Dec. 19-28, 2005: New Mexico

OUR NEW MEXICO JOURNAL
Joanie & Yehudah
December 19-28, 2005

Dec. 19th - Our trip was delayed a day. Our first flight was delayed enough that we could not make the connecting flight on time. So we got up early Dec. 19th, Kherry drove us to the airport and we spent the day flying, with a long layover at the Denver airport. We went from freezing rain and snow in Portland to sunshine in both Denver and Albuquerque. In Denver we met friends from Eugene - Rob Tobias and Janice - delayed overnight in Denver enroute to Cancun. They mirrored for us what might have happen to us if we had left the day before and took our chances with our flight connections.
Once in Albuquerque we went directly to our hosts, Linnea and Ed, who we connected with through Hospitality Exchange. They gave us directions to tour around town in the dark. We had dinner at The Frontier (following Dobka’s suggestion) - large portraits of John Wayne in every room, rugs on the ceiling, colorful art on every wall. Then we drove slowly around Old Town, passed the amazing sculptures outside the art museum, drove through Nob Hill and wound up at the Flying Star Cafe for dessert, wi-fi and reading our guidebooks.

Dec. 20th - Our hosts made us a simple breakfast, we enjoyed conversation with them and then we left to visit the Pueblo Cultural Center. The Center has interesting art exhibits, a display of the arts and crafts of each of the Pueblos and a visual presentation of the history of New Mexico - takeover by the Spanish, revolt of the Pueblos, attacks by the Apaches and Navajos, re-takeover by the Spanish, takeover by the U.S. We were fortunate to have a private tour by one of the museum docents.
The Pueblo influence dominates New Mexico - the architecture and commercial enterprises echo pueblo and Indian designs. We got information on dances open to the public, took some pictures and headed out.
Our next stop was the Jewish Renewal Synagogue in Albuquerque - Nahalat Shalom, Reb Lynn Gottlieb’s innovation, at which the entire liturgy is in the feminine. Lynn left in August to move to L.A. to help create more Peace Camps, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian children. The congregation has hired a new woman rabbi. The caretaker for the synagogue, Herschel, greeted us and took us on a tour through the facility - a former church that the congregation had bought. Lots of personal artwork, a very well-lit rabbi’s study, several rooms still in process of remodeling. This man, Herschel, is a master wood craftsman, interested in ritual spaces and objects. He showed us his studio, the torah ark he created for the Rabbi’s small Torah, a Ner Tamid enclosure and his plans for the synagogue. We were grateful that he opened the building for us to visit.
We went back to the Flying Star Cafe for a quick lunch and wi-fi.
We next drove towards the Petroglyph National Monument, took a road that didn’t connect with a road towards the Monument. Yehudah, who was driving, got sufficiently frustrated that he decided to ditch the idea of visiting the Petroglyphs and instead suggested heading towards Santa Fe, which we did.
We took the side road and stopped at Madrid (pronounced Ma (like a goat) drid), a hippie art town, went into several art galleries and shops, bought a gift and called Rima, a friend of Joanie’s friend Yael, with whom we were staying in Santa Fe. Rima invited us to join her for dinner at her neighbor’s house, so, with a quick stop to see a hiking area and a view of a brilliant sunset while driving, we drove to Rima’s, settled in and went off to dinner.
Her friend’s daughter and grandson, a precocious five-year-old, were visiting plus another friend. Dinner was excellent plus we played a rousing game of Bingo, completing the evening with singing the song “Bingo”.
Rima lives in an unpaved area above the famed art gallery street Canyon Road. The residents of the area have killed all electric lampposts in favor of being able to see the stars. Small patches of snow were here and there, remains from last week’s snow. The time we spent in New Mexico was warm and sunny during daytime and brisk at night, with brilliant sunsets each evening. Rima’s house is an older adobe dwelling. She has a yoga studio at which she teaches yoga, Continuum and hanging upside down on a suspended contraption, which is presently her passion. She left Boston many years ago where she had a theatre company and is frustrated by the theatre scene in Santa Fe. She is one of thirteen women studying to become Bat Mitzvah together on April 15, 2006. She invited us to attend her yoga class and for me to visit with the Continuum group the following day.
Rima prepared a tub for us with bath salts and oil. New Mexicans preserve water by sharing bath water and by flushing only when brown. Water is precious in a dry climate. We enjoyed our baths, checked our e-mail and went to sleep.

