Taos

In Taos, Liz's aunt and uncle (Bob and Cynthia) were nice enough to put us up for a few nights and show us around the area. Taos is a beautiful area in northern New Mexico surrounded by mountains on almost every side.

Taos is over 7000 feet up so Liz and I both experienced some shortness of breath and headaches when walking around for long periods of time. After all, Florida is practically below sea level, so being over a mile above sea level was bound to cause some problems. We still had a great time anyway.

The temperature in Taos is close to perfect. The daytime temperature stayed around 70 in the day and dropped to the 40's at night. Sure beats the 95 degree days and 85 degree nights in Tampa.

This is a picture of Bob and Cynthia's backyard. This picture was taken around 6am (Mountain Time). I tried to get Liz up to see... but she thought sleeping would be more fun.

Later in the morning Cynthia took us out to the Gorge Bridge which crosses the Rio Grande. This is the second tallest bridge in the US. This picture was taken from the bridge of the canyon and Rio Grande. Liz and I would creep to the edge of the railing desperately clutching our cameras to take pictures of the river below. As if the massive drop was not enough, the cars that went by would noticeably shake and bounce the bridge.

This is a picture of the bridge from the side. Unfortunately, this was as close as we could get. The area closer to the canyon was all blocked off with barbed wire.

After the gorge bridge, Cynthia took us into the city of Taos (they live on the outskirts). All the buildings in the city are built out of adobe in the typical southwestern fashion.

Apparently there is a strong Buddhist following in Taos, including many Tibetans. I grabbed a quick picture of this Tibetan in the red robe while he was walking his dog.

After lunch Cynthia took us to the Taos Pueblo site. This pueblo seen here is around a thousand years old, and Native Americans still inhabit the structure. The bottom floor of the pueblo contains shops, while the upper levels are where many of the Indians live.

All throughout the area, these earthen ovens can be seen. The Indians sell a lot of bread and other baked goods.

This is the inside of the nicest shop on the reservation.

After we had our fill of Native American culture, Cynthia took us to the Taos ski resort. As we climbed the mountain, the rock walls got very steep and small stones littered the highway.

The ski lodge and lifts are located at near the top of the mountain. Even with the slopes thawed, there was a lot of activity in this place.

Even at this higher resolution the ski lift is hard to see. The gap in trees on the left shows the path of the main ski lift. The resort is at about 9200 feet, but you can take ski lifts to the peak of the mountain at about 12,000 feet. While we were here the temperature stayed around 40 degrees.

After all the excitement of the day we headed home. Cynthia took us home along a different route. This street, known as Rim Road, took us along the edge of the mountain with a beautiful view of the valley below.