This
was my second trip to New Mexico, but this time I was looking at it
from much wiser, more-traveled eyes. After all my travels I know how to
find the road less traveled and the quirky special places that are a
little hidden. I pick between the more touristy places and decide which
are a must see and which can be passed to make time for a more local
real neighborhood that might give me a little more insight into what
lies below the surface. Now when I go to a city like Santa Fe, I want
to see where people really live more than the main square or seeing
every museum. I'd rather wile away an hour in a local coffee shop
watching people then wander through endless galleries the city is famous
for, though I try to travel at a pace where I can do a little of both.
The
purpose of this trip was to go visit my brother in the north eastern
corner of the state in Mora County, a poor, rural farming valley tucked
in the soaring, stunning Sangre
de Cristo Mountains. My brother and his family have relocated here to
live a different kind of life. They bought a plot of land and have
begun homesteading there. They are building a yurt to live in and
collecting water from two streams on the property. Until the systems
are better set up, they spend short periods of time on their land, and
also have been lucky enough to stay at a local farm on other nights in
exchange for work there.
Click HERE for pictures from my trip to Arizona and New Mexico