Dec. 21 - We walked down to The Teahouse on Canyon Road & Palace St. for a breakfast of enormous cranberry and nut scones plus special tea and coffee, then explored several of the galleries, including Sara Novenson’s, a Judaica artist. We spent time in fairly deep conversation with her husband, who is also an artist in his own right. Afteerwards, we met Yehudah’s friend Gene and headed up for a hike at the Audobon Center during the time of the Winter Solstice. Yehudah met Gene in Jerusalem during a Compassionate Listening Project trip. Gene had spent 10 years in Jerusalem working with peace groups. Discouraged after the Intifada, he followed some Israeli friends to Santa Fe, and was enjoying his first year in his new home. After our hike Gene treated us to lunch at the Santa Fe Baking Company - great food and ambiance. Matananda Ben-Shmuel, an Israeli woman friend of Gene’s, artwork was displayed on the walls of the restaurant - vibrant colors expressing various thoughts and feelings, displayed on brilliant yellow walls.
Gene drove us back to Rima’s and we headed out to explore Santa Fe. We walked around the Plaza, then drove over to Rima’s Yoga class, watched the sunset from the parking lot. It felt grounding to participate in a yoga group. Afterwards we shopped for salad for dinner for the three of us and prepared a yummy meal at Rima’s.

Dec. 22 - Today was Museum Day for us. We met an old Eugene friend of mine, Miguel Sosa, a resident of Oaxaca, Mexico at The Pantry Cafe for a hearty breakfast. Miguel is spending several months by himself in Santa Fe. He had come to teach ESL Spanish, but found that his work hours were too little and instead found a job working at Trader Joe’s. Since his Eugene days he had married and was the father of two young children. He was very homesick and lonely, but he had a free place to stay and was earning money that he was sending back to his family. We treated him to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and The Museum of International Folk Art. While the guys were at the first museum, I joined with a group of about a dozen women to celebrate the Winter Solstice in silence while collectively following a Continuum movement score together for 1 1/2 hours..
The Folk Art Museum is pretty incredible. It is the largest museum of its kind in the world and highlights the lifetime collection of the famous architect Alexander Girard and his wife. We were entranced by his huge displays of miniature villages of different cultures - most memorable was a Pueblo scene in which everything imaginable that could be happening on a ceremonial day is depicted, including elder tourists with cameras, taking pictures in obviously incorrect situations; a Oaxacan village scene that depicted everything possible that could be happening there, including a Day of the Dead march, schoolhouse, funeral, preparing food, etc.; and a Polish scene in which Hitler is depicted in the middle of a group of musicians as very short.
We dropped Miguel off at work and headed off to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, a smaller gallery than I expected. The introductory film was excellent, providing an overview of O’Keefe’s life and love for New Mexico. The exhibit included flower painting by Andy Warhol - very few and it was difficult to understand why such an exhibit was conceived. O’Keefe’s work was just wonderful - brilliant colors, sensuous, bold.
We poked our heads into the Palace of the Governors, looked at Indian crafts outside the building and headed over to Pasquales, the premier restaurant in Santa Fe, for dinner. We put our name on a long waiting list, but after telling the hostess that this was our only chance to eat there, she came after us and said that she would put two extra seats at the Community Table and that she just couldn’t turn us away. As it turned out, the party of six who had reserved space at the table didn’t show up, so she seated three other couples plus a family of four who did have reservations. The couples came from Chicago, Boulder and New Orleans. The man from New Orleans had relocated to Santa Fe since Hurricane Katrina, while the woman, a professor at The University of New Mexico, was exploring the idea of relocating. She actually knew my friend Joyce Zonana, a professor at the same university, and said that Joyce was in charge of compiling a book of stories about people’s experiences with Katrina. She agreed that she would tell Joyce that we had met. The family lived in Texas and were on their way to grandma and grandpa’s in Utah. They always stopped at Pasquales on their way.
The food was simply remarkable. Everyone watched us eat our dessert - a chocolate brown pudding with caramel sauce - and then ordered their own to share. It was great fun dining with a group of travelers from all over. Afterwards, we explored some stores, drove around to see the holiday lights on buildings, including the State Capitol and Loretta Chapel. There was a concert at the main church, which was sold out, and so we headed back to Rima’s.
Rima insisted that our time in Santa Fe would not be complete unless we soaked in the hot springs at Ten Thousand Waves just up the hill from her house, so, after sitting a short bit, we bravely drove up to the Waves and were very happy that we made the effort. When you enter you are given a kimono-like bathrobe, slippers and towels. We arrived at 9:30 p.m., walked up the long flight of steps, undressed in the dressing rooms, donned our bathing suits and joined a few others in the communal tub, spent time in the very hot sauna and returned to the tub, until, at 10:30 p.m., the announcement came that it was time to get out of the tubs and dress. The showers provided three dispensers with pleasant-smelling Zen soap, shampoo and conditioner, plus hairdryers in the dressing area, tea in the waiting room and a selection of wonderful pampering lotions for sale, including a tea selection from The Tao of Tea in Portland. We returned to Rima’s quite happy and slept soundly.
Dec. 23 - Friday we headed towards a weekend stay in Jemez Springs with our dear friends Reb Shefa Gold and her husband Rachmeil O’Reagan. Shefa and Rachmiel had visited Portland a few months before and we had taken them hiking in the Gorge, so we were looking forward to spending more time with them.
Gene had invited us to have breakfast with him before we left Santa Fe, so we had a wonderful meal of delicious oatmeal, Gene’s special recipe, and took a short walk up the hill by his house to look out over an ancient Pueblo site. The following is Gene’s recipe:

