border, zigzag to match, between the United States and Mexico.

We were well north of that streak that The Donald (Trump) made so controversial. The same frontier where the always superb John Wayne makes Colonel Kirby Yorke, at the head of a cavalry post plagued by the Apache Indians who, in the homonymous feature film, launch successive raids from the Mexican side.

The Big One we were chasing was another one, a newborn. It had a few hundred kilometers from its source, formed by the cluster of streams in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

Along the great Rio Grande

Above Road 68, we saw him pass in the vicinity of successive settlements with Hispanic names: Santa Clara, Española, Pueblito, Alcalde, La Villita, Los Luceros, Velarde, Embudo, Rinconada and so on.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

The bridge over the deep gorge of the Rio Grande

At some point in its course, the river attracts the RD68. It leaves with the 570 and, shortly after, with the 567, heading north. We, remain faithful to State Road 68 towards Taos.

We arrived already over another frigid nightfall in time to take refuge in a convenient roadside motel, the Super 8. There we hurriedly installed ourselves.

But we changed our minds and ran off towards the church of San Francisco de Assis, one of the missionary temples in the region, located in Rancho de Taos, still today, the scene of regular masses.

Coming from Santa Fe, we were already used to the adobe buildings that were sometimes elegant and now elegant and monumental in New Mexico.

State Road 68 with the Rio Grande in the background

Car travels along State Road 68, with the Rio Grande canyon in the background.

Pilgrimage to the Desert Church of San Francisco de Assis

Built by the Franciscan Fathers between 1772 and 1816, the church would prove to be just one more. This, if its historical origin was not that of a shield of faith against the frequent attacks of the Comanche Indians of which the settlers became victims.

At that almost nocturnal hour we didn't find a soul. Neither Indians nor cowboys, Franciscan priests, or any other human race valid in New Mexico, by the way. Even so, we were left to photograph it under a twilight that the advance of time made religious.

church of San Francisco de Assis, Taos, New Mexico, United States

The church of San Francisco de Assis, a stunning adobe colonial legacy

After all, we were standing in front of one of the most painted and photographed churches in the USA. The proud authorities of Taos claim that it is, in fact, of the entire world.

Its Hispanic colonial architecture seemed humble to the friars who designed and supervised it. Today, this domed and yellowish simplicity is seen as an incredible expression of subtlety of elegance. It justified the adoption of Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams, among many other painters and photographers, of artists in general.

Not conditioned by our own limitations and reverence for the building, we wanted to stop taking a good photographic record from there. So we wait for the moment when the bright yellow of the illuminated façade and the blue of the sky vault shine more and we take our photos, surrendered to a distorted trilogy of the temple, the cross of Christ and the white statue of St. Francis of Assisi .

on the way to Taos

A few minutes later, pitch took over the scene. Since sunrise and Santa Fe, we've been traveling and discovering the post-colonial heart of New Mexico. At that late hour, we had a bit of energy left. We longed for a rest in the Super 8, the motel located in a wide valley between the already distant edge of the Chihuahua Desert and the mountains of Sangre de Cristo.

The dawn arrests us with a meteorology equal to the predecessor. We dashed off to Taos. It may sound strange, but we were so intrigued as to what we would find in the old Taos Pueblo that we crossed Taos city without stopping.

When we check the path on the map, we notice a curious reality. Until then, the Rio Grande had the fluvial role of New Mexico.

The Unexpected Fluvial Confluence of the Taos Plateau

There, where Taos and the secular town of the same name had settled, the rivers and dimples (channels) were many more. Flowed the Lucero and the Pueblo de Taos. These branched out into various secondary courses and rejoined. Farther southwest, the Pueblo de Taos would surrender to the Great.

All these flows irrigated and smoothed an alluvial plateau situated above 2.000 meters. Much due to the water generated by the melt to the north, the aridity of the Chihuahua Desert gave way to an area of ​​transition to the mountains that heralded the Colorado highlands, its meadows and forests. Thus, we understood why the natives chose this area a long time ago to settle down.

A Millennial Adobe Village

We parked at the entrance to an earthy open space. Onward, there was an eccentric conglomeration of unpainted adobe houses, one stacked on top of the other. They formed about five levels of housing. And patches with rounded edges, at first sight uniform but that made up an unusual general geometry.

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

Ancestral adobe farmhouse from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.

On the ground floors more accessible to visitors, we found small and dark shops of handicrafts: the Indian Taos; the Dancing Hummingbird.

