The Final Beauty of New York

New York, New York thank you for a wonderful 3 and half years. You opened yourself to us, you were energetic, welcoming and transparent. Your culture, theatre, restaurants and retail therapy allowed us to be fulfilled in everyway. We made close friends, we enjoyed great variety of food, art and theatre. We learnt that there is an easy independence available to us when there is no need to be judgemental, rather appreciate that there is something worthy in all that we see, all that we experience and all that we hear.
Thank you New York we are far greater for our experience and we will use our new attributes to enjoy everything the rest of the world has to offer.

Here are some lasting memories.

                                                        Central Park in bloom

                                                        Central Park in flower

                                                         Central Park Blossom

                                                  Empire State Building from Apt 52A

                                          Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan from Brooklyn

                                                  9th and 10th Avenue from Apt 52A

       
                                        New York Good Night and Good bye from Apt 52A

SouthWest USA - Part 8 Santa Fe

Thursday 1st May until Saturday 3rd May  saw us in Santa Fe. Take the High Road to Taos, from Taos to Santa Fe, it has great scenery. We were back to a biggish city. We stayed in the old part of the city at Hotel St Francis, great location and pretty good hotel. 

This town is full of fantastic art, culture and atmosphere. 

                                  
                                                                    Typical Santa Fe

We covered the Loretta Chapel with the unsupported staircase and the San  Miguel mission, the oldest church in Santa Fe.
                                                                       

                                                          The Bell Tower of the San Miguel Mission


 We spent time at the Georgia O'Keefe museum and  Andrew Smith  Gallery where there was an Ansel Adams exhibition. These two galleries were extraordinary and really lay the foundation for the "Arts" of Santa Fe. We wandered  the streets and embraced the Plaza, Santa Fe is a wonderful little town. On the first evening we had an early dinner at Rio Chama and then back to San Miguel Mission to listen to  Anna Maria, a classical and flamingo guitarist and singer and a fanatical supporter of Santa Fe. A great afternoon and evening. 

Next day, breakfast at Cafe Pasqual's a Santa Fe must. We then wandered to Canyon Road,  "The" art gallery road. There was an enormous number of galleries, probably too many. A significant variation of art and sculptures. Back into town and we visited a few more photographic galleries. Am amazing amount of great works. Early drinks in the plaza then Dinner at El Masen.

                                                            Typical art along Canyon Road

Last day on tour we had breakfast at oldest cafe in Santa Fe and then visited an Art Fair by Santa Fe Society of Artists. It was great. 

This trip has been fantastic in many ways. The scenery has been enormous, spectacular, warm, red, threatening and friendly. The people, the food, the accommodation and towns have made us welcome and given us wonderful experiences. SouthWest USA is a must for anyone. 

The only experience greater that SouthWest USA was to be able to do this trip with Arthur and Maz. We are blessed to have great friends. 

Then back to NYC. 

A wonderful trip. 

SouthWest USA - Part 7 Taos

Tuesday 29th May and Wednesday 30th May we drove to Taos and spent two nights at The Old Taos Guesthouse, a must for anyone going to Taos. Bob and Katie are great hosts.

                                                              The Old Taos Guesthouse

             
                                              Some Young Indian Squaws doing what comes naturally

Our drive to Taos encounted the spectacular Kit Carson Nature Reserve, plenty of snow, The Earthship Reservation, a housing development with all houses made of natural resources, and the imposing Rio Grande Bridge.

                                                              The Earthship Reservation

Innovative and off the grid, Earthships are self sustaining, environmentally savvy houses built with recycled materials like used automobile tires and cans. The idea was to develop a building method that eliminates stress from both the planet and its inhabitants. Buried on three sides by earth, the Earthships are designed to heat and cool themselves, make their own electricity and catch their own water. Sewage is decomposed naturally and dwellers grow their own food.

                                                            Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

The gorge bridge is the second highest suspension bridge in the USA. Constructed in 1965, the vertigo inducing steel bridge spans 500ft across the gorge and 650ft above the river.  

Taos is a wonderful little New Mexican town, with plenty of history and art. Kit Carson, legendary mountain man, soldier, and Indian enemy turned Indian advocate was the first of a long line of celebrities to settle in Taos. His name is found everywhere. In particular the Kit Carson museum created a wonderful western feel to the town.

                           
                                                                    A Western Feel                                                            

Today Taos is home to more than 80 galleries, and about 30% of people call themselves artists. Taos remains a relaxed and eccentric place with classic mud brick buildings, quirky cafes and excellent restaurants. If you want some great choices for dinner try El Meze and Love Apple. It was at Love Apple that Maz won a Gold Medal for dinning. Maz, usually a small eater, had Quail as a main course. Normally, Maz would stop here. The waiter advised of  three wonderful deserts. Before any of us had a moment to consider the options, Maz said "we'll have one of each". A gold medal, go you good thing.

SouthWest USA - Part 6 Durango

Sunday 27th May we drove from Chinle to Durango. Spectacular scenery paved the way. Durango, an old Colorado mining town with Victorian-era saloons is torn between its ragtime past and a cool, cutting edge future where town bikes and caffeine and farmers markets rule. 