GENE’S OATMEAL RECIPE

We drove to Bandelier National Monument, shortly joined in on a tour and then went off to climb the ladders into various caves that had been further cut out of the rocks by the original Pueblo people. Extant pueblo structures, kivas and ceremonial spaces are well preserved in this Monument. Great fun and a very beautiful place indeed. We had promised Shefa that we would arrive at their place by 4 p.m. and so skipped the multiple ladders up to the Ceremonial Cave. Next time.
Shefa and Rachmiel live perched atop a hillside before you arrive in Jemez Springs, surrounded by breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and sunsets from their living room windows, a hot tub out on the porch. Their bedroom faces the morning sunlight. It is a house of intense light and openness to the environment. Shefa took us on a short hike up to the bridge she built, dedicated to her Dad, which leads to their fire ring. We gathered kindling and some more firewood right in the area so that we could light a fire after dinner and darkness the following evening.
Returning to the house, we celebrated Shabbat together, partaking of a delicious meal. We both hottubbed before Shabbat and afterwards, the second time underneath the stars. Looking up at the stars I wondered what constellations other cultures saw, including the Pueblo people. Yehudah and I each named a constellation according to how we saw it - I saw a wolf in the sky; he saw some other creature. Our room, with its own porch, looked out towards the western sky.

Dec. 24 - In the morning Shefa took us to a remote hiking trail (on a dirt road that ended in Cuba, New Mexico) to a lovely, iced-over lake, where we ate our snack and watched a lone duck swimming in a small amount of water. We took lots of photos - found the hoof and leg of perhaps an elk, still covered with fur and focused on high contrast photo opportunities. Back at the house we ate lunch. I had offered to treat Rachmiel, who suffers from painful headaches, with my style of combining Brima, Jin Shin Jytsu and Intuitive Massage, and he gladly accepted my offering. He felt better - and asked me the next evening to give him a second session - after which he was much improved and able to enjoy the first night of Chanukah.
That evening after dinner we built a fire outside and sat around singing chants, Shefa’s specialty.