Most advertised pottery, costumes and jewelry. One in particular even promoted storytellers.

We advance towards the heart of the village. We sat on a bench in an adobe forward home, of course. An adobe so pure that yellow straw still came out of its cracked clay. Without warning, a couple opens a red door and sits down beside us. They were Beatrice and Joseph, Pueblanos brothers of the Tiwa ethnicity. They ask us if we need help. From this welcome, the conversation came to flow around the world.

Conversations Around Genetics

"Sara, you look like Navajo, you know?" For co-author Sara, it was another ethnicity/nationality to add to her list. One because it didn't count.

Natives of Taos, New Mexico, USA

Taos natives resting at the entrance to one of Taos' adobe houses.

We had already visited and toured the Navajo nation north of the Grand Canyon and around the famous and Monument Valley movie buff. For reasons known only to reason, it was there, in the village of one of the tribes that once more rivaled and warred with the Navajo, that Sara was confronted with such a comparison.

The Ancient Pueblanos of this area are also now popularly known as Anasazi. Now, Anasazi has long been used by the Navajo to designate their “ancient enemies” in the southwest. The descendants of the Puebloanos disapprove of him. They prefer to see their ethnicity treated by Ancestral Puebloanos. Anyway, in that town unbelievable in Taos, we were still at peace, among friendly natives.

Sara has gone over to the natives. As I gazed at the trio, I couldn't help but see and feel a solid foundation in Beatrice's observation and the similarity of the three looks: slanted, dark eyes with incomplete brows. The straight black hair and the similar shades of skin, Sara's more like Beatrice's.

As I saw her, the shy Joseph's brown, sun-streaked male face made him a half-case by himself. To me, Joseph was a real Redskin, with nothing pejorative.

We continued to chatter in the shade and resume Beatrice's observation "It's just that my father is Chinese." explains to Sara, what brings to light the great Paleolithic migration of the Asian peoples to the Americas through the Terrestrial Bridge of Bering. The topic would give us a lot to talk about. In practice, we agree that the three should share the same genetic base some 15 or 16 thousand years ago.

Life in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

Taos Pueblo's quiet and adobe life

The Taos History of Resilience

It is estimated that Taos was founded around 1000 AD It is the northernmost of the various Pueblos in New Mexico. Around 150 people live there all year round and many more share their lives between modern houses in the surrounding Taos city (during the harsh winter) and their small businesses in Pueblo, when the mild weather of the rest of the seasons. year allows it.

The city of Taos, on the other hand, to which we soon moved – originally Don Fernando de Taos – resulted from the colonization that followed the Spanish domination of the pueblos.

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, USA

Ancestral adobe farmhouse from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.

Taos – the city – experienced indigenous revolts against the missionaries and the order. Later, he joined the Mexico. And with the political-military supremacy of the USA sobre or Mexico which resulted in the delivery of much of Northern Mexico and New Mexico, Taos also changed “owners”.

And your new artistic age

The colonial adobe eccentricity of Taos soon attracted a flood of creative souls. At the turn of the XNUMXth century, the city welcomed the first artists, excited by the inspiration of those places so different from the USA

The works of the local community of artists and their studios, meanwhile considered historic, helped to make the town notable and attract curious outsiders, like us, there.

Street decoration in Taos, New Mexico, USA

One of the many decorative works in the city of Taos.

Another of its iconic buildings is the home of Kit Carson, a legendary American pioneer, fur hunter, agent of Indian affairs who brokered countless disputes between the settlers and the Indians, later promoted to officer in the US Army. United States.

Carson remains buried near the home-museum, with his third wife Josefa Jaramillo.

Enriched by its extraordinary multi-ethnic, multinational, multi-a little of everything past, Taos continues on the path of its history, more alive than ever.

Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

From Kayenta to Page, passing through Marble Canyon, we explore the southern Colorado Plateau. Dramatic and desert, the scenery of this indigenous domain, cut out in Arizona, reveals itself to be splendid.
Albuquerque, USA

When the Drums Sound, the Indians Resist

With more than 500 tribes present, the pow wow "Gathering of the Nations" celebrates the sacred remnants of Native American cultures. But it also reveals the damage inflicted by colonizing civilization.
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

The Colorado River and tributaries began flowing into the plateau of the same name 17 million years ago and exposed half of Earth's geological past. They also carved one of its most stunning entrails.
Death Valley, USA

