Birds of Our Neighborhood

The title of this post is directly stolen from the title of a CD by The Innocence Mission, a band from Pennsylvania of whom we are exceedingly fond. There's also an old Innocence Mission song called "The Wonder of Birds", but "Birds of Our Neighborhood" (available for digital download from Sony, by the way) seemed more fitting since all of the following photographs were taken within close proximity of our rig.

This first bird, which we think is some form of pheasant, is fairly ubiquitous around here. We're not sure what purpose the tuft on his or her head serves, but Mary is certain that it has to do with mating. Whatever the answer is, it sure is picturesque.

Mary says: I had quite a surprise while standing beside this cactus which was just 2 feet from our rig. There  I was, fondling the smooth yellow cactus blooms, taking in the unique beauty of such a plant, when at eye level I see a lovely dove looking right back at me from her scrubby little minimalist nest among the thorns. She has a pretty blue ring around each eye and 2 babies under her wing! We were careful not to disturb them during our stay and used our camera's zoom lens rather than risk scaring them even  more with the imposition of a camera pointed too close to their cute little faces. It was an even more special treat to witness a changing of the guard at dusk when another dove flew in to relieve the one who'd been on duty all day. After the new dove settled into the nest, I watched as s/he literally took one bird at a time under her wing then proceeded to feed each hungry baby via regurgitation. I videotaped the feeding for a future post but will need a better internet connection to upload it, so please stay tuned!

This next bird is a common sight here in the deserts of the Southwest: a Roadrunner. While not purple and noisy like the Roadrunner of cartoon fame, we do know that the Roadrunner is indeed quite fast on its feet (up to 17 miles per hour!) and fond of killing and eating rattlesnakes, lizards and some insects. It is also the state bird of New Mexico. Catching one on film like this was a major feat for us, and Keith finally succeeded after he was outrun by the roadrunner. Beep, beep!

Mary continues: Now that we've left the flat desert terrain and headed for the hills, we are camping at the base of a mountain range that is decorated with bright yellow and fragrant flowers. 

The largest mountain is so tall  that we cannot see the sun until well after it rises on the horizon. Of course the birds aren't fooled by the early morning mountain shade and let us know the night is over by their raucous morning chorus. Upon a branch of a juniper bush, a little bird harps out a mighty strong and sweet song and I am reminded of the song, "The Littlest Birds" by The Be Good Tanyas. 

 The dawning of this new day stirs an excitement within for another cloudless blue sky day in New Mexico, as we relish its gentle unfolding and the passing of time, at peace and often in bliss.

Scattered among the cacti are opening yellow flowers we shall call "Desert Buttercups" that treat us with their subtly sweet smell one can only detect when a cool breeze brushes our smiling faces.

Birds, jackrabbits, snakes, lizards---they're all here, and the flora and fauna of the southwest is simply spectacular. Keith is thrilled to have not seen a single snake, and perhaps will be able to avoid such an encounter for the foreseeable future. (And for those of you with serpentine phobias like him, rest assured that no photographs of such legless creatures will mar the pages of this snake-free blog!) Mary disagrees, however, and would love to photograph a snake and post it proudly here, but will yield to the snake phobic among us. Instead, here is s photo of some Cottontop Pheasants that came up for some snacks:

We are truly enjoying the wonders of nature in the Southwest, and being able to share it with you, dear Readers, is simply a pleasure!

We are not off the radar screen, not at all---we're right here, sitting in the desert botanical garden, the sun warming our backs, love filling our hearts, and the wonders of nature putting our minds at rest. Spring reminds us of how the cycle of life continues. Now we can simply sit and watch, at peace with the changes around and within us, wishing the same for you and for all on our small blue planet and all her creatures large and small...

Salinas Pueblo Missions

Today we visited several sites of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The Native Americans who lived in many of the pueblos of New Mexico were indeed befriended and then conquered and subjugated by Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century. They were also Christianized---often against their will---by Fransiscan friars, and enslaved to grow food for their conquerors. All of this ended with the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, but not before thousands of Native Americans endured whippings, forced labor, loss of cultural continuity, the destruction of sacred religious objects, famine, disease, and untimely death.

The ruins tell the story of a people who had highly organized villages, deep spirituality, economic savvy, large interconnected families, and a rich cultural life. And for this, they suffered......

