Home Truth

Two people have commented, "Your blog seems focused on food." Well, yes. But I've done quite a few things unrelated to food.

A couple days ago I visited the "Earthship Landing Zone" west of Taos. Earthships are (supposedly) completely sustainable structures entirely "off the grid." They're constructed primarily from materials which would otherwise go into a landfill. The ones I saw were constructed of tires, cans, bottles, and rammed earth.



They're heated and powered with solar and wind energy; water is collected from rain, and sewage is handled with "gray water," "black water," and a traditional septic system. Used water is first filtered through indoor gardens. I think they called them "jungles," and there were bananas growing in one of the ones I saw.




There's an entire development of these houses surrounding the Visitors' Center. Not all the houses look so "funky," but all of them look a little different from a "traditional" house. The rest of the subdivision is technically off limits to visitors, because they're private residences. I know I'd sure get tired of having tourists ogling my house all day.




You can read all about Earthships here:

Earthship Home Page

Yesterday I visited houses of a different sort. I spent about three hours at Taos Pueblo. The houses, for the most part, are remarkebly well-preserved considering they date back to at least the 1400's.





By taking the 30-minute guided tour I found out that doors and windows weren't part of the original structure. Access to the inside was through the roof.



The access point in the picture below, however, goes to an underground area off-limits to tourists (there were five such points throughout the structures).



These areas are where traditional ceremonies are often held. The Taos Pueblo religion, language, and much of the history is not spoken about to tourists. The language is not written.

There have been people continually inhabiting most of the structures since they were built. Not the same people, mind you. And even though visitors aren't allowed to wander around much of the reservation, the parts I could visit seemed very peaceful unlike the adjacent Taos community. The reservation extends to the top of Taos Mountain:



And finally, similar to a lot of reservations I've seen, there appear to be a fair number of stray dogs. This one looked different from all the others, and besides...I really like this shot:



I'm in Durango now. More about Durango later.