Dec. 25 - Sunday morning we woke up early and drove over to the Jemez (pronounced Hamish) Pueblo to see their Christmas morning dances. Two buffalo dancers with the sole woman participating as Corn Maiden were the strongest dancers. They were joined by two groups - one of deer dancers, using long sticks as their front feet - and one of eagle dancers, with large feathered wings.
Six drummers drummed on separate, colorfully painted drums, accompanied by a large group of singers. The drumbeat was strong and the dance very intentional, repeating the dance pattern as each group was highlighted in the ceremony. We had hoped to stay awhile and then to eat breakfast in the “Baby Jesus” house, especially as we had met a Jemez craftswoman when we
were in Santa Fe and she had told us that she would be serving food and invited us to eat. But Shefa was intent on getting home to prepare for Chanukah, beginning this same evening, and the food was not going to be available until much later, so we left and drove to two sites - a remarkable set of red rock Tunnels and Soda Dam, where we crawled into a small cave into which a soda spring flows, right next to a small waterfall on the river. Both places were awesome.
We returned home for lunch, helped prepare latkes for the Chanukah party, then took a walk up the road towards an area of white cones jutting out from the hillside. Shefa returned home and Yehudah and I scrambled up the hillside attempting to get close to the cones. We managed to find the left edge of the cones, in an area of slippery pine needles and steep incline. Once back on the road Shefa drove up and met us so that we got home before it got really cold and dark.
Several friends of the couple arrived to share lighting the first candles of Chanukah. We ate, sang songs, opened gifts and all closed our eyes, listened to Shamanic drumming music and entered our own personal journeys focused on our first chakras in relationship to the Sefirot of Malkut (earth, ground, Shekinah, womb) connected to our ancestors, roots, family trees, for 20 minutes. Once over, we recorded our experiences on paper and then shared them with the group. The idea of this practice is repeat the process with each of the first seven candles by relating to both the seven chakras and the corresponding sefirot of the kabbalistic Tree of Life. On the eight night one asks for guidance about practices to enhance each of the chakras during the new year.
After the guests left we watched a conversation between Reb Zalman and Father Keating recently recorded in Boulder by the Wisdom Keepers Project - a warm view of two aging sages who have deeply warm feelings for each other.

Dec. 26 - Rachmiel was feeling much better and helped us look on-line for a place to stay the next evening on our journey north. Our choice was between Abiquiu Inn, Ghost Ranch and Ojos Caliente Mineral Springs - but we couldn’t reach any of them by phone or computer. So we decided to take our chances and make decisions as we went. We headed for Los Alamos and gas. Then Abiquiu, the former home of Georgia O’Keefe. We stopped for a few moments. They had rooms available, but so did Ojos Caliente, so we made a reservation there, given that it was a hot springs with slight arsenic (supposed to be healing for arthritis), iron and soda soaks. Driving farther north, the terrrain changed dramatically as we approached Ghost Ranch, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. They also had rooms available and we were tempted to stay. But we took a short hike up towards their Chimney Rock, took lots of pictures and melted for a few minutes into the landscape, Abiquiu Lake in the distance. Here is where Georgia O’Keefe first lived when she arrived in New Mexico. Here is also where our friend Rima Miller first landed. It is now a Presbyterian Conference Center. It was the first place on our journey that I felt really sad leaving.
Further on we found Echo Amphitheater, one of the wonders of the world. Traces of waterfalls stream down in colored lines on this rounded half-circle echo chamber of red rock. We sang loudly, hearing our words and sounds echoed back to us. Awesome. How awesome is this place! We sang both Jewish and Native American chants here. Healing lands.
We headed back aways and around to Ojos Caliente, arriving in time for our private tub soaks and wraps. You soak for 25 minutes in a private slightly arsenic hot tub, then are taken into a room full of beds and wrapped in multiple blankets to hopefully sweat more of the toxins out of your body for another 20-25 minutes. During that quiet space I decided to engage in the chakra journey for day two of Chanukah, focusing on the Sefirot of Yesod, sexuality. My experience was rich and interesting.
We had reservations for dinner at 7 p.m. The food was excellent - trout seasoned with pine nuts and a chicken filled with green chile and wrapped in filo dough.
After dinner we lit our Chanukah lights. I played the Shamanic drum rhythm on a square plastic ice container so that Yehudah could go on his second night journey. Then we went back to soak in the arsenic/soda water before the waters closed at 10 p.m.