                                                             
                                                                            Durango

We stayed at the  Strater Hotel, where the past is present in its western ambiance from the rooms to the bars. We did a self guided historical walk around town which allowed us to soak up the excitement of an old Western town. 

                                                                        Strater Hotel

Our first night was fantastic, spent in the Office Spitorium, a small intermit western bar, at the Hotel. We were entertained by Joel Rackeff, a great local singer and from the audience, "Molly", the fabulous Molly, a guest who just happened to be a singer from the Michigan band, Vox vidorra.  She was fantastic. Just a great night. 

Monday 28th May, still in Durango, we tried to get to Silverton. There was too much snow, the roads were dangerous, so we turned back. We visited train Museum as the Silverton train come into the station. 

Our final night saw us having dinner at Ken and Suzy's.

                                                          Casey Jones in control in Durango

SouthWest USA - Part 5 Canyon De Chelly

Saturday 26th May we traveled from Monument Valley to Chinle. What a day, it rained, it snowed, we had wind, sun and sleet.  Chinle may well be a town for lost aliens. It was tiny, remote and spooky. As you looked out on the horizon all you could see were electric lights which seemed to set a pattern reminiscent of a landing strip for spaceships. 

We were there to see Canyon De Chelly (pronounced Chay).


                   

                                                                   Canyon De Chelly


We were mesmerized, enthralled and excited. Percy, a local Indian who had done everything in life you could possibly think of, was our guide. He was excellent. The Canyon has been inhabited for 5000 years and shelters many old Ancestral Puebloan dwellings built into the alcoves. As the land has been eroded these dwellings are now halfway up the walls of the Canyon.

                                                             Old Ancestral Puebloan dwellings

'

                                                        More Old Ancestral Puebloan dwellings.
            These dwellings were once on the floor of the Canyon. Subsequent erosion has resulted in them now      
                                                        resting halfway up the wall of the canyon.

If the walls could talk they'd tell stories of great violence and tragedy against the Navajo Indians. In 1805, Spanish soldiers killed scores of Indians. In 1864 the US Army, led by Kit Carson drove thousands into the Canyon, starving them into surrendering and forcing them to March 300 miles - the Long Walk - to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. Four years later the Navajo returned.

                                                   Long forgotten Navajo homes, now in ruins.

Percy embodied all this history in his demeanor and the emotional telling of the stories. 

SouthWest USA - Part 4 Monument Valley

Friday 25th May was spent at Monument Valley. In the morning, 5.30am, we witnessed a spectacular sunrise from our balconies at the wonderful hotel, The View.

                                                                       The View Hotel

                                                               Sunrise over Monument Valley

                                                         
                                                             Monument Valley at Sunrise


                       After breakfast we did the Wildcat walk around the West Mitten Butte, spectacular.

                                                                West Mitten Butte

Will Cowboy, a native and local Navajo took us on a sunset drive around the valley. Like a classic movie star, Monument Valley has a face known around the world. Her fiery red spindles, sheer walled mesas and grand buttes have starred in films and commercials and have been featured in magazine ads and picture books.

                                                                       Camel Butte

This great valley is spellbinding. The landscape overwhelms, not just by its beauty, but also by its size. Monument Valley's epic beauty is heightened by the drab landscape surrounding it. One minute you're in the middle of sand, rocks and infinite sky, then suddenly you're transported to a fantasyland of crimson sandstone towers.

                                                              Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

The fragile pinnacles of the rock are surrounded by miles of mesas and buttes, shrubs, trees, and windblown sand all comprising the magnificent colors of the valley.

  

                                                         The Custodians of the Valley, The Navajo

SouthWest USA - Part 3 Page to Monument Valley

Thursday 24th May was our longest day on the road, 400ks. We were heading to Monument Valley via Page where we wanted to spend time in Antelope Canyon (See separate post).

On the way to Page we stopped at Cameron and had lunch at Cameron's Trading Post. This town, with no visible community, was in the middle of nowhere. However The Trading Post was enormous. It was big enough to provide entertainment and support for all the Indians at Custer's Last Stand. The Indians were successful once again, lunch was great.

 At Page, after (I) stuffed up our bookings, to fill in time before Antelope Canyon, we visited Horseshoe Bend, a wondrous example of nature's journey, and Glen Canyon Dam, an impressive American engineering feat. The dam, which straddles the Utah - Arizona border, is the custodian of the 186 mile Lake Powell with 1960 miles of empty shoreline set amid striking red rock formations, sharply cut canyons and dramatic desert scenery.

                                                                     Horseshoe Bend
                              The River wraps itself around a dramatic stone outcrop to form a perfect U.

               
                                                             The bridge to Lake Powell

 Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon Dam.

                          At 710 ft tall the dam is the USA's second highest dam, by 16ft, after Hoover Dam.

Antelope Canyon is hard to explain. Wind and water have carved sandstone into an astonishingly sensuous temple of nature where light and shadow play hide and seek. At 400 mtrs  long it's symphony of shapes and textures and a photographers dream. It was all that and more. I'm not sure about the photographs. 

                                                                       Antelope Canyon
                       Later that evening we arrived at Monument Valley to witness a spectacular sunset.

           
                                                                     Monument Valley