Acoma Pueblo and Sky City

Yesterday we had the privilege of visiting the the Acoma Pueblo and Sky City. Sky City is a pueblo atop a 367-foot mesa which has been inhabited by the Acoma people since the 1100's. Sky City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States, and tribal members who choose to live atop the mesa do so without running water, electricity and other modern amenities.

As our tour guide informed us, the Acoma people have resisted Spanish Conquistadors and other invaders for centuries. Although the Acoma tribe did indeed adopt some aspects of the Catholic religion in order to appease the Spanish invaders who came to subdue and convert them, they consistently managed to practice their own traditional religion even while under occupation. Unbeknownst to the resident Catholic priests, the Acoma people even constructed a secret kiva beneath the altar of the church, a church that to this day honors both the Catholic traditions and native culture and practices.

The fact that the Acoma people were able to retain stewardship and ownership of their sacred lands and villages after centuries of subjugation and violence is amazing and inspiring. They are obviously proud of their heritage, language, culture and arts, and also welcome outsiders to partake of their gatherings, feasts and festivals in a spirit of openness and hospitality.

Sky City is a sacred and special place, and we were honored to be given a tour by a kind, knowledgeable and welcoming guide. The people, animals and scenery were beautiful, and we left Sky City all the richer for the experience.

Reflections From El Morro

Over the last few month or so, we have learned what an idiosyncratic place New Mexico truly is. Old friends who lived here in the 60s and 70s had always alluded to the rugged individualism of New Mexicans and the ways in which people consistently reinvent themselves out here, but it is only through first-hand observation and experience that we have now truly seen this phenomenon for ourselves. In fact, it is so intriguing that New Mexico feels more and more comfortable to us both, kind of like finding an old pair of hiking boots that fit so well but were somehow forgotten along the way.

In posts from Taos, we certainly shared our explorations of the Taos mesa and mountains, pointing out how Taos is still an outpost of individualism and creativity despite the difficult economic climate and other factors. 

Now, here on the more remote mesas west of Albuquerque, we have discovered another significant outpost of incredible people who live in various intentional and unintentional forms of community, mostly in harmony with one another and with the spectacular land that unites them underfoot. 

Here at El Morro RV Park, a lovable cast of characters cooks fabulous food, cares for guests, and provides a sense of interconnectedness and community for most anyone living within a forty mile radius of this sweet spot beneath the cliffs on Route 53. 

Maqui, the general manager of both The Ancient Way Cafe and El Morro RV Park, is the central figure around which this community revolves, and folks from the Zuni Pueblo, the Zuni Mountain Sanctuary, and every nook and cranny of this widespread area regularly come to sit at his tables, chat over coffee and consistently delicious homemade food, and share gossip and news from the area. There is even a free Reiki clinic and community drumming circle every week right in the RV park's yurt, with plans for a larger yurt space in the making. 

Our new friends Standing Feather and the canine Father Guido Sarducci (among others not pictured) also welcomed us with open arms, paws and hearts. 

Across the street, The El Morro Area Arts Council runs the non-profit El Morro Old School Gallery (where we offered a free Laughter Yoga session just this morning), and yoga classes, art exhibits and other activities keep the cultural bar high here in an area that many would perhaps dismiss as "the middle of nowhere" if they were just passing through. In fact, those who live here say that there is often so much to do that one can choose to have a very active social life at any time of year, except when a harsh winter like this one messes with the best laid plans and intentions. 

Last night, Maqui and another new friend from the RV park took me along to a potluck dinner at the Zuni Mountain Sanctuary, an intentional community which is part of the Radical Faerie movement, a movement which holds earth-based spirituality and an openness to varying forms of gender identity and sexual orientation as central pillars of its existence. The people at ZMS live an honest and healing life close to the land, welcoming visitors year-round to their magical spot on the mesa nearby El Morro. As a non-profit organization welcoming tax-deductible contributions, ZMS offers creative workshops and gatherings for like-minded people who share their lust for a life of spiritual depth, creativity, open communication, and interdependence. 