The Hottest Place Resurrection

Since 1921, Al Aziziyah, in Libya, was considered the hottest place on the planet. But the controversy surrounding the 58th measured there meant that, 99 years later, the title was returned to Death Valley.
Mount Denali, Alaska

The Sacred Ceiling of North America

The Athabascan Indians called him Denali, or the Great, and they revered his haughtiness. This stunning mountain has aroused the greed of climbers and a long succession of record-breaking climbs.
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Safari
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Sirocco, Arabia, Helsinki
Architecture & Design
Helsinki, Finland

The Design that Came from the Cold

With much of the territory above the Arctic Circle, Finns respond to the climate with efficient solutions and an obsession with art, aesthetics and modernism inspired by neighboring Scandinavia.
The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Adventure
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Kente Festival Agotime, Ghana, gold
Ceremonies and Festivities
Kumasi to Kpetoe, Ghana

A Celebration-Trip of the Ghanian Fashion

After some time in the great Ghanaian capital ashanti we crossed the country to the border with Togo. The reasons for this long journey were the kente, a fabric so revered in Ghana that several tribal chiefs dedicate a sumptuous festival to it every year.
Buddhist Heart of Myanmar
Cities
Yangon, Myanmar

The Great Capital of Burma (Delusions of the Military Junta aside)

In 2005, Myanmar's dictatorial government inaugurated a bizarre and nearly deserted new capital. Exotic, cosmopolitan life remains intact in Yangon, Burmese's largest and most fascinating city.
young saleswoman, nation, bread, uzbekistan
Meal
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Correspondence verification
Culture
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Sport
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
The Toy Train story
Traveling
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
small browser
Ethnic
Honiara e Gizo, Solomon Islands

The Profaned Temple of the Solomon Islands

A Spanish navigator baptized them, eager for riches like those of the biblical king. Ravaged by World War II, conflicts and natural disasters, the Solomon Islands are far from prosperity.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

At the end of the afternoon
History
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
Solovestsky Autumn
Islands
Solovetsky Islands, Russia

The Mother Island of the Gulag Archipelago

It hosted one of Russia's most powerful Orthodox religious domains, but Lenin and Stalin turned it into a gulag. With the fall of the USSR, Solovestky regains his peace and spirituality.
Horses under a snow, Iceland Never Ending Snow Island Fire
Winter White
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
silhouette and poem, Cora coralina, Goias Velho, Brazil
Literature
Goiás Velho, Brazil

The Life and Work of a Marginal Writer

Born in Goiás, Ana Lins Bretas spent most of her life far from her castrating family and the city. Returning to its origins, it continued to portray the prejudiced mentality of the Brazilian countryside
Mangrove between Ibo and Quirimba Island-Mozambique
Nature
Ibo Island a Quirimba IslandMozambique

Ibo to Quirimba with the Tide

For centuries, the natives have traveled in and out of the mangrove between the island of Ibo and Quirimba, in the time that the overwhelming return trip from the Indian Ocean grants them. Discovering the region, intrigued by the eccentricity of the route, we follow its amphibious steps.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Rancho Salto Yanigua, Dominican Republic, mining stones
Natural Parks
Montana Redonda and Rancho Salto Yanigua, Dominican Republic

From Montaña Redonda to Rancho Salto Yanigua

Discovering the Dominican northwest, we ascend to the Montaña Redonda de Miches, recently transformed into an unusual peak of escape. From the top, we point to Bahia de Samaná and Los Haitises, passing through the picturesque Salto Yanigua ranch.
Mtshketa, Holy City of Georgia, Caucasus, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
UNESCO World Heritage
Mtskheta, Georgia

The Holy City of Georgia

If Tbilisi is the contemporary capital, Mtskheta was the city that made Christianity official in the kingdom of Iberia, predecessor of Georgia, and one that spread the religion throughout the Caucasus. Those who visit see how, after almost two millennia, it is Christianity that governs life there.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Characters
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Beaches
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Police intervention, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
Religion
Jaffa, Israel

Unorthodox protests

A building in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, threatened to desecrate what ultra-Orthodox Jews thought were remnants of their ancestors. And even the revelation that they were pagan tombs did not deter them from the contestation.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
On Rails
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Society
Campeche, Mexico

200 Years of Playing with Luck

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the peasants surrendered to a game introduced to cool the fever of cash cards. Today, played almost only for Abuelites, lottery little more than a fun place.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Wildlife, lions
Wildlife
NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Wild Heart of Mozambique shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
PT EN ES FR DE IT