Dec. 27 - We got up early to try all the different soaking pools plus to swim in the cold water pool. We went from pool to pool. The hottest is the pure arsenic pool. Each one is quite lovely. We swam laps in the cold water, then proceeded to the three other pools, chatting with other guests or remaining quiet. We did a bit of Watsu with each other in one pool. By the time we finished we needed to eat our leftovers from dinner the night before and check out of our room. Then we returned to the sauna and steam room - very hot, steamy space, after which we treated ourselves to another 20 minute wrap. The wrap was provided once a day for each guest.
The place offers lots of body treatments - massages, pedicures, manicures, etc. Lots of day visitors arrived by noon.
After we showered and got dressed we took a hike to an ancient dwelling area, now a place of many pottery shards. We followed the guided descriptions of each area and enjoyed being in nature after so much soaking.
Rima and friends were going to a classical Flamenco guitar concert back in Santa Fe that evening at 7:30 p.m., so our hope was to drive through Taos and arrive back in Santa Fe in time for the concert. So we left Ojos Caliente, stopped at a small Mexican cafe for lunch, then headed towards Taos.
Driving along in very barren country, we were amazed to see many Earthships in community on the approach to Taos. We stopped at their visitor center and looked around a bit. They all live on Solar and Wind energy, off the grid. I met the fellow who developed Earthships years ago at an Alternative Building Conference - so was excited to see his work developed here. We saw pretty wild architecture from the road.
Farther on we stopped at the beginning of the Rio Grande Bridge - most certainly the very most awesome structure we saw on our trip. We walked to the middle of the bridge, looking down at the gorge beneath us, a small stream coursing through jagged rock. You peer down 600 feet into the gorge.
Shortly after we reached Taos. Yehudah shopped for some cheese and fruit, then we turned around and headed towards the famed Taos Pueblo, but, alas, too late in the day and were turned away by a gatekeeper, as they were open to the public for only 15 more minutes. Back in Taos, we parked and followed a self-guided tour around the town, stopping into shops for last minute shopping, watched the sunset, experienced the lights of the city aglow and drove the hour and fifteen minutes back to Santa Fe.
We had a bit of trouble finding the Loretto Chapel and the concert, but, after calling Rima and getting directions, we arrived at the Chapel, which contains a remarkable circular staircase.
The concert was well worth making the effort to drive all the way from Taos. The musicians were excellent. NAMES sang in operatic Spanish while playing her guitar. She has joined with her former teacher, an excellent classical guitar player, as a duo. They played both together and separately. She especially was entrancing.
Afterwards we went out to a local restaurant, had some grub and conversation with a group of Rima’s friends, one of whom knew the musicians, which is why we met all of them, including the woman’s mother and grandmother. Good food, fun conversation.
Back at Rima’s, we prepared to leave the following day by packing all the gifts we bought, rocks we gathered, clothing and sundries. It was hard to fall asleep, but we managed.

Dec. 28 - We went out to breakfast with Rima at Pasquales, after looking at a few other places. As expected, Pasquales’ food was excellent. We talked about helping Rima perform her play in Portland and her midrash-style workshop. She has been studying with Rabbi Mordechai Gafni to become a Maggid. We suggested that she spend time with Reb Zalman in Boulder. We left on really good terms, very grateful for her generosity and headed down the road towards the airport
via the Freeway.
We had a small mix-up about which Enterprise auto place we needed to go to, but, thanks to the cell phone, found it. Our plane was a half-hour delayed; the connection in Denver was delayed for several hours. So we sat near an electrical outlet and I wrote this journal. Yehudah started reading “Traveling with the Evil Inclination” by Gershon Winkler. We arrived home in one piece, except that the airline had broken the lock on my bag to inspect it, the kind of lock they are supposed to open with a key. Oh well, such is life.
It was a great trip and we both hope to return to New Mexico, perhaps another time of the year.