Today at breakfast, we spoke at length with a middle-aged man who lives at the Zuni Pueblo about forty miles west of here, and he spoke candidly about life on the Pueblo, where the Tribal Council wields power in ways that sometimes pit family members against one another in the interest of land, water rights, and other salient issues of the day. He described life in the Pueblo as being like "a barrel of crabs", and we were saddened but not surprised to hear of the economic strife that plagues so many Native Americans in the Southwest. We visited the Zuni Pueblo yesterday, and it is quite clear that hardship is the norm for many residents of the Pueblo, and making a break for the wider world is often difficult or impossible for most. On the bright side, the hospital at Zuni is considered the best Indian hospitals in the country, although lamentably every doctor and nurse employed there is non-Native American. 

Speaking of the Native Americans of the Southwest, we learned over the last few days that the Pueblos (a Spanish word meaning "town") are basically ancestral lands that have been inhabited for centuries by the different tribes, while reservations are lands to which Native Americans were removed when the U.S. government wanted them out of the way. For those living on the nearby Ramah Navajo Reservation, this past winter has been very difficult indeed, and eleven Navajo died this winter from symptoms related to either cold or hunger. So even as we travel our merry way through the Southwest on our journey of discovery, there is quite palpable human suffering just around the corner. 

If conditions were not so harsh here on this mesa, we would perhaps consider making a life in this community as well. There is a great deal of richness and diversity almost hidden amidst the cliffs and massive rock formations, but we will, at least, be longtime friends of this intentionally unintentional community that rotates on an idiosyncratic axis fueled by the land, the people, and a common desire to live a good and honest life. 

Today, the folks at The Ancient Way Cafe cooked a red meat birthday cake for Tina, and tomorrow morning Mary and others will offer free Reiki at 8am for those who come to the nearby yurt for healing. We will leave a piece of our hearts here in El Morro, and we depart with gratitude for our new friends who provided an experience of coming home to a place that we didn't even know was home, but in fact, turned out to be just that.

---Keith

In the Wilds of the West

After our sweet visit to Wits End Cooperative, Keith and I decided to take the "work week" off from visiting intentional communities. After possibly finding our new home in the hills outside of Santa Fe, there is a feeling of greater ease seeping its way into our journey, this journey of a lifetime that our time on the road truly is. I am grateful for it all, and especially to Keith who has been such a great traveling partner and devoted blog writer. I realize that my voice has been unusually quiet on "Mary and Keith's Excellent Adventure" for some time now, and it has taken this journey futher into the wilds of the West to inspire me to share some of it with you all once again.

So, embracing a collectively renewed sense of adventure and openness, we decided to take a left hand turn at Albuquerque and explore the Pueblo areas to the west. Usually we take care to not travel too many miles in one day, but yesterday was an unexpected exception as the miles continued to invite me into the greater reaches of the Land of Enchantment. If you've ever had a peak hike or an ultimate drive in the country and been completely mesmerized by the beauty, power and splendor of nature, then you can understand how I've been feeling since we headed west, young man (and woman).

Yes, yesterday's journey west consisted of eight hours of rig driving, but it also consisted of one of the most specatacular drives of our journey--and possibly of our entire lives---seeing Pueblo after Pueblo of tribal lands where sovereign indeginous people live their lives, and having the unique experience of being within the United States but not really being in US territory.

We are glad that during this ecstatic ride we mustered up our courage to stop at the Santo Domingo Pueblo and initiate a meaningful conversation with two Cochiti gentlemen. Our chat took place in their Santa Domingo Mission Church. This church was built fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and still possesess records dating back to 1605! Visitors to this Pueblo are welcome to worship side by side with the Indians and we felt honored and humbled to be personally invited to come and celebrate Easter Sunday with them next weekend. Our  friends encouraged us to knock on the doors of local artisans' homes, assuring us that we would be welcome guests. Since we are not into collecting material things at this time, we simply thanked them and went on our way in our loud diesel rig, attracting curious stares which we met with our gentle waves and smiles, most of which were duly returned.

I am still beholding the stunningly beautiful, vast open stretches of earth punctuated with diverse, layered mountainscapes and miles of mesas below them with blue, blue skies and the warmest red sunset above the amazing rock formations we call mountains. The day ended with the two of us watching the full moon rise over one such mountain we are nestled safely beneath in our "Rig-a-Tina"---not too shabby.

The peak sunset drive of yesterday landed us in the perfect place to camp here in El Morro, New Mexico amidst like-minded folks until we head back to Albuquerque to continue our community search on Friday. Not so fast will we return to the big city. We will linger here and lead a Laughter Yoga session in a community arts and events center called "The Old School", which is just across from the campground. Tomorrow we will visit the Zuni Pueblo and even though we are taking a break from the intentional community quest,  we can't help but visit the Zuni Mountain Sanctuary. ZMS is an intentional community of "radical faeries" near the Zuni Pueblo to which we were graciously invited by our generous campgound host who happens to be a co-founder and friend of ZMS!

In our lingering here in the wilds of the west, we will hike, eat, read, write and rest some more. When we finally peel ourselves away from this magical spot, we hope to visit the Acoma Pueblo en route back to Albuquerque. Acoma is place that beckons us to explore it more thoroughly, amazing Acropolis of the west that it is. This time we will be taking turns with Tina care as one of us takes the little bus up to the mesa village known as "Sky City". (No other way is permitted up the mountain). We cannot possibly live in New Mexico without this experience. Once back in Albuquerque, we will be visiting with the folks at Sunflower River Community just 4 miles south of the city over the weekend.

If you ever come out this way, dear Reader, be sure to camp at El Morro RV Park and Cabins where, at the base of a hikable mountain, there are little cabins, campfires, tent and rv sites, a yurt where massage, drumming circles and a Reiki clinic take place, and also the Ancient Way Cafe, which has the best pancakes ever (and we haven't even tried lunch yet!) In addition to the above-mentioned amenities, you can climb to breathtaking overlooks on amazing rock formations on the edge of the mesa some five hundred feet above the campground. (On our hike today, we had to make joyful sounds while hiking due to the bears that are waking up from hibernation. And hey, we found evidence of a coyote tracking us, most likely hoping for a snack just about Tina in size! We're also aware that there are at least a few elk and a mountain lion living in the hills nearby.)

Today we are resting up after our hike and these wild, dusty, spring winds of change blowing in from the Southwest. Manana we will go to "Inscription Rock", a nearby national monument, and hopefully visit the Wolf Sanctuary too. This certainly is "God's Country", and I am humbled with gratitude for all of this space in our lives, for the original people of "Turtle Island" and the perseverance of their cultures, languages, and what remains of their ancestral lands.

May you enjoy the links to all of the above and a few photos of our hike today. Because we are honoring the tribal laws that forbid photographing of Tribal Land without a purchased permit (with a maximum fine of $1,000), we won't have photos of the other scenes I'm barely able to even crudely describe to you. If we manage to buy a photography permit at Acoma Pueblo, then you can have a glimpse of the beauty we are blessed to behold here in one of the hearts of Indian country.

---Mary

Cochiti Pueblo

Late this afternoon we arrived to the Cochiti Pueblo, an Indian reservation between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and we quickly encamped at Cochiti Lake Campground which sits alongside the nearby Cochiti Dam, one of the ten largest dams in the United States.

From our brief readings, the Cochiti Dam was constructed beginning in 1965 by the Army Corps of Engineers against vocal protests by the Cochiti people. The dam diverted the river and flooded ancient tribal agricultural lands, having a huge economic impact on the life of the Pueblo as more than twenty years of farming was lost as lawsuits and protests were mounted. In 2001, the Corps of Engineers issued an official public apology to the Cochiti people, and the Pueblo is now integrally involved in the long-term management of the dam, the lake, drainage regulations, and the resources therein.

The Cochiti Pueblo is home to approximately 1,500 people who have managed to successfully retain their native tribal language of Keres, as well as ancient customs and  practices. The Cochiti people are well-known for the making of ceremonial drums, and there are several shops where high-quality drums can be purchased. No photography, sketching or recording is allowed on tribal lands, so we will not be posting any photos of the Pueblo itself here on our blog.

We are learning that water rights and mineral rights are lightning rods here in the West, and the Native Americans of the pueblos and reservations seem to know only too well how eminent domain and governmental hubris can change the course of history and negatively impact the lives of a people almost overnight. We're keen to learn about life in the Pueblos and how the people have managed to retain their languages, resources and economic independence despite the intervention and frequently callous disregard of the US government.